North Penn High School’s fall production of She Stoops to Conquer is travelling to Kimball Theatre for the University of Nebraska’s International Thespian Conference. From the North Penn auditorium to the big stage of Kimball, the cast and crew of She Stoops to Conquer excitedly awaits the opportunities that will come this June.

The conference was first established by the International Thespian Society in 1929 to encourage theatre educational outreach among high schools.

“They wanted to find ways to bring kids together to acknowledge and share each other’s performances and workshops,” theatre director Mrs. Andrea Roney explained.

North Penn joined this chapter of theatre interaction about 20 years ago after establishing the thespian troupe with inductions and events to become a full club. Each year, select thespians attend the Pennsylvania State Thespian Conference where they can view other shows and participate in similar workshops that will be taught at internationals. The difference between the two conferences is the groups attending and performing. Attending the Pennsylvania State Thespian Conference gives North Penn theatre an insight on what the rest of the state is doing and how they are able to come up with new ways to make theatre even more spectacular. Internationals allows thespian troupes from all over the country, Canada, and a select few other countries to join together to discover the beauties of theatre that they had never seen before.

The International Thespian Conference will be held during the last week of June for six days.The cast and crew of She Stoops to Conquer was chosen to be one of six shows performed on the main stage out of 45 applicants. The last main stage show North Penn presented at internationals was Zombie Prom in June 2004, so She Stoops is going to be a real tribute to North Penn as it will represent North Penn High School’s amazing talent to the world of theatre.

Not only will students perform, but they will be able to watch other main stage shows, attend workshops, and even audition for possible scholarships and colleges, similar to the opportunities at states except Internationals allows it to be a wider range. Roney was ecstatic when she heard the news.

“The day I got the notification, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry-happy tears of course. I was so excited, but I found out at about 7:15 in the morning, and I had to wait to tell the cast and crew at 2:00 in the afternoon. I didn’t want to burst out smiling.” Roney shared, explaining her difficulty with keeping the news a secret.

Each cast and crew is different from year to year, all with different things to offer. This year, everyone involved with the show really put everything into it to make it the utter perfection as the show was written. Roney is extraordinarily proud of her cast and crew for this accomplishment, and urged that if one missed the November show to be sure to attend in June.