A Main Stage Production at ITF
A trip to the International Thespian Festival (ITF) is an opportunity to connect with Thespians and theatre educators from around the world, hone your skills, and of course, enjoy amazing performances on the Main Stage. Joining that tradition is Thespian Troupe 6460 from McKinney North High School and their performance of Suite Surrender.
It’s 1942, and the posh Palm Beach Royale Hotel is thrown into chaos when two feuding Hollywood divas are double-booked into the same suite. Rivalry, mistaken identities, and a pampered pup named Mr. Boodles collide in Suite Surrender, a comedic romp packed with sparkling banter, wartime glam, and overblown egos in a spirited nod to the classic farces of the ’30s and ’40s.
EdTA chatted with troupe director Keegan Arnold to get a peek behind the curtain.
From bellhops to hotel managers, everyone contributes to the mayhem. How do you ensure each ensemble member knows when to land a comedic beat?
We’re lucky to have students who really understand comedic timing. They show up to rehearsals off book ready to work during the rehearsal process which gives them time to really play. When we work through blocking, we find out what’s effective or what could be more effective, and students never get bogged down by something that doesn’t work. We try until everyone in the room is laughing. Sometimes the happy accidents make the show, and you have to make sure you give performers the space to make those happy accidents.
Our performers are also taught that no character in a comedy thinks they’re in a comedy. So what may be the worst day of their character’s life, may be the funniest thing the audience experiences. We often do improv games in character to help the actors find different physical choices that are motivated by their character’s objectives.
This will be the first time your school has performed on the ITF Main Stage. What does it mean for your program and the arts in your school?
This is such a huge deal for our department. The community has really banded together since we found out we were selected. Parents and students are fundraising, and our district has been so excited for us. Everyone is coming together to help us get our show to the festival. It seems now’s the time where people are cashing in those favors they need from friends, family, co-workers, bosses, anyone they know to help us get there. Not only is it helping to put our students and our department on the map, but it’s helping our community come together!
Was your vision of the show influenced by your decision to have it adjudicated for the ITF Main Stage?
Not at all. One thing we tell our students is that we do our shows for us and our community. We never go into a show with the mindset that what we’re creating is specifically for judges. Anytime we’re creating theatre on stage we emphasize the fact that it’s about the characters’ connections to each other and the script. Outside of that, we also think, “will our audiences find it funny?” More often than not that pays off.
It’s easy to get lost in the bigger picture and not focus on relationships in your show if you’re worried about what a judge might think or if you’ll advance in a competition. Our goal as directors is for our troupe to find truth in the characters and story. We created a show where students could both learn and have fun. We were very excited when adjudicators recognized the hard work that went into it.
Can you share one behind-the-scenes secret or fun fact about your rehearsal process, set design, or costumes that people wouldn’t otherwise know?
We always knew we wanted a live animal for our show as Mr. Boodles was such an important part of the script, and when I saw the show for the first time back in 2016, I loved that they had a real dog on stage. Well, we were going to have auditions for a dog, but since we hadn’t cast one yet, I brought in my dog for a rehearsal so the actors could get used to working with a live animal. My dog Drax had so much fun working with everyone and started out so well behaved, we decided he was going to be Mr. Boodles.
On opening night, he was perfect on stage! But, during our matinee he just couldn’t hold it together and decided he wanted to add his own lines into the show and barked when he wasn’t supposed to. Our actor playing Mr. Pippet, in character, improvised a way to take him off stage and grabbed our stuffed dog and brought it back on stage without missing a beat in the script. The audience loved it!
We also had a lot of fun working on the accents for the show. We wanted to have the two divas stand out from each other, and one way we told that story was through their accents. Samantha Pope worked extremely hard on the classical Transatlantic accent. She studied different divas of the 1930’s and 40’s to really nail down exactly what the end result was going to sound like – it paid off and ended up being one of the standouts of the show.
Camila Reyna worked hard on her proper southern accent to really emphasize the charm of the Southern diva. When we put the two of them together their accents just worked so well in all their scenes together, and it really seemed like there was no aspect of either actress on that stage, they really embodied the divas in their moments!
Looking back from auditions to now, how have your students grown not just as performers, but as individuals and young adults?
Our students worked for a very long time on this show. We auditioned it in May of 2024, performed it in September, took it to our state festival in November, and now will be rehearsing and performing it one last time in June of 2025. That’s over a year of focusing on just one show! Through this process we have seen the show evolve as the students grow as thespians.
Beyond the usual fundraising and organizational tips, what’s one piece of creative or artistic advice you’d give to groups hoping to reach the ITF Main Stage next year?
Make sure you’re doing a show that’s near and dear to your heart. It all starts with a connection to the script. When I saw the show, I remember laughing until I cried when I was sitting in the audience. Then, when our current students came about, we knew THESE were the students who could put on this hilarious show. We read it in class together and there were a few moments where our students couldn’t hold it together because they were laughing so much. My co-director and I knew at that moment it was the show for us. That’s where good theatre starts, with connections. If you have that, then your passion as a director grows, and when students can see a director’s passion, it makes them passionate too.
What do you hope the audience takes away from your show, and why is this important to you?
Hopefully for 85 minutes audiences can forget about the real world for a little bit and enjoy some fun on stage. On the surface the show is a crazy farce that runs very quickly, but beneath the comedic surface there’s a very genuine story about friendship, love, and compassion. I hope audiences can take that away, while also having a little fun.
