Normally this time of year, 7,000 students gather for the International Thespian Festival. This year's International Thespian Festival would have taken place for the first at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, but due to COVID-19 all campus events had to be canceled. ITF is produced by the Educational Theatre Association and this year they chose to move the week long event online for the first ever Virtual Thespian Festival #ThesFest20. Students and teachers will participate all week in various programming such as workshops, adjudications, filmed main stage performances and feature special guest such as: Jason Robert Brown, Tina Fey, Kenny Leon, Dolly Patron, Stephen Schwartz, Hunter Bell, Kerry Butler, Pasek & Paul, Jordan Fisher and more!
For the Virtual Thespian Festival, iHeartRadio Broadway and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS teamed up to create the #ThesFest20 exclusive late night talk show Curtain Call. Curtain Call is hosted by SJ Arnegger (Director, iHeartRadio Broadway). with Michael Di Bianco (Educational Specialist) for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The show premiered last night and featured Taylor Iman Jones (Devil Wears Prada, Head Over Heals, Groundhog Day) and Corey Mitchell - the 2015 Tony® Award Winner for Excellence in Theatre Education.
Watch the full video in the player above.