CA State Thespian Festival 2026

When taking on a role, you are always bringing your unique self to the embodiment of that character. While the ghosts of previous actors may haunt audience perception, ultimately the material is your to create—not Cynthia Erivo, Laura Bell Bundy, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Telly Leung, or any other great originator on a cast album—yours. What do we do when we only have an album or YouTube slime tutorials as our guide? We dig into the text—libretto, lyric, and score—and explore the material as ourselves, making active physical, musical, and storytelling choices that resonate with us. What happened right before the song? Why are you singing it? What do you want? What is your point of view in the material? Where is the moment of change and/or discovery? The answers to these questions aren’t just in the material itself, but that personalization of material will provide artist agency that we all strive to achieve. This workshop will benefit those trying to find a place for themselves in this artform in order for you to learn how to create bold performances and auditions.