Guest Blogger: Alyssa Sileo

On July 15th, 2016, I began writing the first piece of the first theatre project that would be performed outside my head. It wasn't until August 23rd that I decided to chronicle the building of what would become State Your Case.

There's a solid reason why the Sophomore One-Acts Festival at my school is called Short and Sweet. These little bites of theatre are a delight to watch, study, and perform.

Saturday competitions and the short film festival, I grabbed my friend Mady by the hand, rushed downstairs from our Troupe 5480 corner on the second floor, and asked as many New Jersey Thespians as I could the most polarizing question you could whip out on any East Coaster.

Valentine's Day came a tad late for this historical-theatre devotee, but there is no home for disdain in my heart after a day like February 18th.

Happy Valentine's Day, Drama Kids! I can't wait to spend the whole day with my true love, the Fiddler revival soundtrack.

The power of theatre is not only to entertain, but to heal, honor, and harbor the most pressing themes.

As juniors & senior students from the School of Performing Arts at Gloucester County Institute of Technology and proud members of International Thespian Society Troupe 5480, we're embarking on a theatre advocacy project, and we need your help!

About a month ago, my voice made its local television debut as I stood on the Philadelphia Art Museum steps, in an aquamarine sweater and polka dot skirt, and sang twenty seconds of 'You're The One That I Want.' I would consider a Thanksgiving spent singing one of my favorite musicals a pretty dip-da-dip-da-dip doo-wop-be-dooby-doo one.

Merry December, Drama Kids! This is the month in which we replace our mugs of throat coat with mugs of hot chocolate and sit in Holiday Cabaret techs for hours. Our celebrations are particularly shiny this time of year-so here comes a Songs That Sum Up With Lots of Tinsel.

This November 24th I celebrate one year since first hearing something from Hamilton. It's not a coincidence that this day also is when 2016's Thanksgiving falls.

All the kids are saying it these days...and I join with them in the name of theatre. GCIT's Senior Drama Class Production of Don Taylor's translation of Sophocles's Antigone has got me shook.

ALL THE THINGS THAT MAKE A 5480 INDUCTION DISTINCTLY UNCONVENTIONAL AND PURELY GCIT:

A cornerstone of American Theatre has just reached another benchmark of its legacy, and we are the ones lucky enough to observe the mastery. Bartlett Sher's hailed Fiddler on the Roof is the most fearless revival of a classic that Broadway has seen. A revelrous company and a class of principals that were born to play these roles paints a Fiddler that will simultaneously warm and haunt the hearts of all who pass through the Broadway Theatre's doors.

We can all agree that there's no season more hashtag aesthetic than autumn. But, as is for everything cool, you need a playlist to bring it full circle.

I can think of only one thing that's better than theatre outreach--and that is using said outreach to welcome freshmen. 

Sometimes you just have to turn to music to tell the story.

Summer is for friends, family, fun times, and fearing reading assignments. In the months of schoolless weekdays, some of us thespians do summer theatre camps, in and out of town. Some take master classes, or perform in mainstage theatre shows, or rehearse for show choirs or Thespian troupes. If you're an older theatre kid like me, there's also college-searching to be done.

Whip out every drop of skill acquired from those Reading Comprehension lessons in Lit Class, my friends. I want to ask you to analyze the words of the title.

Rent taught us young theatre-aficionados our first BIG number. "525,600 minutes…how do you measure, measure a year…"

This is a craft of coexistent community and individuality, which conglomerates all previously-existent tints, genres, and attitudes into a tellable community of players. At any moment--subject to shifts and additions to the catalogue. These expansions may prove to be time-eaters or talent-greeters; projects can unveil one's purpose or frighten them into submission and subsequent retreating from the arts.