Imagine being up on stage in front of hundreds of people. You feel free and powerful as you have the audience’s attention. Sophomore Rachel Vrazel, had never considered theater being in her life until she saw her first show.  

For many students at Francis Howell Central, drama and theater is a release. The theater crew ranges from students who have been doing shows since they were very little, to students who joined in high school. 

“I feel like it was kind of a seed that was planted from the time I was very young, definitely in elementary school,”  sophomore Vrazel said.  

“I remember going to see shows that a local highschool would put on, when I lived in Wisconsin, and we would also go on field trips to see the community theater productions. So I always thought I would be up on stage.” Vrazel said. 

 The first play Vrazel participated in was in her 6th grade year, at the time she was home schooled. Her co-op was doing class, the play was “Leilani and the Flower Lei.” Vrazel says her love for theater blossomed from there. 

The International Thespian Society is made up of troupes across the states. Troupes are started at schools and become a chapter of the society, by having a troupe at a school, the members are allowed to attend state conferences. At state conferences, the thespian troupes are able to take classes and workshops and possibly get scholarships. Once a school has a troupe, student leaders are chosen. There are also state and international officers.

To become a state officer, Vrazel had to send the Missouri Thespian Society an application. After they read it and accepted her application Vrazel attended an interview. After the interviews the board cut it down to seven students. These selected students were chosen to run at their leadership conference. Vrazel had made it to the final run; she spent a day campaigning and getting to know the other students, and at the end of campaign day Vrazel gave her speech and everything was voted upon. 

Vrazel was voted to be a state officer in the Missouri Thespian Society. This means when her term begins she will be a student leader for the other thespians in the state. Because officers run the year before they are elected, Vrazel’s term does not start till January 2020. The number of elected State Thespian Officers varies from state to state, and Missouri has four State Thespian Officers (STOs) for this next coming term. When Vrazel’s term begins she will be planning the state conference with the other STOs part of that being deciding the conference’s theme. 

The STO position comes with many responsibilities, the main one is to make sure everything runs smoothly. 

“I’m not nervous about it now, I’ve never really considered being nervous about it. I was nervous in the process of running, because it’s something I really wanted, but I feel like I’m very well equipped to handle everything,” Vrazel stated. 

Vrazel says she is very aware of all the hard work and dedication she will have to put in to this, but she believes that she is capable of succeeding during her term. 

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