Alex Carr's The Jaguars' Spot column for Wed., May 19, 2010

It’s ITS!

          Just around the corner we have VCHS’ annual International Thespian Society (ITS) induction in the Media Center.

          What is ITS, you say? Has Alex fallen into poor grammar? ITS, which stands for International Thespian Society, is an honorary organization for high school students that has the goal of recognizing student excellence in the theater arts. VCHS is ITS troupe 6199, just one of thousands of clubs spread across over 40 countries.

          And it is (ITS, that is) quite an accomplishment to be inducted into ITS. To even be considered, you must have 100 hours of thespian activities and certain number of points earned from performing in plays and movies as an actor, or crew, or writer, director etc.

          I talked with the sponsor of our school’s club, English teacher John Ward, who said he was very excited about the upcoming ceremony. “Some schools have certain traditions they do in the week leading up to the induction ceremony,” said Ward. “For example, on Monday, all inductees will have to speak the entire day everywhere on planet Earth in an accent of their choosing. Tuesday they must speak only in Shakespearean dialect.” Ward has already given the inductees a quick lesson on just how to speak like the bard. On Wednesday, freshman, sophomore, and junior inductees must serenade a senior with the most romantic song they know and senior inductees must sing to a lower classman. Thursday, the soon-to-be thespians must dress as a character from a previous show they were in. And Friday ... is a day of complete and utter silence. “To honor our fallen thespians,” said Ward.

          Ward said he is excited to have 11 inductees this year, all of whom have done some pretty great things already in their acting careers. Does ITS sound like something you might want to become a part of? It (ITS) looks great on applications and is right up there with ASB, CSF, and NHS. If you are curious, catch Ward on campus and he’ll be glad to answer your questions.

          Our thespians will be inducted 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 28 in the Media Center.

Tell me about it!:

          A lot of very nice people have been coming up lately and telling me “Good luck!” According to them, this is because my movie, “Boy on the Moon,” was chosen as a finalist in the countywide Innovative Video in Education awards.

          In addition to VCHS students, Jesse Polancic, Jessie Thompson, and Jeremy Halligan, the movie, dealing with a teen's sense of alienation from his family and friends, features several local adults including Joe Johnson, John Norwood, Linda Saffiote, Neha Curtiss, with even a small part played by my editor at the Roadrunner, David Ross.

          This weekend a bunch of us went down to the iVIE Festival in Del Mar where they had a prescreening of all the finalists. We’ll all be heading downtown to the San Diego Civic Center May 25 the awards ceremony where we’ll learned how much the judges liked our movie.

          We’d love to bring home a nice big trophy for VCHS. Wish us luck!

          Got a great item for this column? Tell me about it! Catch me on campus or go to my web page and shoot me an e-mail (www.carrfamily.com/alex).

          Read all of San Diego Press Club award-winner Alex Carr's columns at www.carrfamily.com.