Oakville High School students Kaitlyn Bridges and Stella Kolb made school history in January by becoming the first OHS students to receive a “superior” rating at the annual Missouri Thespian Conference.
“It was such a surreal feeling,” Kolb said.
Every year, select students are chosen to perform during the competition portion – known as the “Thespys” – of the conference. To receive the coveted superior rating, students must earn 18 to 20 total points – a nearly perfect or perfect score.
The pair competed in the “duet musical” category, singing “You’re the Top” from “Anything Goes.” Kolb played the role of Reno Sweeney, and Bridges was Billy Crocker.
“We wanted to find one with depth and a lot of character development and stuff that kind of just helped emphasize our range and what we can do as actors. We also were able to have a dance break in there, so that was fun,” Kolb said.
“We wanted to do (a song) where I could show off my lower range and Stella could show off her higher range,” Bridges added.
On top of making Oakville High School history, the duo’s performance landed them an invitation to compete in this year’s International Thespian Festival held in June at Indiana University.
“I’m very excited. I want to focus on having fun because we know that it’s going to be very, very hard to win and we probably won’t. The odds are against us,” Kolb said.
“We’re going in with the mindset of ‘let’s just have some fun and not expect anything,’” Bridges added.
Luckily for the OHS theatre program, Kolb and Bridges – a sophomore and a junior at Oakville, respectively – are not going anywhere anytime soon.
“Never did little freshman me on the prop team ever think that she was gonna be doing this,” Bridges said.
“Theater has been so important to me for so long. Being able to do this is just so amazing,” Kolb added.
Three other Oakville High School students also competed at the conference, placing just below Kolb and Bridges. Ollie Burchett and Keaton Rick-Tappella received the next-best rank –“excellent” – in the “duet acting” category. Teagan Crecelius also received an “excellent” rating, though in a different category: “solo musical.” To receive an excellent rating, students had to earn 13 to 17 points.
“We’re so proud of them,” Hunter Robinson, Mehlville School District’s multimedia communications specialist, said.
Aside from the aforementioned categories, students on the performance side were able to compete in “group acting,” “group musical” and “solo, duet, or group musical theatre dance.” On the technical side, categories included “lighting design,” “sound design,” “costume design,” “costume construction,” “makeup design,” “stage management,” “theatre marketing,” “short film” and “prop design/build.”
One-hundred and twenty theatre troupes from around the state attended this year’s conference.
The next Missouri Thespian Conference is scheduled for Jan. 8 through Jan. 10, 2026. It will again be held at St. Louis Union Station.