For 16 years, Michael Higgins has presided over what has grown into the largest high school theater festival in the world. About 7,000 students are attending Florida State Thespians, which opened Wednesday and continues through Saturday in Tampa.

"It runs the gamut from very small private schools with four or five kids in a drama club to an arts magnet school that has 300 theater majors,'' said Higgins, state director of the festival and a theater teacher at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville.

Every spring, the thespians take over downtown for a few days. The Straz Center for the Performing Arts is the main venue, but activity also goes on at the Tampa Convention Center, Tampa Theatre and hotels.

More than a few Broadway and Hollywood stars have cut their theatrical teeth at Thespians. Alumni include Ashley Brown, who had the title role in the musical Mary Poppins, and Michael Lynche, a finalist on American Idol.

The festival was the subject of an acclaimed documentary, Warren Skeel's Thespians, screened at the Gasparilla Film Festival.

Schools bring elaborate shows to the festival and compete for awards. The mainstage lineup this year includes Sweeney Todd, Sweet Charity, Alice in Wonderland, Death of a Salesman and Awesome '80s Prom.

Higgins, 51, is stepping down as director after this year's festival, to be succeeded by Lee Tempest, a teacher at Deerfield Beach High School. Here's an excerpt of an interview with Higgins.