Theatre To Play Host To Five-Day Regional Festival

More than 600 theatre students and professionals from five states will be on campus Feb. 26 through March 1 as Sam Houston State University hosts for the first time the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for Region VI.

The nationally-recognized festival will include presentations of eight invited productions, which will be competing to participate in the national festival held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in April.

Not only the host, SHSU’s theatre department will present its rendition of “Quake” during the festival in the University Theatre Center’s Showcase Theatre; senior theatre major Scott McCarrey will showcase an original work, “Robot Songs,” in the staged readings workshop; and 11 other SHSU students will compete in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship auditions.

Other shows invited to perform in the festival include “Buried Child” by New Mexico’s Clovis Community College, “Lend Me a Tenor” by Oklahoma City University, “Anima Mundi” by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, “Home” by Texas Southern University, “Pillowman” by the University of Central Oklahoma, “Katrina’s Path” by the University of New Orleans and “Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout” by the University of Oklahoma.

These productions will be held at a variety of times during the festival’s five-day run and will be open for public viewing on the University Theatre Center’s two stages.

Smaller productions “Quake” and “Home” will be held in the Showcase Theatre and will be performed twice because the theatre’s capacity is limited to approximately 100, according to theatre and dance department chair Penny Hasekoester, who, along with theatre faculty member Laura Avery, is serving as festival host.

Viewing priority will be given to festival participants, but they will “open house” a half an hour before each production and sell tickets to the general public.

Tickets are $10 per show, or $8 with an SHSU or senior citizen ID, and a complete schedule can be found online at http://www.shsu.edu/~drm_www/Participating%20Productions.pdf.

Along with showcasing the invited productions, the regional festival offers a variety of activities, including workshops, staged readings from original student works, and regional-level award programs, as well as provides good networking opportunities and the chance to see what other people are doing, Hasekoester said.

“There are just a lot of good things that happen both on a professional level and an educational level,” she said.

The KCACTF honors excellence in overall production and also recognizes students for excellence in specific categories including costume design, make-up design, scenic design, lighting, sound, acting, directing, dramatic criticism, playwriting, musical theater composition, and dramaturgy. Awards will be announced at the Kennedy Center during the national festival April 14–20.

Because the regional festival is being held at SHSU this year, area actors and those interested in all the field offers have a unique opportunity to attend the festival, which is normally only attended by those competing, Hasekoester said.

Those interested in attending the festival may register on Monday (Feb. 25) evening or Tuesday (Feb. 26) morning in the UTC lobby. The registration fee is $60, and with a “badge,” those registered will be able to attend everything the festival encompasses, as well as have a first shot at viewing the productions.

Hasekoester said among the benefits of serving as host is the number of people within the industry, including professionals from New York and the west coast, that the festival will bring to the campus and Huntsville.

“It’s an honor to be able to host the show,” she said. “The Kennedy Center gets to come, the national selection team, and see our facilities, our campus, and I think that’s really important.

“We have done very well in KCACTF over the years,” she said. “We have had a production go to the national festival at the Kennedy Center, we have had many of our shows be first alternates and go to regional festivals other than the one here, and I feel this is a way to give back and say thank you.”

For more information or a list of performance schedules, contact the UTC Box Office at 936.294.1339 or visit http://www.shsu.edu/~drm_www/KCACT_1A.html.

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Feb. 22, 2008
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