ASU Hosts 2016 Kennedy Centre American College Theatre Festival

Angelo State University will host the 2016 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for Region 6 February 24-27 at various venues on campus, including the ASU Auditorium, Modular Theatre and C.J. Davidson Conference Center, said a press release Friday.

Approximately 800 theatre students, faculty, staff, and invited guests will be on campus from across Region 6, which includes college theatre programs at schools in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

The festival will include full-length presentations of five invited plays, “EchoBOOM,” “Laramie Project,” “The Turn of the Screw,” “Lonesome West” and “Bug.” Angelo State students will do a full-length reading of ASU alumna Jackie Rosenfeld’s play, “keepingabreast,” as well as perform a scene from ASU’s production of “Expecting Isabel.” Both plays were fall productions of ASU University Theatre.

According to the press release, the festival also includes student competitions in the Design, Technology and Management awards division, the Musical Theatre Initiative and Irene Ryan Action Scholarships. ASU students entered include Josiah Hernandez of San Angelo for stage management; Brittani Beggs of Greenwood, Adam Rich of Hilton Head, S.C., and Nick Ellis of Houston for costume design; Samantha Lewis of San Angelo for scenic design; and Callie Stenson of Brownwood for projection design.

ASU students nominated for Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships include Rich, Sabrina Idom of Lubbock and Kala Young of Breckenridge for their roles in “keepingabreast.” Tessa Handlin of Lubbock, Saxon Rhoad of The Woodlands and Julia Timme of Tyler have been nominated for their roles in “Expecting Isabel.” Rich and Lewis also are entered in the Musical Theatre Initiative for their work on ASU’s spring 2015 production of “Smokey Joe’s Café.” They are competing for a scholarship to attend a Broadway-based performance institute in New York City.

A guidebook of the festival schedule will be available as a cell phone app on the Region 6 website, www.kcactf6.org. Tickets are available to the public for $10 at the door of the venue; however, seating is limited.

Started in 1969, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival includes more than 600 academic institutions nationwide participating in eight regional festivals. More information is available online at www.kennedy-center.org/education/actf/.

For more information, contact Mike Burnett, assistant director of University Theatre and Region 6 vice chair, at 325-942-2146 or [email protected].