Drama students prepare for prestigious festival

By The Beacon | February 3, 2010 9:00pm

By Roya Ghorbani-Elizeh

The biggest little city in the world is about to have some drama. The UP theatre department is sending roughly 40 students and faculty to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Reno, Nev.

On Jan. 29, the actors in the Irene Ryan Audition/Acting Competition performed their scenes in a showcase, which allowed for the students to see each other's work and to be critiqued by faculty.

Their work will then be shown from Feb. 15-19 as the 26 UP students will compete in the Irene Ryan competition in Reno. Along with the actors in the acting competition, the cast of "Servant of Two Masters" by Carlo Goldoni will be going to Reno.

"Servant of Two Masters," which was performed last semester and directed by graduate student Michael O'Neill, was one of four plays to be chosen to perform at ACTF.

"From what I hear, 450 shows compete for those spots," O'Neill said. "It's such a great honor to go and it's such a huge honor for the school."

Thirteen cast members will travel to Reno to perform two shows of "Servant of Two Masters." Some members of the cast of the commedia-style show will also compete in the Irene Ryan competition.

"It's a lot of pressure, but I hope I gave them the impression that they could do no wrong," O'Neill said. "They can do this show in their sleep."

The last UP show that was invited to perform at ACTF was the 2006 production of "Getting Out," by Marsha Norman.

The showcase allowed for students to perform their two scenes and one monologue for their peers as well as an audience of faculty, friends and family.

"They always surprise me," Mindi Logan, acting professor, said about the performances last Friday. "They are just so good."

While Logan noted the times of each scene, the actors found the showcase to be a good dress rehearsal before the competition.

"It was important for us to perform our scenes in front of an audience," junior nominee Sammi Boyd said. "We were looking to see that the reactions from the audience were the ones we were looking for."

Audience members also enjoyed the showcase because of the array of different scenes and monologues that were performed.

"It was very entertaining, I really like the diversity of all the scenes," junior Dannica Hutton said. "They were all well-rehearsed and the partners did a great job with one another."

Thirteen UP students were nominated from their performances in the past year to participate in the Irene Ryan competition. The nominated students each choose a partner to compete with them throughout the five-day festival. "They like to call it a scholarship audition," Logan said. "But it's really an acting competition."

ACTF focuses on theatre education and also aims to bring theatre students from many universities together to compete and learn from various workshops that are taught during the festival.

"Colleges from the region get together to show their work and stay in touch with things in theatre," junior nominee Danielle Larson said. "They have workshops, competitions in every area, and they bring in shows so you can see actual productions people are in."

UP will be competing with other schools in the Region VII division, which has various theatre departments from Alaska, Northern California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. There are eight regions in the country.

The competition consists of three rounds during the five-day festival. The 32 winners of the first round go onto perform in the second round, which requires two scenes to be performed in less than five minutes.

The nominees are then cut down to 16 for the third round, which allows six minutes for two scenes and the nominee's monologue. It is after the final performance that the judges pick the two nominees who will advance to the national competition.

Last year, junior Philip Orazio and partner Larson advanced past the final round to compete in Washington, D.C.

"The way we feel about it, if you make it to the final, you've won," Larson said. "It's such an honor to perform in the final round."

The theatre department is now looking to make another splash during ACTF this year. With over 40 students and faculty, the UP theatre presence will be felt in Reno.


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