Trinity Students Nominated for Prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival
Earlier this year, Trinity Christian College Theatre submitted Andorra, its most recent production, to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). The American College Theatre Festival is sponsored by the Kennedy Center to support and promote excellence in college theatre. There are eight regions of the country, and Trinity is in Region 3 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin). In Region 3, there were approximately 250 associate productions and 30 participating productions in 2015.
As a “participating production,” Andorra by Max Frisch was attended by our region’s representative and by our state’s representative. They viewed the closing night performance of Andorra and then offered feedback to the cast and crew. The respondents, in collaboration with the director of the production, Associate Professor of Communication Arts Dr. John Sebestyen, nominated three actors to participate in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship auditions and one tech student’s lighting design to be shown at the upcoming regional KCACTF festival in Milwaukee in January.
The students nominated for acting scholarship auditions are William Doyle ’17 of Chicago, Esther Sullivan ’16 of Homewood, Ill., and Emma Darcy ’19 of Morton, Ill. They will each be responsible for preparing two scenes and a monologue and for choosing other Trinity students to be their acting partners at the festival. The students represent a wide range of experiences here on campus. Doyle is majoring in communication arts with theatre and film concentrations, Darcy in psychology, and Sullivan in English and communication arts with a theatre concentration. All three acting students testified to the wonderful community and training they have received as members of Trinity’s theatre program.
Student Matt Mulder ’15 of Zeeland, Michigan has also submitted his light design from Andorra to be part of a showcase of student design work; he will briefly present his design to professionals in the field, who will offer their response to his work. Mulder, who is majoring in music and theology, plans on attending seminary after he graduates from Trinity in the spring, but says he hopes to stay involved with Trinity’s theatre and help design more lighting for productions.
In addition to the design showcase and the acting scholarship auditions, students’ registration for the festival will grant them all-access to many workshops and sessions led by theatre educators and practitioners from around the region (and the country). They will also be invited to several theatrical productions that were selected as the top college plays of our region this year.
Said Sebestyen, “Participating with KCACTF offers our students the opportunity to be recognized for the quality of their work and to connect with other college students from around the region who are doing similar work. Trinity is very excited to be part of this program.” Congratulations to our theatre students!