Kennedy Center Theatre Festival Comes to Utah State

A full week of theater productions, competitions and workshops make up the annual Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). This year the festival for Region VIII is being held in the highlands of Cache Valley at Utah State University, announced theatre arts department head Colin Johnson.

An estimated 1,000 students, faculty and staff from schools across the western United States embark for Logan for the week filled with new experiences Feb. 11–16.

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival is presented and produced by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education, The Kennedy Center Corporate Fund, Delta, The National Committee for the Performing Arts and Dr. and Mrs. Gerald McNichols.

The schools involved in the Region VIII festival include institutions from Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah and Guam.

The faculty, staff and students in the Utah State theatre arts department have been planning and organizing the week-long festival for almost two years and look forward to the opportunity to show what the university and the valley can offer, Johnson said.

"The regional board became interested in Utah State after its Theatre Arts Department was awarded the Kennedy Center Medal of Excellence in 2000," said Johnson. "The board complimented the community on the number, variety and beauty of its performance venues — especially the university's Caine Lyric Theatre and the city-owned Ellen Eccles Theatre. We're pleased to host this event. At the conclusion, festival participants leave with new ideas, new opportunities and, especially, new colleagues and friends."

Student actors, playwrights, designers and critics, including students from Utah State, will be seeking invitations to present their work at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in April. The Utah State Theatre children's production "The Boy Who Drew Cats," produced on campus in October 2002, is a regional finalist in the competition.

A number of awards and recognitions are planned, including a prestigious award for a well-known theatre professional in Cache Valley, Johnson said. Each year the festival makes a special presentation to an educator whose career has reflected the highest standards of the discipline. This year's "Excellence in Education Award" recipient is W. Vosco Call, founder of the Old Lyric Repertory Company and former faculty member in the department of theatre arts.

Community members and students interested in attending the events of the festival, which include performances of regional play finalists each afternoon and evening, may purchase one-day passes for $10 per day. A schedule of each day's events and general information is available on the Theatre Arts Web site at www.usu.edu/theatre and the regional KCACTF Web site at www.usu.edu/actf.

Single day passes may be purchased at registration tables throughout the week in the lobby of the Morgan Theatre at the Chase Fine Arts Center on the Utah State campus.

Contact: Jeremy Gordon (435) 797-1500