March 2016 College News

well at the 2016 KC/ACTF (Kennedy Center/ American College Theatre Festival) in San Angelo in February, winning awards in every area in which the department competed. Winners were as follows: Lighting designer, Justin Beets won three awards: the Don Childs Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas Award, the KC/ACTF Award for Theatrical Design Excellence in Lighting, and the National Partners in American Theatre Award. KC/ACTF will provide trips to Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas so that Justin can participate in workshops with nationally acclaimed professionals later this year. In the area of costume design and technology, Sally Rath won the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas Award For Excellence in Design and Technology and the Doug Getzoff Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Design. Madelyn Bond took home the USITT-SW Award for Excellence, and Ruby Rojas was honored with the Region 6 Award for Excellence in Costume Crafts and Technology. Gabi De La Rosa was awarded Meritorious Achievement in Stage Management. Two M.F.A. students took home national awards in directing. Nick Castanon will travel to Washington, D.C. in the summer as a part of The Kennedy Center National New Play Network Directing Fellowship. Liz Fisher won the SDC National Directing Initiative Fellowship and will spend a week in D.C. later this spring. Michaela Boissonnault was the Region 6 Musical Theatre Initiative Regional Finalist and Ryne Nardecchia was the National Musical Theatre Initiative Winner. In addition, four playwriting students earned awards. Lexi Wintermute was a Regional Finalist for her short play, Shark Bait . TJ Young collected regional f inalist awards for his ten-minute play, Hallmark and his short play, Ruby’s Baby Blue . Sidney Rushing won a National Finalist Award for his ten-minute play, Batty Boy , and Andrew Heinrich secured two awards: a Regional Finalist award for his ten minute play, Mapping Eveline , and the John Cauble Short Play National Finalist Award for Terminal C . Alumni Accolades An Airplane Burning on a Stove , a short story by Dakota Smith (BFA Musical Theatre 2014), won first place in an international creative writing contest sponsored by Scarborough Fair and Minds Matter Magazine . Rita Anderson’s play, Crying Room , received a commission from ScriptWorks and the Arts Council of the City of Austin. The play was produced at Hyde Park Theatre, where it advanced to the finals in FronteraFest 2016. Her play, #Limbotastic , will be produced at Northeast Lakeview College (San Antonio) in their Playfest (themed, “Hap-Hazard.”) Performances run April 7-9 & April 14- 16th. In addition, Rita’s script, (Mama) King Chronicles , has been selected for production at Rover Dramawerks (Dallas). It will perform for the 365 Women a Year Project Festival there from May 5-14th. Jecamiah Ybanez (BFA Acting 2012) has been accepted into the MFA directing program at Yale. Cover of Dr. Sandra M. Mayo and Elvin Holt’s Black Theatre in Texas: Acting Up and Getting Down: Plays by African American Texans