[kcactf3] Fwd: KCACTF Region III Festival News

[KCACTF III News and Information]

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for Region III,
which includes university and college theatre programs in Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, will take place in Milwaukee
on January 9 through 13, 2008.  Marquette University and Cardinal
Stritch University are the co-hosts for the festival that attracts
approximately 1500 participants. Of the eight regions in the country,
Region III which is composed of Midwestern states around the Great
Lakes has regularly hosted the largest festival in the nation.
Festival events include workshops in all areas of theatre practice, an
acting scholarship competition, and new play workshops. Student
actors, playwrights, designers and technicians have their works
reviewed and selected for participation. The best examples of
theatrical work from the regional festival will be selected to
participate in a nationwide festival at the Kennedy Center in
Washington, D.C. in April.



Ten productions from institutions around the Great Lakes area have
been invited to travel to Milwaukee to perform for festival
participants.  Three productions from Illinois include the
student-written plays A Good Worker from DePaul University in Chicago
and "dReamtRippin'" from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and
a staging of the Broadway musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie from North
Central College in Naperville.  The Shape of Things will be presented
by the University of Indianapolis.  Michigan is represented by the new
plays The Polar Bear Club from Adrian College, Rose and the Rime from
Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and Arts or Crafts from Michigan
State University, and the gothic horror story, Dracula presented by
Western Michigan University of Kalamazoo.  The University of Toledo
presents Topdog/Underdog.  Wisconsin productions include the new play
Poor Tom from Marquette University and Tennessee Williams's A Lovely
Sunday for Creve Coeur from Wisconsin Lutheran College, both from
Milwaukee.



The local organizer for the festival is Connie Petersen of the
Marquette University Department of Peforming Arts.  Petersen is
coordinating events that will take place on the Marquette Campus, the
Cardinal Stritch University Campus, and in downtown Milwaukee at the
Pabst Theatre.  Tom Mitchell, of the University of Illinois, and
Sandra Zielinski, of Illinois State University, are the regional
co-chairs of the event.  Russ Jones, of Purdue University, coordinates
the Design and Technology events.  Steven Reynolds, of Wittenberg
University in Ohio, chairs the regional activity of the National
Playwriting Program.  Chris Jones, theatre reviewer for the Chicago
Tribune, leads the student Critics Competition.


These leaders are joined by a network of university and college
theatre leaders from around the region who take part in responses to
productions throughout the year in order to select the students and
plays that are invited to the festival.