Max Bush, right. Read the GVNow article, click here!

TEN MINUTE FINALISTS
Black Bridesmaid by G. William Zorn, Western Michigan University
Bread Hands by Alicia Banaszewski, Western Michigan University
A Good Soak by Bradford Reilly, Ball State University
The Weight of History by G. William Zorn, Western Michigan University
A Whale in Hilton Head by Andrew Wernette, Grand Valley State University
Yes by Jordan Krsnak, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
An Alternate 10 Minute Play may be announced.

MARK DAVID COHEN FINALISTS
An Identified Enemy by Max Bush, produced by Grand Valley State University
In the Soundless Awe by Jayme McGhan and Andrew Pederson, produced by Concordia University Chicago

Also--Erin Feiner (sophomore Theatre Major) has been awarded a Meritorious Achievement Certificate for her work as Costume Designer for the December 2012 Performance Studio play "WASP."  Congratulations to Erin!

About the 10 minute play competitions:

Once again, Region III's 10 Minute Play Festival will feature staged readings of the six plays selected as finalists in the competition. The plays will be auditioned, rehearsed, developed, and performed, all at the festival.

Finalist playwrights (and their scripts!) will be teamed up with selected student directors, student actors, student stage managers, and faculty advisor/mentors from schools throughout the region.

Auditions will be held for all roles immediately following the preliminary rounds of the Irene Ryan competition. Any students registered for the festival (except Irene Ryan semi-finalists) may audition for the 10 Minute Play Festival.

This exciting collaborative opportunity is focused on the process of working with the playwright to take the original script from "page to stage." The experience allows the entire production team an exciting and educationally stimulating means of "creating" new theatre at the festival as they actively collaborate with students and faculty from other schools.

About ACTF/KC

Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center's founding chairman, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.

Through state, regional, and national festivals, KCACTF participants celebrate the creative process, see one another's work, and share experiences and insights within the community of theater artists. The KCACTF honors excellence of overall production and offers student artists individual recognition through awards and scholarships in playwriting, acting, criticism, directing, and design.

The KCACTF is a year-round program in eight geographic regions in the United States. Regional activities are coordinated through eight KCACTF regional chairs and eight KCACTF playwriting awards chairs. With funding and administrative support from the Kennedy Center, the regional chair coordinates with the Co-Managers of KCACTF all aspects of the adjudication of productions on the local and regional level and supervises regional-level KCACTF award competitions. The playwriting chair works with schools that have entered new and student-written plays by providing expertise in the development of new scripts—assessment specifically designed for a developing play—and by providing information on the numerous playwriting awards offered.

In January and February of each year, regional festivals showcase the finest of each region's entered productions and offer a variety of activities, including workshops, symposia, and regional-level award programs. Regional festival productions are judged by a panel of three judges selected by the Kennedy Center and the KCACTF national committee. These judges in consultation with the Artistic Director select four to six of the best and most diverse regional festival productions to be showcased in the spring at the annual noncompetitive national festival at the Kennedy Center, all expenses paid.

Since its inception, KCACTF has given more than 400,000 college theater students the opportunity to have their work critiqued, improve their dramatic skills and receive national recognition for excellence. More than 16 million theatergoers have attended approximately 10,000 festival productions nationwide.