MU student invited to Kennedy Center theatre festival

Jessica Huang, a senior Journalism major, has been invited to participate with her play Mermaids in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) as a finalist for the Ten-Minute Play Award. KCACTF, a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide, has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States.

"I'm thrilled beyond belief," Huang says. "I think it's every writer's dream to hear their words read aloud in a place like the Terrace Theater. I honestly can't wait."

Huang's play Mermaids was the winning Ten-Minute Play from the regional festival held in Lawrence, Kansas, earlier this year and will be published by Dramatic Publishing Company. The eight regions' winners present their winning plays as staged readings in the Kennedy Center Theatre Lab. The cast will consist of national Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship finalists. A first-place award of $1000 is made to the playwright selected from the national festival finalists. Selection of the national winner is based on these staged readings of the finalists' plays by the national selection team.

"This is a major achievement for Jessica and for the MU Department of Theatre, and its partnership with the College of Arts and Science Office of the Dean, the Office of Undergraduate Research, the MU Center for Literary Arts, and the School of Journalism, all of which contributed funding to help our students attend the Region V KCACTF," says David Crespy, associate professor of playwriting, dramatic literature, theatre history and theory, Department of Theatre. Crespy has worked with Huang since her sophomore year.

Since its inception in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center's founding chairman, KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, in which theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACFT respondents.

Past MU winners for the Ten-Minute Play category include Mary Barile for The Hollow in 2005 and Jeffrey Carrillo for Party Favors in 1999.

The American College Theatre Festival will be held April 14 through April 19 in Washington, D.C.

Links:

Department of Theatre
Center for Literary Arts

School of Journalism

Office of Undergraduate Research

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival