On April 13, senior Performing Arts major Sarah Edison and Dr. Mark Charney traveled to Washington, D.C. to showcase their talents at the American College Theater National Festival at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
The festival lasts April 14-17 and will feature three productions, as well as “three to four days of master classes with leaders in the field, including dramatic criticism, playwriting, etc. At the end of the week, we name the National Award recipient,” Gregg Henry said, the Artistic Director for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. “We recognize people in almost every field – playwriting, dramatic criticism, etc. The festival celebrates individual achievement in theater in higher education.”
The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival also works in conjunction with the O’Neill Critic’s Institute in Connecticut, where three students from the National Festival are sent each summer. Edison is the regional recipient of the National Critic’s Institute, an honor which enables her to attend the National Festival in New York, the next level of competition.
Qualifying for this honor starts on what Henry calls the “home campus.” Students enter a production, and a student from another school will critique it. Based on these critiques, certain productions become eligible for the regional festival. Individuals, as well as productions, are recognized at this level, and those selected as award recipients at this level move on to the National Festival.
“I watched several shows, and then wrote critiques on them the night after they were over,” Edison said. “Then we work shopped them. I was chosen to go on to the next level.”
“Sarah will be in the room with professional critics throughout the week, talking about dramatic criticism, with a former critic from the Baltimore Sun, one from the Washington Post – there’s a wide array of top critics coming,” Henry said.
Henry notes the festival is “really a celebration of student achievement.”
“I’m excited to go. It’s a really great opportunity,” Edison said.
Dr. Mark Charney could not be reached for a comment. Charney, winner of the David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award for his play, “The Power of the Palette,” is currently the director of theater and professor of playwriting at Clemson.
He has previously taught workshops at the American College Theater Festival and has worked closely with the Kennedy Center and Dan Sullivan for the National Critics Institute held during the National Festival.
