St. Michael’s invades KCACTF
Theater students attend annual college theater festival

Liz Michael Hartford l contributing writer
lhartford@smcvt.edu

At 8 a.m. on Jan. 30, 25 boisterous St. Michael's College theater majors and devoted friends accompanied bytwo faculty advisers gathered in the lobby of the McCarthy Arts Center. “Let’s load!” I yelled as we grabbed our bags and got into vans and cars—Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), here we come!

Every year, theater students from New England colleges and universities come together for the KCACTF. According to the festival’s Web site, the purpose of the week-long festival is, “ to encourage, recognize, and celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs.” This year, the festival took place at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Mass.

Front row: (from left to right) Liz Hartford, Tina Shantz, Laura Seifert, Emily Benway Back row: Michelle Merola, Candice Quilty, Keith Boylan, Jennifer Hunt, Wesley Becklo, Jonathan Anderson, Victoria Townsend, Brendan O'Leary

Each school brings a multitude of aspiring theatrical entrepreneurs who come to showcase their talent, learn new skills, and compete in a number of areas. St. Michael’s brought six students competing in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition, each with an accompanied scene partner, and one student who would enter the Critic’s Competition. Two to three students are nominated by KCACTF respondents to compete in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition from the Mainstage productions preceding the festival. This year’s nominees were chosen from our spring production of The Comedy of Errors, a student production of Proof, and this fall’s production of Cat’s Paw.

Being a part of the Irene Ryans was something really extraordinary, not to mention stressful and chaotic. It was an opportunity for St. Michael’s to be a part of a theater experiencethat allows for acknowledgement of students for their work in a mainstage production, as well as to provide an opportunity to experience a ‘cattle-call audition.’ These auditions occur when directors and agents see a very large amount of actors in a very short time.

The really unique element to these auditions, however, is the atmosphere. Irene Ryan nominee Miryam Andrews Ohlman, was pleasantly surprised by the nature of the competition.

“It was very warm and welcoming,” Ohlman says. “We were just a bunch of performers watching each other.”

Needless to say, St. Michael’s was excited when sophomore Kevin Parise and scene partner Ashley Favreau moved on to the semi-final round. Parise really enjoyed being a part of the Irene Ryan competition.

“The semi-finals were really intense, you could really feel everyone’s nerves as we waited in the ‘holding room,’” he says. “It was quite the experience and I’m glad I was a part of it!”

But the week was not all about competition. A typical day at the festival included an 8 a.m. wake-up call followed by workshops with highly respected and successful actors, directors, designers and college professors. Students attended performance workshops on auditioning, musical theater, Chekhov, film and television, and stage combat. There were design workshops on lighting, sound and makeup, in addition to workshops on stage management, writing, and ‘making it in the business.’

At 3:30 p.m. students would pile into school buses to head to a matinee performance of one of the participating colleges’ productions. Afterwards, everyone scrambled to eat dinner, and hopped back onto buses to head to another performance at 8 p.m.

 The workshops we attended were beneficial to all students – whether performer, director, designer or tech worker. Some favorites of this year’s festival included film and television, wound and bruise makeup demo, ensemble building, and silk painting. In some of these workshops, students even had the opportunity to meet and be coached by award winning actors.

Shirley Knight has won a Tony and several Golden Globes and Emmys, gave several insightful workshops. Her daughter, Broadway and television actor Kaitlin Hopkins and Hopkin’s partner, James Price, served as an incredible team in some of the best workshops at the festival.

Not only did students learn useful tips to apply to their own processes, but they also gained inspiration for the pursuit of business where the odds are severely against them.

“You have to know what’s extraordinary and unique to you,” Hopkins said during a film and television workshop. “Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t succeed. You have to love the process more that you love the result.”

Other elements of the festival included a design expo, run by St. Michael’s theater professor John Devlin, who served as vice-chair for design and technology for the festival. Students and professors could exhibit their designs and compete among each other in their specified areas of design. John Devlin also had a hand in the “Tech Olympics” in which juniors Michelle Merola, Tina Shantz and Jennifer Hunt competed against students from all other schools in a series of timed tasks; including hemming a pant leg, helping an actor with a ‘quick change’ into a Medieval dress, hanging and focusing a light and reading a floor plan, among other things.

Thirteen St. Michael’s students also auditioned for what was called the six by tens and one by twos, in which students audition for original short pieces by student playwrights and directors, which were then performed at the end of the week prior to the awards ceremony.The festival also provided opportunities for students to interview for theaters in the area that were hiring for their summer season.

All of us took back something from this festival thatwe will keep with us, whether it is something we heard in a workshop, the relationships we made and strengthened while on the trip, or the experience of it all.

“I think the most important thing I learned at ACTF was how to maintain self-confidence when I don't get a role,” Ohlman says. ”I know I can do great work, and if someone else can't recognize that, it's their loss.”

First-year Kyle Mcelheney was blown away by the atmosphere created by the festival, which he described as ‘magical.’

"It was amazing to be surrounded by so many people that came together for one reason –their love of theater,” he says.

St. Michael's took home two awards from KCACTF for this fall’s production of Cat’s Paw for excellence in “Properties and Design”, awarded to junior Vincent Bradley, and “Ensemble”, awarded to director Cathy Hurst and cast members Kevin Parise, Miryam Andrews Ohlman, Gary DuBreil and Victoria Townsend.