"Pericles" Selected for Northeast Regional Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival
The cast and crew of Le Moyne’s fall 2015 production of Pericles: Prince of Tyre will take their show to the Northeast regional Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival (KC/ACTF) in Danbury, Conn., which will take place from Jan. 26 to 31. Of nearly 1,000 college theatre productions entered into festivals in the eight KC/ACTF regions across the country, Pericles ranked in the top 30 to 35. Le Moyne will compete for national awards as one of four or five colleges chosen to represent the best of college theatre in the Northeast and the country.
In addition, actors Noelle Killius ’18, Brittany Fayle ’17 and Andrew Gripe ’16 have been nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, and will compete for that award, and Stage Manager Audrey Flynn ’18 was invited to present her materials for professional critique at the festival.
The festival is an opportunity for the students to network, mix and mingle, and meet students from other college theatre programs, as well as to perfect their craft during a week full of performances and workshops, said Matt Chiorini, Le Moyne's director of theatre. This is the third Le Moyne production to advance to this level of the KC/ACTF in the past five years.
“It’s hugely validating and an amazing opportunity for all of us. The schools that make it to this level are generally the bigger BFA programs and ‘brand name’ drama departments, so to be in their company is a big honor, and to have made it to this level multiple times is pretty amazing,” Chiorini said. “Because we’re such a relatively small school, our students sometimes get the feeling that we’re a nice place to do plays, but ultimately we’re “less than,” but recognition like this gives them a little swagger as they start to prepare for life in the arts after Le Moyne and helps us to spread the word to prospective students about the kind of department that we are: small but mighty!”
Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a seldom-performed play by Shakespeare that tells the story of journey of the Prince of Tyre and his daughter Marina. The production represents the first-ever “full VPA” collaboration, showcasing the contributions of all programs of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. It featured music from Ed Ruchalski, artwork by Katya Karenina, and choreography by Ruth Arena, all Le Moyne faculty members.
The national festival will be in April at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.