Muhlenberg Theatre Students are Recognized for Excellence
The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) honors excellence of overall production by presenting 8 regional festivals across the country, and each festival offers student artists individual recognition through awards and scholarships in playwriting, acting, criticism, directing, and design.Wednesday, January 27, 2010 02:21 PM
Muhlenberg College was honored to have one if its productions included at this year’s Region II Festival on the campus of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
The Increased Difficulty of Concentrationpremiered on the Muhlenberg campus in New Visions 2009 and was chosen by regional faculty respondents to be produced for the KCACTF participants at the regional Festival in January. The play is a dizzying absurdist romp sprung from the imagination of Václav Havel, the Czech playwright, activist, dissident, and former president. The play examines the interactions of the social scientist Dr. Huml, the play’s protagonist and comic relief, his relationships with four different women, and a malfunctioning machine that allegedly possesses artificial intelligence.
Directed by Vanessa Lancellotti’10, the performance at the Region II festival was so successful that the production has been held for consideration to be one of only eight projects to be presented at the national KCACTF festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D. C., in April. The Increased Difficulty of Concentration is one of only two productions from the mid-Atlantic region to be nominated for this honor.
Vanessa is a senior English and Theatre double major, with a dual concentration in Directing and Acting.
"Underneath all of the fun, the play is concerned with the nature of human individuality, the need to find happiness, and the inherent chaos in trying to uncover these secrets…. I worked very physically with the actors, developing a movement vocabulary together that allowed us to create the larger than life characters in this absurdist farce.”
"The department definitely provided me with the training I needed to approach this text, as did my experience studying physical theatre abroad at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy."
“There was a great deal of intimacy in the production process,” shares cast member C.J. DeNatale. “The theatrical focus of the performance was on Commedia dell‘Arte, and this physicality aided in the actors’ development of character.”
The company that traveled to the ACTF Festival included cast members Joe Fielding, Sarah Lampert, Anna Jaller, Angela DeAngelo, Carolina Millard, Michael Bloom, C.J. Natale and John Wentworth. Production stage manager was Jeffrey Brancato, Stage Manager was Stephanie Katz, and Assistant Stage Manager was Molly Serpi.
KCACTF represents college programs across the nation. “KCACTF, naturally, is a very competitive environment, wrote Jerald Kaplan in his interview with C.J., “in that it serves the purpose of displaying the best artistic pieces in the college community. Our students’ participation success speaks directly to the caliber of Muhlenberg’s Theatre Program and the rigorous courses and teaching methods that it provides to students.”
Each year, theatre faculty respondents visit campuses in their geographic region to search for the productions they might recommend for production at their regional festival in Washington, D.C. The enthusiastic response of Michael Swanson of Elizabethtown College for Muhlenberg College’s campus production of “The Increased Difficulty of Concentration” in December and the encouragement of Timothy Averill, Muhlenberg’s faculty designer of the project and an active player in the regional festival for many years, resulted in the nomination of the student-directed farce to be remounted for the Region II Festival.
Transferring the production from an intimate thrust studio theatre to a large art deco proscenium theatre was a creative and financial investment that brought students, faculty and staff back early from their mid-year break to remount “The Increased Difficulty of Concentration” in the Empie Theatre and rehearse for two days before packing up for the festival.
Director Vanessa Lancellotti adds, “Once we arrived at Indiana University, we did not get to rehearse in the actual theatre until immediately before the performance. To anticipate this, we ran lines and tightened moment to moment work anywhere from the bus to the hotel conference room. I thought the actors rose to the challenge of filling the new space and gave wonderful, lively performances.
“The audience at ACTF is really unique – I doubt there is anywhere else where you would perform for a huge audience of your peers (theatre faculty and students). The audience responded very positively to the piece, audibly gasping or laughing many times over.”
The Theatre Review of the festival production written by peer critic Peter Starr Northrop, cofirms the play’s intrigue and its success with audiences:
“At the center of a quiet den, Dr. Huml stands rigid in terror. He is completely surrounded by a mad swirl of people and unavoidable questions while lights pop and flash all around him. For the first time in his life, Huml has lost control. Yes, Muhlenberg College's production The Increased Difficulty of Concentration by Václav Havel has pinpointed the craziness that comes from simply knowing people so exactly that it actually gets frightening… Vanessa Lancellotti's direction takes this crazy time scheme and brings order to it. From matching set and costume designs to casting Huml's two love interests so they look alike, Lancellotti weaves together all these chaotic elements so anyone can be guided through the pandemonium.”
Professor Averill says proudly, “Vanessa and the cast met the challenge and adapted the farcical style to create a well-conceived, well-acted, very strong piece… The audience loved it.”
And so did the critics – not only regionally but nationally. It is extraordinary, says Averill, who has been awarded the Kennedy Center / American College Theatre Festival Medallion for his service to the mid-Atlantic states, for a student-directed production to be held for consideration for the festival’s national stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. Reports Juliet Wunsch, Chair of the KCACTF Region 2: “The National Selection Team will extend actual invitations in March after viewing shows in all 8 regions. Asking to be held for consideration is an incredible recognition, no matter how things play out in April.”
Additional Muhlenberg students participated in the regional festival as performers and critics.
The 2010 Region II KCACTF O'Neill Critics Institute winner is Villanova University graduate student Mark J. Costello, and the alternate is Muhlenberg College freshman Amy Asendorf. The Critics Institute was established to assist in elevating the level of arts criticism and to provide writers the opportunity to grow and learn at the same pace as other theatre artists, whose work they review, interpret, and critique. The Region 2 participant critics studied, shared and produced theatre critiques in response to the seven theatre productions seen over three days of the festival. The winner of the National Festival will earn a place in the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center Critics Institute this summer.
The Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships provide recognition, honor, and financial assistance to outstanding student performers wishing to pursue further education. The Irene Ryan Foundation awards sixteen regional and two national scholarships annually. The Irene Ryan participants from Muhlenberg College were: Allie DiIorio ’11 (chosen for Uncommon Women; performing with Anna Gothard ’11), Amanda Smith ’12 (Uncommon Women; with Conor Choi ’12), Leah Holleran ’12 ( Bat Boy; with Louisa DeButts ’12) and Eric Thompson ’10 (Caw; with Kadeem Alston-Roman ’12). Leah and Eric proceeded to the semi-final round of auditions at the regional festival.
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. The festival draws more than a thousand attendees from colleges and universities across an eight-state region and the District of Columbia. Region II includes more than eighty participating colleges and universities.
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