When the going gets tough, the tough get creative. In a devastating year for live entertainment, the Northeast State Theatre Department flipped the script in 2020 to keep the shows going.
“Theatre people are trained to be flexible and to problem solve,” said Elizabeth M. Sloan, assistant professor and director of Northeast State Theatre. “So, while this has been a new and sometimes baffling adventure, the students have embraced the change to virtual and really stepped up.”
Northeast State Theatre (NST) cast and crew devoted many hours of work on The Giver during the spring semester of 2020. That was before COVID-19. The play’s performances were cancelled as live entertainment of all stripes stopped nationwide. Sloan said one of the most disappointing parts of the quarantine was that The Giver did not open to audiences.
The department regrouped over the summer and created a well-received audio drama production of Dracula. The audio play debuted in October with student and faculty doing virtual collaboration.
For the past several years, Northeast State Theatre students and faculty routinely earned praise and prize hardware at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region IV. The event showcased theatre department work from students at two-year and four-year institutions in the Southeast. In the pre-pandemic times, students traveled to join their peers from two-year and four-year institutions for the festival. Students participated to receive feedback from theatre professionals and earn recognition in the form of awards, scholarships, internships, or the opportunity to represent Region IV at the national KCACTF festival.
“Usually, we would have opened the show and a KCACTF respondent would have come to see the show,” said Sloan.
After deliberating, the Region IV competition committee decided that the work done by students, even if productions did not open, should be recognized. Festival officials advised Sloan that nominations would be accepted for the 2021 regional competition. That decision opened the door for nominations for The Giver.
The Virtual KCACTF Region IV Festival is scheduled February 4-7. The modified festival will feature guest speakers and performances live streamed from schools across the Southeast. Because the festival is being held live, all theatre students get to attend and participate in live workshops.
“The best part is that more students are going to have the opportunity to participate, whether they participated in a realized production or not,” said Sloan.
Region IV nominations for the production of The Giver were: Irene Ryan Acting – Gavin Mann; Stage Management nomination – Myla Anderson; Costume Design – Sarah Slagle; and Sound Design – Kenneth Fleenor.
KCACTF Region IV nominations for Dracula were: Irene Ryan Acting – Braiden Smith and Jillian Cox, Dracula; Stage Management – Alex White.
For the first round of competition, students created a video of themselves acting a monologue and submitted the video to Region IV earlier this month. The video submissions are being review first by many professors from Region IV. A group of professional respondents judge the nominees to determine who moves on to the next round of competition at the regional festival.
Region IV respondents have recognized the work of NST faculty. Sloan received the Meritorious Achievement Award for Excellence in Directing for Dracula. Northeast State’s Technical Director Brad McKenzie earned the Meritorious Achievement Award for Excellence in Sound for Dracula.
Slagle, a Northeast State alumna and current student at East Tennessee State University, was nominated for her work for The Giver.
“We are thrilled she is able to participate in the festival and show off her work,” said Sloan. “She designed hair, makeup, and costumes for The Giver and had done so much work before the show shut down.”
Mann, and fellow festival participants Matthew Parvin, Cheyenne King, Jo Ragan, Steven Hathaway and Sarah Hesoun are competing Design, Tech, and Management category. area. All are creating designs for unrealized productions. In other words, a competitor selects a play and a design category to create a design for the show that will never be produced. These students, who usually present their work in front of theatre professionals, were asked to create a website that shows off their designs for this year.
Smith, Mann, Ragan, and Hesoun are also participating in the Next Steps category. Next Steps gives students attending two-year institutions an opportunity to audition and interview for four-year colleges and universities. Students submit their resumes, headshots, and acting videos or design websites.
“We have more colleges and universities participating this year than in years past,” said Sloan who serves on the festival leadership team as the co-chair of the Next Steps. “Hopefully one or more of the schools will contact them for a live Zoom callback.”
Pingback: Northeast State Theatre performs well at KCACTF competition – NORTHEAST NATION