Student-actors shine at theatre festival
Increased self-confidence was senior Najee Banks’ key takeaway from the 2017 Region II Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). Held this year at Montclair State University in New Jersey Jan. 3-7, the festival brought together more than 1,200 students and faculty representing colleges and universities from eight states and D.C. for a week of performances, competition and professional development workshops with experts in production, directing, choreography, acting, writing, design, stage management, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism.
Banks, a Theatre Arts major from Westminster, Md., and three other stars from the department were among 219 student-actors invited to participate with a partner in the festival’s selective Irene Ryan Scholarship auditions. (Invitations are issued after a representative of the festival attends a production at a member institution and identifies nominees). Banks and his scene partner, Alex Tolle ’18, advanced to the semifinals — a real coup, since only 32 duos made the cut. In the preliminary round, Banks and Tolle performed a comedic scene from Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” and Banks presented a monologue from “Superior Donuts” by Tracy Letts. In the semifinal round, they also performed a scene from “Fat Pig,” a contemporary American drama by Neil LaBute.
“Making it to semifinals was a great moment of clarity for me, because to me it meant that I’m pursuing the right thing,” says Banks, who plans to continue honing his acting skills in an MFA program. The judges — known in festival parlance as “selectors” — were an enthusiastic audience. Their one suggestion? “Own it.”
“I understand ‘own it’ to mean that I need to be completely fearless and self-confident in fully inhabiting my character,” Banks says. “Fearlessness is what theatre calls for, no matter your role, whether you’re a performer or a director or a techie.”
Tolle, a Theatre Arts and Communication double major from Woodbine, Md., says news of their advancement to semifinals “blew my mind. I was so excited; I was walking on cloud nine.”
Peter Mark Kendall ’08 (far right), a professional actor based in Manhattan, takes the opportunity to meet up with students and his former professor while helping to judge performances at the festival.
Senior Theatre Arts major Brandi Weyers of Northfield, Mass., applied for and was awarded a $1,000 McDaniel Student Research and Creativity grant on behalf of the four Irene Ryan Scholarship nominees and their partners to help cover festival expenses. In addition to Banks and Tolle, the group included: Weyers and her performing partner, Torreke Evans ’18, an English-Theatre Arts dual major from Atlanta; Antoinette Martin ’17, a Biology and Theatre Arts double major from Cape Coral, Fla., with partner Megan Smith ’18, a Theatre Arts major from Federalsburg, Md.; and Bryan Bowen ’18, a Theatre Arts major from North Beach, Md., with partner Brandon Richards ’18, a Theatre Arts major from Huntingtown, Md.
More McDaniel student successes were celebrated at the festival. Bowen was cast in a developmental reading of a new play by Migdalia Cruz that was commissioned by the Kennedy Center. Martin was in a new student-written, 10-minute play. Brittany Adams ’18, a Theatre Arts major from Westminster, Md., was selected to assistant-direct and stage-manage a new student-written work.
The Theatre Festival Experience is an annual Jan Term course co-taught by adjunct instructor Nick DePinto, a professional actor in the D.C. area, and Theatre Arts professor Elizabeth van den Berg, who is nationally recognized by KCACTF as a “Teaching Artist” and received the organization’s Gold Medallion, its highest regional honor, in 2015. She was recently elected to a national role as a member-at-large representing the chairs of all eight regions and previously served as Region II vice chair from 2009-11, as chair from 2011-14, and as immediate past chair for the past two years.
Of the 11 students who enrolled in the course and attended the festival, 10 are considering acting careers and another is interested in stage-managing or directing, says van den Berg. Students devote the remaining couple of weeks of Jan Term on campus learning the business side of things, from marketing yourself with head shots, resumes and websites to strategies for finding auditions, getting an agent and when to join a union. “The only way you’re going to get work is to work at getting work,” van den Berg says. “Most of the people who have left here firmly saying they’re going to be an actor end up doing it.”
Former student Peter Mark Kendall ’08, who earned an MFA in Acting from Brown University and has starred in several professional theatre productions and played recurring roles on TV shows, “The Americans,” “Girls” and “Chicago Med,” was quick to agree when van den Berg texted to ask if he would serve as a selector for the finals round of the Irene Ryan Scholarship auditions. He had attended the festival as a nominee while a student at McDaniel — but didn’t advance beyond the preliminary round.
“I made sure I talked to my students about that,” says van den Berg, who arranged for the group to meet with Kendall while he was at the festival. She says the experience of performing for and getting feedback from the pros is what’s truly valuable. “Not advancing beyond preliminaries doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It just means you didn’t do it this time.”
