CSU make make-up artist to attend festival in Washington

In early February, students from the theater department at CSU

participated in the Kennedy Center American College Theater

Festival in Denver. One CSU student was awarded an all-expense paid

trip to the 36th annual national festival in Washington, D.C.

Lindsay Harris, a senior theater major, will be the second CSU

student in the last five years to go to the National Festival. Her

make-up design work from “A Mid Summer Night’s Dream,” which was

produced in 2003, will be showcased and critiqued at the Kennedy

Center in Washington, D.C., in April. She will be one out of eight

students from across the nation eligible for a national scholarship

award.

According to John Hill, an instructor in the theater department,

The Kennedy Center is “the Mecca” of theater for the country.

“It is the equivalent of making it to the bowl game or the

Olympics for an athlete,” Hill said.

Hill has been involved with theater festival for over a decade.

He has been a respondent and served on the regional board in the

past. This year he was in charge of coordinating all of the 85

workshops that were presented at the regional festival.

The regional festival in Denver was one out of eight.

Approximately 1,400 people attended the festival this year and CSU

had 20 to 25 students participate. The Kennedy Center American

College Theater Festival honors excellence of overall production

and offers student artists individual recognition through awards

and scholarships in play writing, acting and design. The main

concept is to promote excellence in college theater.

Laura Jones, director of theater, said CSU has participated in

the regional festivals for at least the last 10 years. She is proud

of Harris’s achievement.

“In a relatively small region, someone can be a big fish, but it

really says something to be put up against the top students in all

the regions,” Jones said.

Annie Cleveland, Harris’s mentor, met Harris at the thespian

conference when Harris was a senior in high school. She was

impressed because Harris had already compiled a portfolio. Since

then, Cleveland has met with Harris regularly and spent three days

helping Harris map out her presentation for the festival. The

presentation consists of two boards mounted with pictures and

drawings and a notebook with all the information about her

project.

“Part of the reason she won the award was she had thorough

research and showed her whole process,” Cleveland said.

Harris was ecstatic when she found out she would be going to

Washington, D.C. She said she is confident in her work, but has no

expectations. She will be going up against seven other

designers.

“I’m just thrilled that I’m going,” Harris said. “People don’t

realize how much work is involved. A production might run three

weeks, but the process starts months before.”

Harris wants to go to Burbank, Calif., for the Make-up Designer

Master Program, after she graduates in the spring.