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.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.