ACTF
Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival
Our department is proud to participate annually in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) – Region 8.
As part of the festival, most of our productions receive a critical response from a faculty respondent from another college or university in the region. They give the cast and student designers their perspective on our work in an effort to help us strive for excellence in all areas. A small number of productions from our region each year have scenes invited to the annual regional festival and an even smaller number of complete productions, about 8 per year, are invited to the festival to compete for the opportunity to go to the national festival at the Kennedy Center.
Being invited to the festival is a tremendous honor as our region consists of 127 schools across the states of Hawaii, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and a good portion of California. Since the beginning of its participation in KCACTF, Concordia has been honored with the following invitations to the regional festival:
- 2013 – The table scene from Beau Jest by James Sherman – directed by Tony Vezner
- 2012 - The production of "The Cover of Life" by R.T. Robinson, directed by Lori C. Siekmann
- 2011 – The “nunnery scene” from Hamlet by William Shakespeare, directed by Tony Vezner
- 2010 – The production of The Foolish Proposal, an improvisational comedy in the style of Commedia Del Arte, conceived and directed by Lori C. Siekmann
- 2004 – The production of Medea by Euripedes, directed by Mic Shackelford
- 2003 – The opening scene from Cabaret - book by Joe Masteroff, based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, directed by Dr. Peter Senkbeil, music direction by Rob Blaney, choreographed by Melanie Jacobson
Besides this, 2-3 actors per production are nominated to compete in the Irene Ryan National Acting Competition at the KCACTF regional festival to compete against nominees from other participating colleges and universities. The festival culminates in a national acting competition at the Kennedy Center each year.
In addition, two of our faculty members have received the "Excellence in Education" award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival: Dr. Peter Senkbeil (2003) and Prof. Tony Vezner (2011).
For more information on region 8 of the Kennedy Center of American College Theatre Festival, visit www.kcactf-8.org.