Sunday, March 2, 2008

Kennedy Center Festival Honors HSU Faculty and Students

Assistant Professor Rae Robison and several Humboldt State University students were honored for their achievements at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival held at California State University at Los Angeles.

Robison, who teaches costume design and has designed several recent HSU shows as well as directing Urinetown this fall, received the Kennedy Center National Artist Teaching grant, one of seven given to educators in the United States.

Two students won Merit Awards for their work on Urinetown: Maria Meyer for Choreography and Lela Annotto-Pemberton for Dance Captain. Students Julia Chase (makeup design for Urinetown) and Becky Parker for costume technology (Urinetown and last spring’s The School for Scandal) won invitations to the Design and Technology Exhibit, a seven-state regional competition.

Genneveve Hood was one of five regional finalists for the Barbizon Achievement in Costume Design, for her Urinetown designs. Katherine Bickford placed third in the regional Stage Management competition for her work on Relative Captivity this fall.

Fourteen HSU students were invited to the festival in Los Angeles for their achievements. They include the nominees for the Irene Ryan acting scholarship, which selects 2 student nationally to study in Europe: Joseph Castro, Johanna Hembry, Megan Hughes, Erik Rhea and Lindsey Tewksbury. Also attending were Clayton Cook, Chris Hatcher, Leslie Ostrom and Kelly Whitaker, as their partners for the acting competition.

The students were accompanied in Los Angeles by HSU Theatre, Film & Dance faculty members Rae Robison and Jody Sekas, and staff member Catherine Brown.

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