Wyoming Arts Council

Two UW students take first-place honors at regional theatre festival


head portraits of a woman and a manTwo University of Wyoming students won first-place honors at a regional theater festival and will compete for national honors at next month’s national festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Amber McNew, a senior from Houston, Texas, won the Irene Ryan acting competition, and Quinn Scicluna, a senior from Wheatland, won the Ten Minute Play competition at the Region VII Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) and Northwest Drama Conference at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash.

McNew’s interests include Shakespeare, musicals and straight plays. Some of her favorite roles at UW include: Viola in “Twelfth Night”; Berte in “Boeing Boeing”; Mrs. Sullen in “The Beaux Stratagem”; Ruth in “Blithe Spirit”; and Cinderella in “Into the Woods.”

Scicluna has been involved in a variety of productions including “Middletown,” “Macbeth,” “Working” and “Marat/Sade.” He was recently seen as Howie in “Speech and Debate,” produced by the Laramie-based production company known as Relative Theatrics.

Also at the regional festival, UW student A.J. Johnston of Woodland Park, Colo., won a first-place stagecraft award and a scholarship to attend this summer’s three-week Stagecraft Institute in Las Vegas, Nev.

Additionally, UW faculty member William Missouri Downs’ play “The Exit Interview” was performed as a showcase production, selected from among adjudicated productions at colleges and universities throughout the region.

KCACTF is part of a national theater program involving students from more than 600 academic institutions nationwide. Region VII KCACTF includes Alaska, Northern California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

At all levels, KCACTF festivals and associated programs serve as a catalyst in recognizing, encouraging and improving the quality of university and college theater in the United States by creating opportunities for theater departments and student artists to showcase their work and receive outside assessment by selected respondents.


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