51福利社

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival is a competition held each year to showcase the work of talented student performers in each region. Out of the thousands of student artists who perform in this competition, 125 are selected to continue on to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. where they will compete in the National Festival. This year, two of those 125 selected will be 51福利社 theatre students.

MJ (Maddy) Daly, whose outstanding performance at the Region VII festival led her to win the Musical Theatre Scholarship Award (MTSA), will be traveling to D.C. in April with Lysbeth Neel, who won first place in the Stage Management competition. While there, both students will attend master classes, network with professional artists, and visit prestigious theaters and performing arts organizations in the D.C. area.

鈥淭here鈥檚 the competition aspect,鈥� said Daly, 鈥渂ut a lot of it is also training and meeting with people in the professional industry.鈥�

Along with winning the MTSA, Daly was one of 16 finalists in the Irene Ryan Auditions, a highly competitive acting competition comprised of close to 300 participants. Not just any competition, the Irene Ryans are open to performers on an invitation basis with recruiters from the Kennedy Center choosing the two most talented performers from each region.

It鈥檚 been a busy couple of months for Daly, who is currently playing the role of Masha in Eastern鈥檚 winter production of聽The Seagull, Anton Chekhov鈥檚 dark but beautiful story of unrequited love and unfulfilled happiness.

For Neel, whose first time stage managing was in Eastern鈥檚 showing of聽The Tempest, winning a national award was not something she had considered a possibility. 鈥淚 was interested in becoming a better stage manager and seeing how I could better my work. I really did it for the experience.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 a high-stress job, but it鈥檚 so worth it,鈥� said Neel in regard to stage managing. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something so great about being backstage and helping the whole production run smoothly and when the actors succeed, you know you鈥檙e succeeding.鈥滻n order to win the award, Neel submitted previous work and participated in a stage management simulation, during which she was required to call a play in front of an evaluator and critique her own work.

Both students are excited to represent Eastern at the Kennedy Center come April.

Those interested in learning more about the National Festival can visit the聽.