SUU STUDENT WINS REGIONAL PLACEMENT AT THE KENNEDY CENTER AMERICAN COLLEGE THEATER FESTIVAL (CC)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 02/21/11
Michael French
Public Information Coordinator
College of Performing and Visual Arts
Southern Utah University
Office: 435-865-8667
Cell: 805-260-8797
michaelfrench@suu.edu

Photo credits:
Britannia Bahr Howe. Courtesy of Britannia Bahr Howe
Love shot 2: Britannia Bahr Howe as Katherine in SUU's "Loves' Labours' Lost." Photo: Karl Hughes


SUU STUDENT WINS REGIONAL PLACEMENT
AT THE KENNEDY CENTER
AMERICAN COLLEGE THEATER FESTIVAL

Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah: Squeezing in rehearsal time around a crowded class schedule, SUU senior Britannia Bahr Howe, from the College of Performing and Visual Arts, expertly directed a selected scene featuring four of her fellow theatre students that impressed the adjudicators at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival regionals in Los Angeles, California. Based on her work, Howe was chosen by the regional committee and awarded the Student Directing Fellowship I. Based on this victory she attends the finals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in mid-April 2011.

Britannia Bahr Howe’s journey began by choosing to compete in the direction category. Each student director was able to choose a scene from one of pre-selected plays that the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) committee had approved. Howe chose a scene from Jim Leonard’s Anatomy of Gray and asked SUU students Justin Carter, Tony Carter, MacKenzie Pedersen and Kaitlin Woolley to appear in it. Rehearsing for a mere ten hours, developing a director’s concept and building a prompt book, Howe, her troupe and SUU Theatre Arts faculty members traveled to California to attend the Region VIII competition held February 9 through 11 at the Los Angeles Theater Center. Region VIII includes universities and students from Arizona, Central and Southern California, Hawaii, Southern Nevada and Utah.

After performing the scene in a first round showing, Britannia Bahr Howe was able to re-rehearse it and make some bold changes to the scene. Despite some heavy competition from other universities, Howe’s revised staging won her the regional competition and the opportunity to represent SUU’s College of Performing and Visual Arts and her division in Washington, D.C. held at the Kennedy Center April 18-23, 2011. Her victory in Los Angeles allows her to compete for the National Fellowship awarded by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSD&C). The award is determined by a panel and is based on an entrant’s work in master classes and assignments during the week.

Howe and the attendees received funding from SUUSA and the College of Performing and Visual Arts.

An aspiring director, Britannia Bahr Howe, a native of Cedar City, Utah, has previously appeared in SUU’s Theatre Arts and Dance productions of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours’ Lost playing Katherine and Our Town as Mrs. Webb. She directed the Stage II production of Proof, and will be the associate director on the department’s upcoming production of the Stephen Schwartz’s musical, Godspell. She has stage managed the Faculty Dance Concert, and did lighting design for the Student Dance Concert. Howe is currently the College of Performing and Visual Arts senator. Her future plans include finishing her degree here at SUU in Education and Classical Acting. Howe plans on attending graduate school and becoming a stage director.

Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center's founding chairman, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE
The Southern Utah University College of Performing and Visual Arts is comprised of nationally accredited departments of Art and Design, Music, Theatre Arts and Dance, as well as a graduate program in Arts Administration. The College offers 16 different degree areas, including liberal arts Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees; professional Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Fine Arts in art and theatre degrees; and a Master of Fine Arts in Arts Administration degree. More than 60 full- and part-time faculty and staff are engaged in teaching and mentoring over 550 majors in the College. Over 1100 students enroll each year in over 195 arts classes on the SUU campus. The College presents 100 performances, lectures, presentations, and exhibitions each year. The College’s affiliate organizations include the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery, American Folk Ballet, Utah Shakespearean Festival, the performance group Acclamation, and the SUU Ballroom Dance Company. For more information about the College of Performing and Visual Arts, contact the Office of the Dean (435) 865-8561, or by e-mail at cpvamktg@suu.edu.