EMORY, VA -- Emory & Henry College's production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change recently received five award nominations from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Nominations include the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship for the following E&H students: Brandon Bentley of Big Stone Gap, Va., and Jamal Crowelle of Reston, Va.; the Barbizon Costume award for student Kelsey Cropp of Fairfax, Va.; the Student Stage Manager award for Anna Nichols of Knoxville, Tenn.; and the award for leadership by the faculty director, Dr. Biliana Stoytcheva-Horissian.
The costume design and stage manager nominees must prepare portfolios, while acting nominees are required to select acting partners and prepare two contrasting scenes and a monologue for a three-part competition. Acting partners participating in the competition along with the nominees are Becca Litton of Abingdon and Anna Bailey of Cornelius, N.C.
The theatre festival honors excellence of overall production and offers student artists individual recognition through awards and scholarships in playwriting, acting, criticism, directing, and design.
More than 350 student actors are expected to audition for the prestigious scholarships at the 10-state Region IV competition of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Feb. 2-6, in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Winners will advance to national auditions at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in April 2010.
In 2009, Jamal Crowelle placed among the top 16 actors in the 10-state southeast region.
In 2008, E&H student Eric Eteuati from Chesapeake, Va., received the competition's prestigious Irene Ryan Scholarship. The award is given to one actor chosen among more than 400 students from throughout the southeastern United States who compete in the event. He also won the chance to compete against 16 other regional winners of the Irene Ryan Scholarship at the national competition in Washington, D.C.
The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival is a national theatre program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide. The Festival has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theatre departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by Festival respondents.
