A scene from VIC's "Lysistrata Wears Prada."
BRISTOL, VA - Virginia Intermont College (VI) theatre students have embarked on an adventure to one of the world's most significant and exciting theatrical centers – London, England.
The group of ten students are enhancing their theatre training with a special study tour during the May 2012 term. Organized by Associate Professor of Theatre Bonny Gable, the program will include workshops at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, as well as tours of Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London's Theatre History Walk and the Victoria & Albert Museum theatre collections. Students will also attend theatre performances at the West End and London Pub Theatres' Fringe Festival.
"Exposure to these outstanding productions plus instruction from some of the world's finest practicing professionals will provide VI's young theatre artists with a most valuable experience to add to their educational repertoire," said Gable.
VI Theatre a Success at Kennedy Center Festival
Virginia Intermont College Theatre Department's most recent production took honors as an entry in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). The department presented the premiere of a new farce, "Lysistrata Wears Prada," written by VI Associate Professor of Theatre Bonny Gable with original music written by VI student Adam Kuykendall.
The KCACTF, founded in 1969 by chairman Roger L. Stevens, is a national theatre program that involves 18,000 students from more than 600 colleges and universities nationwide. KCACTF serves as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theatre programs by providing departments, students and faculty with outside assessments of their work.
An adaptation of the ancient Greek comedy "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes, the play is set in the modern high fashion world, with Lysistrata as owner/editor of an haute couture magazine. She leads her exquisitely attired female cohorts in a sex strike to entice their men to end the war. Farcical results unfold in this tale as old as time with a contemporary-futuristic flair.
Participation in the adjudication process of the KCACTF resulted in several award nominations for members of the Theatre Department. These include: theatre majors Audrey Kuykendall, Jenna Nease and Sarah Jones for the Irene Ryan Acting Award; theatre professor Bonny Gable for the Faculty Directing Award; English major Adam Kuykendall for the Sound Design Award; theatre majors Paul Pratt for the National Stage Management Award and Audrey Kuykendall for the Barbizon Costume Design Award.
The entire production has been recommended for presentation at the Regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival held in Daytona, Fla. in Feb. 2013. If presented there, it will be under consideration for selection to perform at the National KCACTF in Washington, D.C. in April.
