It's ACTF time!

The UP Theater students left bright and early this morning for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) in Humboldt, California. With the 10 hour drive to Humboldt, the 40 students are getting ready for their “scholarship audition” for the Irene Ryan Audition/Acting Competition.

Their work will then be shown from Feb. 14-18 in Humboldt as the UP students will compete in the Irene Ryan competition. Students are nominated from their performances in the past year to participate in the Irene Ryan competition.

The nominated students each choose a scene partner to compete with them throughout the ACTF. Students choose two scenes based on their interests and strengths for the competition.

Nominee senior Sammi Boyd and her partner senior Charles Lattin chose scenes from “Baby with the Bathwater” by Christopher Durang and “Cymbeline” by William Shakespeare.

“It’s a chance to choose scenes that you have always wanted to work on. Baby With the Bathwater was a scene that I saw in class that I have always loved,” Boyd said. “Cymeline was just one that I found I thought was a good contrast. Shakespeare is tricky for female strong scenes so I found one that I liked and just went for it.”

Other scenes chosen by UP Theater students:

Nominee senior Jamie Kluth and senior Brian Burger – “Hunter Gatherers” by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and “Ivanov” by Chekhov   

Nominee senior Connor Bond and senior Phil Orazio – “Julius Caeser” by William Shakespeare and a song from “Into the Woods” by Steven Sondheim

Nominee senior Sydney Syverson and sophomore Kimo Camat – “At Home” by Michael Weller and “Scripted” by Mary Harvey Levine

Last year Orazio and his scene partner, UP graduate student Michael O’Neill, were regional champions for the Irene Ryan competition. The year before, Orazio and partner Danielle Larson advanced to the final round and competed in Washington D.C.

What is ACTF?

UP Theater will be competing with other schools in the Region VII division, which has various theatre departments from Alaska, Northern California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. There are eight regions in the country.

ACTF focuses on theatre education and also aims to bring theatre students from many universities together to compete and learn from various workshops that are taught during the festival.

How does ACTF work?

The competition consists of three rounds during the five-day festival. The 32 winners of the first round go onto perform in the second round, which requires two scenes to be performed in less than five minutes.

The nominees are then cut down to 16 for the third round, which allows six minutes for two scenes and the nominee's monologue. It is after the final performance that the judges pick the two nominees who will advance to the national competition.

Updates to come as the UP Theater competes in Humboldt this week!