By Jamil Oakford/se news editor
SE Campus served as host for this year’s Texas I Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Oct. 22-25.
Colleges from across the state flocked to SE to participate, including Texas Wesleyan University, Texas Southern, Sul Ross University, Angelo State University and NW Campus.
They kicked off the festival Oct. 22 with a performance from SE drama students’ fall production of Around the World in 80 Days.
Lead actor Braden Zeissig explained the feeling of performing at the festival.
“It’s been great since I’ve never been able to perform for something this big,” he said. “I did UIL, but this is for universities.”
All attending colleges had productions to showcase, and students were welcome to sit in after all the official attendees were seated.
Performances on the second day of the festival included Texas Southern University’s play at noon and Angelo State University later that evening.
And between these performances, attendees and students outside the event were encouraged to choose from an array of workshops.
“I’m going to the Stage Combat for Actors because I’ve never taken anything formal in that,” Zeissig said.
And the workshops weren’t just for actors in theater.
Stage Lighting Techniques helped explain all of the gadgets and gizmos available to college theaters and also to answer any questions about technique or equipment.
Texas Wesleyan student Jorge Flores loved the festival.
“I liked that from the beginning, people from campus were so inviting,” Flores said.
He also mentioned how much he liked the tools and technical equipment that SE had available. He expressed how excited he is to use it for Texas Wesleyan’s performance later that weekend.
“It’s an exciting opportunity,” speech/drama associate professor Pert Durapau said earlier in the semester. “Our students will also get an idea of the production values of the schools who will be participating and will be able to network with other future theater professionals.”
Flores found this learning opportunity to be a great one as well.
“I love that we’re not just here to show and share what we’ve learned. We’re walking away with so much more with these workshops,” he said.
