Faculty and students from the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith’s theatre department attended the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Region VI Festival held Feb. 24-28, taking home two awards while participating in a week’s worth of events. 

  

The festival, which was held in Shreveport, La., at Centenary College, featured a weeklong schedule of theatre workshops and competitions in which UAFS students took part.

 

Following a weeklong display of his lighting design at the festival, Lee Hartsock of Fort Smith won the Meritorious Achievement in Lighting Design for his work on the production “Women of Manhattan,” which was presented by the UAFS theatre department in November. Hartsock’s design was displayed alongside designs by fellow students Ashley Behm of Fort Smith and Elizabeth Sampley of Clarksville.  

 

Faculty member Pablo Guerra-Monje of Fort Smith was awarded the American Association of Theatre in Higher Education’s Regional Award for Innovative Teaching, which included a plaque as well as a year’s membership to ATHE. Guerra-Monje won the award due to his work on “Dromnium,” first performed at UAFS in fall 2012, and his efforts to include students in publicity efforts for the campus.

 

Erin Decker of Mayflower and her partner Cory Wray of Perryville advanced to the semifinal round of the regional Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition, performing pieces from the plays “Gruesome Playground Injuries” and “Much Ado About Nothing.” The two were just the second pair from UAFS to advance to the semifinals of the competition.

 

Bob Stevenson of Fort Smith, theatre director at UAFS, said it was a great learning experience for all involved. 

 

“The students learned a lot this week, and I think we grew tremendously as artists thanks to the myriad of guest artists that attended the festival to offer workshops and critical analysis of our work as well as the work from talented theatre students across the region,” Stevenson said.