Students from the Theater Club of STLCC-Meramec attended the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), hosted by Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, from Jan. 15 to Jan. 21.
Sara Murrillo
-Staff Photographer-
The KCACTF is a regional theater festival in which eight states participate. Students attending from different universities and colleges are given the opportunity to be part of weeklong workshops, acting competitions, design initiatives and stage management competitions. KCACTF also offers training with invited producers and theater professionals.
Keith Oliver, Meramec theater club co-sponsor has been a faculty mentor in the festival for another school for five years.
“When you mentor a student it is the time for your professional development,” Oliver said. “As we have seen, KCACTF not only taught techniques for a professional performance on or backstage, but it also offered students the guidance towards a successful life as artists and theatrical professionals.”
Meramec theater club students have attended the KCACTF for over 25 years. This year four students and their partners were selected out of applicants from the summer of 2011. The selection judges made their decision based on certain criteria. In order for students to be considered they had to be actively involved in the theater club, have a high performance on stage and have good grades.
Once the selection process was completed, theater club co-sponsors, Meramec professors Michelle Rebollo and Keith Oliver, worked with the selected students throughout the rest of the year.
Even though the trip lasted only one week, the planning process took longer. Planning meetings took place on a number of occasions between October and December of 2011.
Lydia Oetker, Caroline Steinkamp, Angelina Lahr, Kate Schmidt, Crystal Owens, Monica Zidaru, Derek Robertson, Andrew Bayer and Haley Kemper were all in attendance at the KCACTF.
The festival started Jan. 15, KCACTF gave the students the option to choose their own schedules for the training; competitions or workshops they wanted to participate in. Each of the nine students worked and competed with other students from different universities. Haley Kemper, faculty member of Meramec, vice president of the Theater Club and short plays actress, applied last semester to be part of the KCACTF.
Kemper said that it is a great opportunity to learn from other students and theater experts. She worked with Andrew Bayer, actor from Meramec theater club and semifinalist of the KCACTF with his partner Monica Zudari.
“I was excited to be the college fair coordinator of the festival,” Rebollo said.
Rebollo also confirmed that the amount of benefits and opportunities that the KCACTF gives to the students are very large. Rebollo said attendants can experiment with the networking opportunity thanks to the important producers that are invited every year. Also the trip could be the door to transferring and summer work. For the students it is not just a trip, but the start of a future for Meramec theater students and students from other universities.
The KCACTF is a great opportunity for Meramec students. Even though they had to go through difficulties such as bad weather and short time for organizing, Haley Kemper said that KCACTF is an important event that is helful for students.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to share and experience to expand upon the art itself with people that are interested to take the same path as you,” Kemper said.
