Irene Ryans, MTIs, and Professional Audition Results: Oh My!

Each year, the St. Ambrose University Theatre Department embarks on a week-long journey to Region 5's Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF).

This year, the festival was held in none other than "tropical" Sioux Falls, SD. After a nine-hour van ride with less-than-stellar road conditions, SAU theatre faculty and students arrived and were ready to display their talents. Click here to read an overview

One major event at KCACTF is the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Competition. To compete in this event, students must be nominated by a respondent from another college for outstanding work in a production. At SAU, the mainstage shows are adjudicated, and each respondent can select two nominees whose work they deemed worthy.

This year, SAU had seven Irene Ryan nominees. Since The Little Prince was being considered – and then chosen to be an invited production – the production was eligible for three Irene Ryan nominees instead of two.

After receiving an Irene Ryan nomination, each nominee chooses an acting partner. This year, the Irene Ryan nominees and their partners were:

• junior Ellie Larson with senior Colin Evers,
• junior Tyler Hughes with senior Christian Colmenares,
• senior Abbie Carpenter with senior Jeremy Mahr,
• sophomore Joseph Lasher with senior Sarah Goodall,
• junior Luke Peterson with first-year Peyton Reese,
• first-year Quinnie Rodman with first-year Mary Rose Prosinski
• and first-year David Weaver with sophomore Andrés Garcia.

This year, there were 325 nominees competing in the preliminary round at the festival. Then, only 66 moved on to the semi-final round. Larson and her partner made it into this select group and performed a second time for different judges. They did not make it into the top-16 performers, but the Department is immensely proud of her and all of the nominees and their partners for their hard work and preparation.

Another performance opportunity at KCACTF is the Musical Theatre Intensive. To compete in this event, participants perform in front of the SAU faculty in early November. The faculty then chooses which performers are outstanding. This year, SAU had nine singers "qualify" to represent SAU in the competition. They were seniors Goodall and Evers; juniors Peterson and Allison Hutson; sophomores Lasher and K. Hampton; and first-years Reese, Rodman, and Prosinski.

This year, a record number of SAU students made it into the final cabaret of the top 20 performers. The three students who performed in the finals were Lasher, who also made it into the finals last year, with his rendition of "Role of A Lifetime" from bare, Rodman with "Right Hand Man" from the musical Something Rotten, and Reese with "When It All Falls Down" from Chaplin the Musical.

"It was such a wonderful experience," Reese said. "I got to be a part of a select group of people who all shared the same passion for theatre as I do. It showed me that hard work truly does pay off because I put a lot of work and preparation into the performance, and it clearly was a good idea!"

The last performance event students competed in this year were the Professional Auditions. At these, students have a mere 90 seconds to impress the casting directors of various summer stock and professional theatres.
This year, SAU had six students audition. They were seniors Goodall, Carpenter and T.J. Green; juniors Larson and Peterson; and sophomore Hampton. Every single student received at least one callback, and many received multiple, which makes the Department incredibly proud. Stay tuned for a later edition of the Newsletter to see the results of these callbacks.

All in all, it was a great year for SAU at KCACTF Festival 52. Like Reese said, hard work truly does pay off, and the Department could not be prouder of all the work the students put in.