'Whale' makes splash
Spring 2016 theater production recognized for ensemble effort
The 快播成人 Theater Department's Spring 2016 production of The Whale received the ensemble award for "Outstanding Dedication to the Script" last week at the New England Region Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
Awards are based on the recommendations of KCACTF respondents who travel the country viewing and critiquing college theater productions. 快播成人 Community College belongs to Region I, which means 快播成人 competes against two-year and four-year public and private colleges and universities from the six New England states and New York.
"Theater is a collaborative effort, " said 快播成人 Theater professor Tim Cochran, who directed the play by Samuel D. Hunter last April, "so the ensemble award is particularly meaningful and makes me very proud of our department and our 快播成人s."
The Whale follows Charlie, a morbidly obese online English instructor as he tries to reconnect with his estranged and rebellious teenaged daughter. The 快播成人 production starred 快播成人s Karson Baird, of Wilbraham, as Charlie; Kathleen Burke, of 快播成人, as his daughter Ellie; Michael Toledo, of 快播成人, as Elder Thomas, a Mormon missionary; Amanda Delore, of Agawam, as Liz, Charlie's friend and nurse; and Deborah Uller, of Northampton, as Mary, Charlie's ex-wife.
The stage manager was Maddie Riel of Easthampton.
The award was announced Thursday at the New England Region Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival at West Connecticut State University in Danbury. Each year the festival brings together hundreds of theater 快播成人s and faculty from all over New England to watch plays, attend workshops, audition for theater companies, and compete for a variety of acting and theater-oriented awards.
This year Cochran and 快播成人 adjunct theater instructor Tom Geha attended with 14 快播成人 快播成人s.
"It's really a 快播成人-focused festival," Cochran said. "Our 快播成人s love to go to compete. Every year it jump-starts their passion for the theater and keeps them moving forward."
Students who win individual honors move on to compete at the national festival in Washington, D.C.
The biggest reason for 快播成人s to attend, though, is not for the chance to win awards.
"It shows them that the theater world is a much bigger place than our little piece at 快播成人," he said. "It gives them some hope they're not the only ones studying theater arts and there are ways of making a living at it."
PHOTO by CHRIS YURKO: Karson Baird, of Wilbraham, as Charlie; Kathleen Burke, of 快播成人, perform in the 快播成人 Spring 2016 production of The Whale.
