KCATCF 2025!

I decided last minute to attend the Region 3 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. As I settled into winter break, I quickly grew bored of relaxing. It was time to gear up for a conference! I went with three other Michigan State Students.

I presented on my costume design for Stevie and the Real World, which you can find under my Costume page under Designs. I had such a fun time presenting on this extremely collaborative piece. I got to tak about my process playing with shape and texture to create funky costumes that could suit an alternate universe. I also focused on the work I did with the actors, ensuring that their diverse identities were represented in the show.

In addition to presenting, I had a great time at all the other events that were offered. I took full advantage of the resume and portfolio reviews and got to network with some theatre companies in the midwest. I learned that it really is a small world - I met so many artists and educators with mutual colleagues. Some other highlights include the ETC factory tour (as a non 'plug it in' designer, I still found this place fascinating) and Design Storm, a competition where you are randomly assigned teams and create a design concept for a show in three days.

I was assigned to be the Director for the play Tartuffe. We came up with this cool solar system-spcae-heavenly-celestial aesthetic. Though it was a fun competition, it gave me a lot of confidence as a director. I was able to communicate a very clear and cohesive vision, pushed my designers to think bigger. I balanced my designer's hopes for the production while advocating for my concept as a director. It was so fun getting to work with designers and artist from other universities.

All four of us were made it to the final round of presentations. I was proud to walk away with three awards:

RED (Representation, Equity, and Diversity) in Costume Design

Special Achievement in Costume Design for Devised Work

Best Design: Design Storm

Moral of the story: Conferences are really cool and you should go!