KCACTF Region 1 Conference 57: Full Schedule

8:00am EST

Irene Ryan's Preliminary Round AM BLUE Group Rehearsal

Wednesday January 29, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am EST

Constitution

Ryan Participants

Speakers

Christie Maturo

Professor of Theatre, Region 1 Vice Chair, Region 1 Ryan's Chair

Christie Maturo is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Central Connecticut State University where she teaches acting and directing. Christie has worked across the country as an actor, director, and producer. Most recently she worked with Undermain Theatre in Dallas and on the award-winning... Read More →

Justin Pesce

Irene Ryan Vice-Chair, KCACTF Region 1 Leasdership

Wednesday January 29, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Irene Ryan Participants

9:00am EST

Irene Ryan's Preliminary Round AM BLUE Group Performance

Wednesday January 29, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am EST

Constitution

Ryan Participants

Speakers

Christie Maturo

Professor of Theatre, Region 1 Vice Chair, Region 1 Ryan's Chair

Justin Pesce

Irene Ryan Vice-Chair, KCACTF Region 1 Leasdership

Wednesday January 29, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Irene Ryan Participants

11:00am EST

Irene Ryan's Preliminary Round PM BLUE Group Rehearsal

Wednesday January 29, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm EST

Constitution

Ryan Participants

Speakers

Christie Maturo

Professor of Theatre, Region 1 Vice Chair, Region 1 Ryan's Chair

Justin Pesce

Irene Ryan Vice-Chair, KCACTF Region 1 Leasdership

Wednesday January 29, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Irene Ryan Participants

12:00pm EST

Irene Ryan's Preliminary Round PM BLUE Group Performance

Wednesday January 29, 2025 12:00pm - 2:00pm EST

Constitution

Ryan Participants

Speakers

Christie Maturo

Professor of Theatre, Region 1 Vice Chair, Region 1 Ryan's Chair

Justin Pesce

Irene Ryan Vice-Chair, KCACTF Region 1 Leasdership

Wednesday January 29, 2025 12:00pm - 2:00pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Irene Ryan Participants

2:00pm EST

NPP Auditions

Wednesday January 29, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all

Speakers

Cassie M. Seinuk

Vice chair npp, Region 1 Npp co-chair

Cassie M. Seinuk is a Jewish Cuban playwright, AEA Stage Manager, visual artist and educator in Boston, MA. Her play From the Deep has won multiple awards including The Pestalozzi New Play Prize, the Latinidad Playwrights Award at the Kennedy Center, and was a recipient of the Boston... Read More →

Shawna Mefferd Kelty

UP Next Play Respondent, KCACTF Region 1 NPP Co-Chair

Dr. Shawna Mefferd Kelty is a director, dramaturg, and chair of the Theatre Department at SUNY Plattsburgh (SDC Associate member and LMDA member). She teaches directing, dramatic lit (including Canadian Theatre, African American Dramas, and Contemporary Women Playwrights), history... Read More →

Wednesday January 29, 2025 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

NPP

4:00pm EST

NPP Casting Deliberations

Wednesday January 29, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm EST

Constitution

NPP Respondents

Speakers

Cassie M. Seinuk

Vice chair npp, Region 1 Npp co-chair

Shawna Mefferd Kelty

UP Next Play Respondent, KCACTF Region 1 NPP Co-Chair

Wednesday January 29, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

NPP

9:00am EST

All In Improv

Thursday January 30, 2025 9:00am - 10:15am EST

Constitution

General, open to all. Neuroscience shows that exposure to improvisation and other creative imagination exercises increases adaptability, improves creative thinking, and breaks people out of old habits and learned behaviors! This workshop reviews the art of improvisation and demonstrates how participants can apply its principles to become stronger performers and build a culture of bravery and agility. Improv is the ultimate inclusive practice, allowing each performer to come as they are and create a space where “yes, and” is the ultimate answer. Course work includes games and exercises exploring awareness, relaxation, observation, the senses, voice, and physicality. Students should dress comfortably and be prepared to move, because anything can happen in improv!

Speakers

Garrett Olson

Associate Artistic & Technical Director of Watermelon Alligator, Watermelon Alligator Theatre Company

Garrett Olson (he/him) is a professional working actor, director, screenwriter, film maker, song writer, seasoned fight director/stunt coordinator, intimacy director/choreographer captain and safety/accessibility consultant for stage and screen. He is currently the Technical Director... Read More →

Jess Wilson

Managing and Artistic Director, WatermelonAlligator Theatre Company

Jess Wilson (they/she) is a former C-level executive leader with extensive experience as an actor, director, playwright, intimacy director, stage manager, tech, designer, and producer, and is the Managing and Artistic Director of the WatermelonAlligator Theatre Company. They are an... Read More →

Thursday January 30, 2025 9:00am - 10:15am EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

10:30am EST

Community Conversations: Embracing Inclusion, Accessibility, and Consent-Based Practices

Thursday January 30, 2025 10:30am - 11:45am EST

Constitution

General, open to all. Join the conversation on how we embrace inclusion and accessibility and consent-based practices in our classrooms, departments, productions, and communities. Share best practices, brainstorm solutions to challenges you're encountered, and ask all the questions you need to further your understanding!

Speakers

Garrett Olson

Associate Artistic & Technical Director of Watermelon Alligator, Watermelon Alligator Theatre Company

Jess Wilson

Managing and Artistic Director, WatermelonAlligator Theatre Company

Thursday January 30, 2025 10:30am - 11:45am EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

12:00pm EST

Mirrored Illusions: Intimacy and Violence in the Performing Arts

Thursday January 30, 2025 12:00pm - 1:15pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all. This is a specialized training designed to go hand in hand with the performance of The Way It Is, offering the rare opportunity to learn about intimacy, violence, consent, safety, and best practices through not only discussion, Q&A, and hands-on activities, but seeing it demonstrated by highly trained professional actors in performance. This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity that creates a safe environment to see, experience, and discuss the dynamics of intimacy and violence in storytelling, how closely they mirror one another, and how to use them effectively in rehearsal and performance.

Speakers

Garrett Olson

Associate Artistic & Technical Director of Watermelon Alligator, Watermelon Alligator Theatre Company

Jess Wilson

Managing and Artistic Director, WatermelonAlligator Theatre Company

Thursday January 30, 2025 12:00pm - 1:15pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

1:30pm EST

Rethinking Theatre

Thursday January 30, 2025 1:30pm - 2:45pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all. "That’s how we’ve always done it” should no longer be the standard practice. This workshop looks at how to dismantle that thought process, from show choices to casting to production values, as well as accessibility in our creative spaces. Let’s talk about bias: what it is, who has it, and how it can affect thoughts, behaviors, and actions. Please come with every question you've been afraid to ask, every strategy you use to check your own biases, and any challenges you'd like to brainstorm solutions for!

Speakers

Garrett Olson

Associate Artistic & Technical Director of Watermelon Alligator, Watermelon Alligator Theatre Company

Jess Wilson

Managing and Artistic Director, WatermelonAlligator Theatre Company

Thursday January 30, 2025 1:30pm - 2:45pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

9:00am EST

Devising, Bringing Your Story to Life Session3

Friday January 31, 2025 9:00am - 10:30am EST

Constitution

Discover a new and unique way of telling your story through the intersection of movement, story, music, gesture, and words. Bring a real story from your life. Bring an object that either relates to the story or is just something you like. Over the course of each session we will move, we will sing, we will write, and through proposals and assignments from the workshop teachers, each student will create a short solo performance piece.

Speakers

jerome yorke

KCACTF Regional Exchange, KCACTF Exchange - Region 3 Devising Project Coordinator

Jerome is a devised theatre maker and educator specializing in storytelling through movement, puppetry, mask performance, and clowning. His physically based play and approach to theatre-making blends styles ranging from eccentric characterization to acrobatic dance. He is an Associate... Read More →

Tannis Kowalchuk

Devising Leader, KCACTF Region 1 Devising Board Member

Tannis Kowalchuk is the founding artistic director of Farm Arts Collective and the co-owner of Willow Wisp Organic Farm in Damascus, PA. She is a theatre artist, flower farmer, and community organizer. She has directed and performed in over 30 original theatre productions in the US... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 9:00am - 10:30am EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Devising

10:45am EST

Stage Combat and Fight Choreography

Friday January 31, 2025 10:45am - 12:00pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all. Students will learn some of the basics of consent-based unarmed stage combat as a group. Then, students will work on short scenes and develop a series of moves that flow together to create a cohesive whole.

Speakers

Sarah Bedard

Bridgewater State University

I am a theatre artist and educator. I have been an actor and director in New York and the Boston area for over a decade. I'm a member of Actor's Equity Association and am part of the full-time faculty at Bridgewater State University. At BSU, our mission as a department-- and my mission... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 10:45am - 12:00pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

12:30pm EST

The Connected Actor's Body

Friday January 31, 2025 12:30pm - 1:45pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all. Using several physical theatre techniques, including Laban, Suzuki, and Grotowski, students will hone in on full physical connection, starting with the spine and breath and leading to the rest of the body. Students will play with control in both stillness and movement and will learn how a focused body leads to a focused performance. Students will learn to work from their own bodies, where they are right now. Not trying to "correct" anything, but instead embracing the power of their bodies as they are.

Speakers

Sarah Bedard

Bridgewater State University

Friday January 31, 2025 12:30pm - 1:45pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

2:00pm EST

Create Theatre with Every Breath

Friday January 31, 2025 2:00pm - 3:15pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all.

Friday January 31, 2025 2:00pm - 3:15pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

3:30pm EST

Droznin Russian Movement

Friday January 31, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all. NTI Artistic Director, Rachel Jett, draws upon teaching techniques of master teacher, Andrei Droznin, to bring you this workshop. Droznin is a Russian movement style that originated at the Moscow Art Theater in Russia by Andrei Droznin. The goal of this work is to forge/identify a connection between body and mind as well as body and soul. That way, when an individual feels something, their instinctual response will be to express themselves. Additionally, Droznin has described his method as "living movement" - stage movement that blurs the boundaries between dance, mime, and vernacular gesture. This, in turn, allows the audience to identify with performances in additional depth. Rachel Jett is the first American teacher of Droznin, as she studied directly under his guidance in Moscow, and is thrilled to bring KCACTF Region 1 a taste!

Speakers

Rachel Jett

NTI Program Representative and Admissions Manager, National Theater institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

I understand and acknowledge that I teach these workshops through the lens of my own background, culture, and experience. It is neither my goal nor my desire to foist my lens upon students, but to facilitate an understanding and skill set when approaching these works that enhances... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 3:30pm - 4:45pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

9:30am EST

How to Write, Propose, and Produce a Student Written Show

Saturday February 1, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am EST

Constitution

General, open to all. Writing sucks. Knowing your writing might never get to leave the page and be performed sucks even more, especially when you know that your university favors producing tried and true published works over yours. So why propose your idea? This workshop takes a look at the process of writing a full length show as an undergraduate student, from the perspective of a recent undergraduate student, and the process one might undergo to get their show directed and produced as a mainstage at their current university, especially without the proper faculty support and student advocacy that should be expected in the theatrical collegiate institutions. It also proposes some ways that faculty members might seek to inspire, nurture, and propose change to promote their students' artistic works and further their careers as growing young thespians. The workshop will be set around observing the timeline that it took to get a show produced at a state liberal arts college, from its conception, how long it took to write, when student directors/designers were approached, the paper trail of proposing it to faculty, the budgets, the casting process, and the eventual outcome of the show.

Speakers

Kane Waggoner

Eastern Connecticut State University

I’m a student who's just wrapped up their degree a semester early at Eastern Connecticut State University where I double majored in Communications and Theatre. I’m a third generation performer in professional theatre, whose family have also made a living out of playwriting, teaching... Read More →

Saturday February 1, 2025 9:30am - 10:45am EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

Workshop

1:00pm EST

Next Steps Auditions

Saturday February 1, 2025 1:00pm - 5:00pm EST

Constitution

General, open to all

Speakers

Emmett Buhmann

KCACTF Region 1 Chair, KCACTF Region 1 Chair

Emmett H. Buhmann (BFA, University of Wyoming, 2002; MFA University of California-Irvine, 2009) is the Lighting Design Faculty Member for the Bridgewater State University Department of Theatre. Freelance Design: Company ONE (peerless), The Un-Common Theater Company (Carrie: The Musical... Read More →

Saturday February 1, 2025 1:00pm - 5:00pm EST
Constitution Memorial Hall

General