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American College Theatre Festival

The American College Theatre Festival (formerly the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival) is a national theater program dedicated to the improvement of collegiate theater in the United States. Focused on the celebration of diverse and exciting theater, the organization involves students from more than 600 colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Overview

Started in the 1960s by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center's founding chairman, the American College Theatre Festival is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities in the United States that aims to help improve the quality of college theater in the United States. The organization has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment. Since its establishment in 1969, the American College Theatre Festival has reached more than 16 million theatergoing students and teachers nationwide.

While the culmination of the organization's year is the national festival, the majority of students involved in the program compete in one of eight regional competitions. The national festival is not intended to be a competition, but there are a number of scholarships and awards presented throughout the week, including the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships. Other competitions include playwriting, directing, set, costume, lighting and sound design, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center critic's institute and dramaturgy awards, including the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award.

For 58 years the national festival was held in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center, but in 2025, after President Trump dismissed the performing arts center's board of directors, appointing new directors aligned with his agenda for it, and moved to add his name to the center, the American College Theatre Festival announced that it has ended its partnership with the Kennedy Center, stating: "Due to ... decisions that do not align with our organization’s values, the National Committee ... has voted to suspend our affiliation with the Kennedy Center."

Regions

The American College Theatre Festival has eight regionals throughout the United States divided as follows:

National committee personnel

Production awards

The productions below have been recognized for their outstanding achievement.

Outstanding Production of a Play

Outstanding Production of a Musical

Outstanding Production of a New Work

  • 2014 - Decision Height by Meredith Levy, Hollins University
  • 2013 - Platero y Yo by Juan Ramon Jimenez, adapted for the stage by Maria Eugenia Mercado and Julia Thompson, University of Puerto Rico
  • 2012 - The Circus in Winter, music and lyrics by Ben Clark, book by the students of the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry,

inspired by the novel by Cathy Day, Ball State University.

Outstanding Production of a Devised Work

Outstanding Production of a Modern Classic

Directing awards

The individuals below have been recognized for their direction of plays, musicals, classic and devised works, and new plays and musicals.

Outstanding Career Achievement in Directing

This production marked John David Lutz's 24th production showcased at Regional Festivals since 1971. Six of these productions were additionally showcased at the National Festival at the Kennedy Center. In 2007, by special invitation, his University of Evansville production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors was one of the Kennedy Center's contributions to the "Shakespeare in Washington" celebration.

Outstanding Director of a Play

Outstanding Director of a Classic

Outstanding Director of a Musical

Outstanding Lead Deviser/Director of a Devised Work

Outstanding Director of a New Work

  • 2014 - Peter Sampieri for Kafka in Tel Aviv, Salem State University
  • 2013 - Maria Eugenia Mercado and Julia Thompson for Platero y Yo by Juan Ramón Jiménez, University of Puerto Rico.
  • 2012 - Beth Turcotte for The Circus in Winter, music and lyrics by Ben Clark, book by the students of the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry,

inspired by the novel by Cathy Day, Ball State University.

Acting awards

Choreography awards

Outstanding Choreography or Movement Direction

  • 2014 - Tori Lee Averett for The Single Girl's Guide, Troy University.
  • 2013 - Bob Stevenson with Ian Miller, Phil Whiteaker, Aron Long, Laura Wineland, Stuart Campbell, Ashley Behm, and Joseph Rodriguez-Barberá for Dromnium, University of Arkansas, Fort Smith
  • 2012 - Skye Edwards for Gone Missing, Hope College.

Design awards

Outstanding Scenic Design

Outstanding Sound Design

Outstanding Costume Design

Outstanding Lighting Design

Other awards

Outstanding Performance by a Guest Artist

Outstanding Achievement in Composition

Outstanding Performance and Production Ensembles

Irene Ryan Scholarship

A list of the Irene Ryan Scholarship winners, the partners that assisted their wins, and the colleges they represented, from 1972 to 2013:

References

External links