| |
Theatre Department Sweeps Regional Drama Awards
Ryan Creighan '07 and Hanley Smith '07 won best actor and actress awards for their lead roles in last spring's "She Loves Me."
|
9/19/2006
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
The Davidson College Department of Theatre received twenty-one nominations -- count ‘em, twenty-one! -- in the College and University category of the Metrolina Theatre Association (MTA) Awards for 2006. Davidson swept every nominated category, including Best Production and Best Director for Professor Ann Marie Costa’s She Loves Me. Professor Joe Gardner’s set for the show also received Best College Set Design, and Technical Director Ronnie Higdon’s lighting design won for Best College Lighting Design.
Last year, the department received eleven nominations overall, and won Best College Theatre Production and Best College Actor for the production of Bedroom Farce.
About thirty students, faculty, staff, and parents attended the MTA awards ceremony in Charlotte last weekend to support the Theatre Department, and saw Davidson students bring home Best Actress (Hanley Smith ’07), Best Actor (Ryan Creighan ‘07), Best Supporting Actress (Lauren Heinze ’07), Best Supporting Actor (David Kerns, ’08), and Best Outstanding Cameo Performance (Mike Harkins ’09). Donna Conrad, who was contracted to help with the production, won Best Costume Design.
Not only did the department shine in the awards presentation, but Hanley Smith and Lauren Heinze were on the program performing a song from She Loves Me.
Davidson theatre stars gather for an "award winning" photo following the MTA ceremony.
|
“All in all, it’s been an excellent year for the Theatre Department,” said Costa, whose production of Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia for Actors’ Theatre of Charlotte last spring was recognized with awards for Best Production, Best Actor, and Best Actress for a drama.
Jim Nash, technical director of the Duke Family Performance Hall, won a special award for technical excellence.
Scott Ripley, visiting assistant professor of theatre, was nominated for Best Actor for his role in Bug last year, and is currently enjoying critical acclaim for his role as a German transvestite and thirty-four other characters in the 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama I Am My Own Wife. Among the many characters Ripley portrays are the playwright, Doug Wright, and Wright’s friend, John Marks ’85. While Marks was bureau chief in Berlin for US News and World Report, he told Wright about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf’s story, and assisted in Wright’s first interview with von Mahlsdorf.
David Kerns '08 was named best supporting actor for his role in "She Loves Me."
|
Davidson’s 2006–2007 theatre season opens on October 18 with Costa’s direction of Summer and Smoke in the Duke Family Performance Hall. For the full season, visit the Theatre Department’s Web site.
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by US News and World Report magazine.
# # #
|
|
