The Bewitched enchants at ACTF

Author: Ellen Grafton

On Feb. 1, while most Middlebury students traveled across the country to begin their February break, the cast and crew of "The Bewitched" trekked to Fitchberg, Mass. for the latest performance of their epic show. The performance was part of the 38th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) Region I in which colleges around the northeast compete in various forms of theatrical expression. The Middlebury students who participated garnered numerous awards and recommendations. "The Bewitched" was the only show out of the Northeastern region to be held over for consideration for national competition.

The festival was held at the Four Points Sheraton, Fitchberg State College and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School. "The Bewitched" and all other shows that performed at the Region I competition had been previously selected out of the shows in the New England area by festival judges. All the shows at the Region I level were competing to be selected to attend the national festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in April.

The cast and crew of "The Bewitched" arrived in Fitchberg the afternoon of February 1. The rest of the day and part of Thursday was spent unloading the set and costumes, setting up the dressing rooms, laying the floor, running set changes and technical scenes, and adapting the sound and light systems to fit the show's needs.

Director Richard Romagnoli commented that the technical crew "worked hard and overcame significant technical problems not identified by the in-house crew. They did very well in adapting the show to the new space." The theater in Fitchberg lacked some of the technical niceties of Wright Memorial Theater including the backstage access to the area beneath the stage used by Alex Draper '88, Stephanie Strohm '08 and Julia Proctor '06.5 at the beginning of the show. To retain their original entrance the actors had to take their places under the stage before the audience arrived. Claire Groby '08 of the technical crew said, "It was hard working in a new space and not having a chance to run the show at all, because we had some difficulties with some of the shifts during the show, but we pulled it off excellently."

"The Bewitched" was performed on Thursday, February 2 at 8pm. The audience included the four national KCACTF judges and members of other schools competing in the festival. In addition, each show that performed at KCACTF was assigned two regional theater experts who watched the show and responded to it the next day. Romagnoli expressed some disappointment at the assigned responses that "The Bewitched" received. He noted that the two critics assigned to the show did not seem familiar with the text of "The Bewitched" nor the theatrical style of Peter Barnes.

The audience's response to "The Bewitched" was very positive. Romagnoli noted that a number of people who had seen the show for the first time at the festival came up to him afterwards and remarked on how much they enjoyed it. "The performance went without a hitch and was very well received by the audience," said Romagnoli.

During the week, Middlebury actors also participated in the Irene Ryan acting competition. The actors competing in the Irene Ryans had been selected from performances in college-level shows over the past year. At the regional level, over 100 actors presented scenes and monologues in a series of elimination rounds in hopes of being selected for national competition at the Kennedy Center in April. Middlebury sent Bill Army '07.5, Laura Harris '07 and Alec Strum '08 for performances in "The Bewitched," Rebecca Kanengiser '05.5 for her performance in "Necessary Targets" and Retta Leaphart '06 for her performance in "The Last Night of Ballyhoo."

Harris, one of two actors selected from Region I to go on to the national competition at the Kennedy Center, spoke highly of the experience. "It's always valuable to hear what a new audience member has to say because their opinions aren't clouded by any previous knowledge of or relationship with the performer," said Harris. "It ended up being a pretty grueling experience with daily rehearsals and very early morning calls, but in the end, the practice that we got as well as the way that the entire Midd contingent rallied together to support all the Irene Ryan contestants made all those tough moments fade into the background."

Throughout the week Middlebury students also entered competitions in playwriting, dramatic criticism, set, lighting, and costume design and dramaturgy. A number of Middlebury students brought home awards. Aaron Gensler '08 won first place in the Region I Scenic Design Competition for her set design for "The Dining Room." Paul Doyle '07 won the Region I National Critics Institute Award as well as the Region I Dramaturgy Award for his work in "The Bewitched." Christina Galvez '06 won the Kennedy Center Award for Scenic Design for her set design in "The House of Yes." Toral Patel '09 was the runner up for the Region I Costume Design Award. Courtney Swanda '06 won first place in the Region I Costume Design Awards for her costume work in "The House of Yes." Laura Eckleman '05 won the Kennedy Center Award for Lighting Design for her design work in "The Last Night of Ballyhoo." Haylee Freeman '06.5 was the first alternate for her lighting design for "The House of Yes." Katie Polebaum '06 won the USITT Technical and Craftmanship Award for the Audrey II plant puppet she built for MCMP's "Little Shop of Horrors."

When asked whether the week had met his expectations, Romagnoli said, "If 'The Bewitched' is chosen for competition at the Kennedy Center, that's great. But even if we aren't, I feel we benefited from the experience. We presented a show that is representative of the work we do and the type of theater we study at Middlebury. Everyone worked very hard and we did what we needed to do. They gave a great performance and should be proud."