Contact: Tom Moore
Director of Arts Management
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu
UMBC's Department of Theatre has been invited to present its production of Las Meninas by Lynn Nottage, directed by Eve Muson, at the 43rd Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). The production was originally staged at UMBC in November, 2010.
The performance will take place at the KCACTF's Region 2 Festival on Wednesday, January 12th at 8 pm at Towson University's Stephens Hall Theater. Admission to the performance is open only to Festival registrants.
Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center's founding chairman, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is a national theatre program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF 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 by KCACTF respondents.
In January and February of each year, regional festivals showcase the finest of each region's entered productions and offer a variety of activities, including workshops, symposia, and regional-level award programs. Regional festival productions are judged by a panel of three judges selected by the Kennedy Center and the KCACTF national committee. These judges in consultation with the KCACTF artistic director select four to six of the best and most diverse regional festival productions to be showcased in the spring at the annual noncompetitive national festival at the Kennedy Center, at which six of UMBC's past productions have been staged.
Set in the glittering court of Louis XIV, Las Meninas tells the true story of the seduction of Queen Marie-Thérèse, and the consequences of her scandalous affair with Nabo Sensugali, her African servant. Irreverent and ironic, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage shines a fiercely imaginative beam on a fascinating but forgotten bit of history that reveals contemporary truths about the racial divide.
The production features choreography by Renée Brozic Barger, scenery and costumes by Elena Zlotescu, lighting and sound by Terry Cobb, dialect direction by Lynn Watson and dialect coaching by Natasha Staley.
Photo credit: Rich Riggins.
Online Resources
UMBC Department of Theatre: http://www.umbc.edu/theatre/
Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Region 2: http://kcactf2.org/
Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival: http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/actf/
UMBC Arts & Culture Calendar: http://www.umbc.edu/arts
