Student Spotlight

State Fair Community College Theatre Arts program is shining a spotlight on potential future award-winning actors, directors, set designers, makeup artists or stage crew members in featured performances at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in Thompson O’Sullivan Studio Theatre, Yeater 126, on the Sedalia campus. Admission is free; tickets are not required.

Student Lauren Dowell, of Odessa, will direct “Dark Road,” a one-act drama about two sisters in Nazi Germany, one a pacifist, one a follower of The Third Reich. Laura Lundgren Smith is the playwright. Student Victoria Stowell, of Sedalia, is the set designer. Dowell and Stowell received recognition at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) awards in January 2018.

Dowell was invited for callback auditions for summer productions at professional theatres and to interview for a professional theatre technical position and offered a position at North Dakota Shakespeare as Assistant Stage Manager, Props and in the acting ensemble. Stowell was recognized for her set design for “A Year with Frog and Toad.” She won the Design Technology Management Legacy award and the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas Award.

Other performances include short scenes and monologues by nominated students that will be submitted to the Irene Ryan Scholarship competition at the KCACTF in January 2019. Nominees to perform are Dowell (partner Noah Summitt, Warrensburg); Dakota Swain, Lowry City (partner Kim Randsell, Lincoln); Alyce Wilson, Eldon (partner Trey Nichols, Oak Grove); Hannahmaye Doster, Odessa (partner Stowell); Cody Jones, Harrisonville (partner Holden Childress, Urbana); and Tessa Luechtefeld, Warrensburg (partner Stowell). The scholarship provides recognition, honor and financial assistance to outstanding student performers pursuing further education.