MARQUETTE—Northern Michigan University students and faculty members were recognized for their achievements in theater at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival-Region III, held in January in Champaign, Ill. The competition featured both team and individual events.

            Abby Ropp of Traverse City received the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award for the NMU production of A Year with Frog and Toad. She will participate in the KCACTF National Festival April 16-21 in Washington, D.C. The award honors students who contribute “to the conception, development and production of theater within their colleges and universities, or to educational projects in dramaturgy.”

Recent NMU graduate Stephanie Baugher won the Design Storm Award for scenic design. Design Storm is a timed collaborative exercise that teams a director with a dramaturg and designers of lighting, sound, costumes and scenery to create an approach to a classic or contemporary text that is unlike all previous productions.

Jacob Barbot of Big Rapids received the Student Directing Award—Most Improved. Four students placed in the Games of the Technological Olympiad, which involved two-person teams that competed in five events ranging from lights and sound to scenery and wardrobe. They were judged on time with reductions for errors and omissions. The students and their places were (Michigan cities unless otherwise indicated): Andrea Knoll of Frankenmuth, second place; Jalina Olgren of Ishpeming, first place; Charlie Jauquet of Green Bay, Wis., second place; and Tyler Welden of Milwaukee, first place.  

One of four KCACTF Region III Faculty Service Awards was given to Paul Truckey. Professor Shelley Russell received a certificate of merit for directing Compleat Female Stage Beauty. Ansley Valentine, Forest Roberts Theatre director, was awarded two certificates of merit: one for costume design in Compleat Female Stage Beauty and another for choreography in A Year with Frog and Toad.