Salve Regina’s theatre arts program to be recognized in celebrated college festival

In the fall 2022 semester, Salve Regina’s theatre arts program staged two performances – “The Bible Women’s Project” and “The Strindberg Experiment” – that challenged audiences to examine themes around gender and sexuality. Both productions are now being recognized by the northeast regional division of the Kennedy Center American Theater College Festival (KCACTF).

“The Bible Women’s Project” has been selected to perform in its entirety. Alongside this achievement, Winder Landaverde and Nathan Nelson, both theatre arts majors, were nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Award for their performances in “The Strindberg Experiment.” Anna Anese, an actor in “The Bible Women’s Project,” was also chosen for the semifinal round for musical theatre.

Celebrating “The Bible Women’s Project”

Dr. Tara Brooke Watkins

KCACTF is an annual program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities across the country, with eight regional festivals leading to the national festival in Washington, D.C. The goal is to celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs across the country.

“The mission of the festival’s selected shows is to highlight new, creative and impactful ways that theater is changing in the country,” said Dr. Tara Brooke Watkins, assistant professor and program coordinator in the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. “The fact that ‘The Bible Women’s Project’ was selected means that festival responders believe that Salve theater is working toward changing how theater is done in America.”

If “The Bible Women’s Project” is well-received at the regional festival, the cast has an opportunity to attend the national festival in Washington, D.C. “It could mean that Salve Regina becomes known as a place to attend if you want to do impactful and experimental theater that makes a difference in people’s lives,” Watkins said.

“The Bible Women’s Project” also shows how Salve Regina’s mission can come to life both on and off stage, according to Watkins. “‘The Bible Women’s Project’ feels like it belongs in the Sisters of Mercy tradition,” Watkins said. “It’s about women’s stories and women taking space to speak their experiences. It shows women teaching, using education and theater to act as a hand of mercy to women who have long been misunderstood, misrepresented and mistreated.”

Performers nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Award

The Irene Ryan Acting Award is a scholarship for students who have shown great depth in their acting abilities. To compete for this scholarship, nominated students must make it into the semifinal round by performing two contrasting monologues.

If they make it to the semifinal round, they perform a scene with another partner at the regional division. If they make it past that round to the finals, they perform their monologues and their scenes again. They can then receive the honor of competing at the national festival.

“Strindberg’s characters are not easy even for professional actors to tackle, so the fact that these two college students played such tortured roles to show the inner turmoil of gender identity struggles in the 19th century was highly demanding and risky,” Watkins said. “Winder and Nathan did it with such intense commitment that it made the acting seem effortless.”

Watkins was also one of two faculty members chosen to direct a one-act play at the festival. “Overall, I think Salve’s theater program is already standing out and will only stand out more once our students perform there,” she said.

Students who were involved in either production were invited to attend the northeast regional division of KCACTF, including stage managers, dramaturgs, tech crew and actors. Altogether, 20 students are attending.

“We believe in the power of theater to change lives, shift culture and perspective in groups of people, and ultimately, be used as an act of mercy towards people in the audience who might identify with stories on stage,” Watkins said. “Both plays were about rethinking everything we thought we knew about certain stories and certain people and introducing us to new stories we hadn’t heard.”