Following their successful appearance at last year’s festival, the University of Utah students will be attending the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) once again. The national festival in its 48th year organizes states into regions; Utah has transferred this year to compete in region seven, sharing a place at the festival with Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Northern California, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming.
An ensemble of ten students from the University will travel to Denver, Colorado, from February 15-20, to compete against nine other schools in the “Devised Theatre” program in the festival and participate in other festival activities, presenting the inaugural performance of Residue.
Devised theatre is a form of theatre in which, through collaborative creation, a performance script is developed. In the case, the origin of Residue came from the prompt assigned by the festival: “The Past and Future Collide”. With little more than this prompt, director Julie Rada, Raymond C. Morales Fellow in the College of Fine Arts, along with two students, Cece Otto and Katryna Williams, held auditions for an ensemble, leading the performers who auditioned through traditional monologues, improvisations, and movement work. The collective, consisting of Rada and ten performers, began rehearsals in December 2015. They interviewed each other, wrote poetry and prose, developed choreography, learned contemporary performance techniques such as the Viewpoints, and generated scores of material exploring themes such as the past, justice, technology, and stars.
Taking its title from the idea of what is left after someone dies, Residue explores the situations of love and loss, and what’s left after passing. Georgia Powers and a coroner trace back through Georgia’s life in attempt to put together her narrative after she has died; all this told in a 20-minute world premier which features movement and poetic storytelling.
Prior to their travels to Denver, Rada and the rest of the ensemble wish to share their efforts with the University community and the public. Over two evenings, they will share three performances of Residue as a work-in-progress showing in the Performing Arts Building (PAB) on campus. After the performance, they will engage the audience in a short, informational feedback session before revising the piece for the festival. Students and faculty are invited to attend and the event is open to the public.
Post expires at 12:00am on Sunday February 14th, 2016
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