Highlights

Theatre UCF Brings Home National Honors

Theatre

Posted March 5, 2012

Two Theatre UCF actors have been recognized by the National Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival (KC/ACTF) for performances given in 2011.

Kevia Goins, a junior in the BFA Acting program at UCF, was awarded “Distinguished Performance by an Actress” for her role as Black Mary in Gem of the Ocean.

Be Boyd has been awarded “Distinguished Performance by a Faculty Guest Artist.” Be is a tenured associate professor at the University of Central Florida and played the role of Aunt Ester in Gem of the Ocean.

Gem of the Ocean, directed by UCF faculty member Julia Listengarten, was presented at Theatre UCF for two weeks in late 2011. The play was invited to be performed at the KC/ACTF Region IV where it was very well received. Eight Regional Festivals showcase the top productions and students from universities and colleges around the country and national awards are selected from this pool.

The theatre department is especially pleased to have a faculty and student awarded for working so closely together. “When a faculty member works a role alongside students, it is an opportunity for students to observe and learn by direct example, which transcends the level of classroom coaching and provides the apprentice-ship type environment that is essential to the development of an actor,” says Christopher Niess, Chair and Artistic Director of the Theatre Department.

“The faculty-student working relationship in production, just as in the laboratory, often yields new creative angles that may not be realized across the distance in the typical professor-student relationship in the classroom. This benefits the entire creative team (and the audience), and more directly mirrors the professional theatre–where there may exist a variety of skill levels.”

• Belinda C Boyd is associate professor in the Department of Theatre