Georgia Southern Theater Production Takes Top National Honor

March 16, 2015

Georgia Southern’s powerful production of David Mamet’s play, “Race,” has garnered national attention from The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In January, “Race” was one of only four productions selected for performance at The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), Region IV, held at the Albany Municipal Auditorium in Albany, Georgia, Feb. 3 - 7. The KCACTF chose “Race” from among more than 60 productions in Region IV, which includes colleges and universities from southern Virginia down to Florida, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Once the eight regional festivals were concluded, the KCACTF chose national winners from among the 36 finalists across the U.S. Georgia Southern’s production of “Race” won the Distinguished Production of a Contemporary Play award among only three other winners nationwide. “We were one of four schools nationwide given that distinction, which is pretty good,” said Lisa Abbott, associate professor of theatre and director of the play. “It’s like winning the Superbowl, you know? Getting invited to regionals is a big enough deal, but being chosen as one of the national contemporary performances was a really big deal.” In addition to the distinguished production award, members of the production -- the majority of them students -- won the national Distinguished Performance and Production Ensembles award. Abbott received a national Distinguished Director of a Play award and Teundras Oaks, the dramaturg (responsible for research on the play), was invited to the national dramaturgy workshop at the Kennedy Center in April, one of only four students in the nation. “None of us expected the national recognition, so that was just the icing on the cake,” she said. At the regional performance in Albany, “Race” was a hit, despite its confrontational style and explicit language and themes. KCACTF bloggers reported that, at the play’s conclusion, some people in the audience didn’t wait for the lights or a curtain call to begin their standing ovation. KCACTF blogger James Lex wrote, “If the goal was to light a fire of conversation about the brutal questions of racism, then this production uses an abundance of matches.” At the Black Box Theater on campus, Abbott said students performed to audiences no larger than 120. “But at the festival, we played to about 900,” she said. “It was just amazing. There, you’re performing for a theater crowd. It’s a hard play. It’s confrontational. It’s provocative, in a style that’s difficult, and our cast just hit it out of the ballpark. They were so hyped up, I don’t think they slept for the next three days.” For their next project, the Georgia Southern Theatre and Performance program will present “Celebrating 30 Years of African-American Theatre,” a weeklong exhibit of costumes and photos. It begins Monday, April 27 at The Black Box Theater.