WSU’s “Crimes of the Heart ” Picked for Regional Competition

PULLMAN, Wash. — The Washington State University Theatre Programs recent production of Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart” has been selected as one of five regional college productions to travel to Ashland, Ore., to compete this month in the best play competition at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival/Northwest Drama Conference.
 
Finalists in the theater competition may represent the Northwest Region, which consists of colleges and universities throughout Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, in performances slated to take place this April at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
 
It has been nearly 15 years since a WSU production was last selected to perform in the regional festival. Stan Brown, who directed the WSU production of “Crimes of the Heart” last October, and the entire WSU cast and crew will travel to Ashland to give two performances on Feb 18.
 
The WSU cast includes students Ashley Dawson, Audrey Bensel, Kelsey Gunn, Jessica Ruger, Kevin Harland and Michael Carpenter. Student understudies David Herigstad and Stacy Walsh will also travel to Ashland for the performances, along with a crew of eight students and four faculty/staff instructors.
 
Author Beth Henley won a Pulitzer Prize for this comic, twist-of-fate story about the troubled lives of three sisters. The play won several more awards, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best new American play. Henley also received a Tony Award nomination for best play and, five years later, an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay.
 
WSU’s Theatre Program typically sends about a dozen students to the annual regional conference to compete in the Irene Ryan Acting Awards competition during the festival. Last year, one of WSU’s student contestants advanced to the finals and went on to win a major acting award.
 
Started in 1969, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is a national theater program involving some 18,000 students from more than 600 colleges and universities nationwide.