Citrus College theater arts students achieve success at regional festival
Two Citrus College theater arts students earned recognition at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) for region 8, which includes California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.
Students Carlos Medina and Peyton Johnson made it to the final round of the Irene Ryan Scholarship Competition, which awards 16 regional scholarships and two national scholarships every year. The competition took place during the festival, which was held from Feb. 13-17 in Las Vegas.
According to theater arts instructor Cherie Brown, hundreds of students competed, but only 12 made it to the final round. As part of the competition, each student had to perform two monologues and a scene.
Medina and Johnson's success was made possible, in part, by a supportive team from Citrus College. In addition to Brown, adjunct faculty member Jason Francescon and alumnus Gahren Markarian attended the festival. Together, they helped develop material and coach the students.
"Making it to the final round of the Irene Ryan competition is quite a feat in itself," Brown said. "I am very proud of all who participated - especially coming out of the pandemic."
The purpose of KCACTF is to provide students with individualized recognition through awards and scholarships in playwriting, acting, dramatic criticism, theater management, directing and design. Since its inception, more than 400,000 college students have benefited from the opportunity.
Those students who achieved success at the regional level were invited to participate at the national festival, which took place in Washington D.C. last month. Among those honorees was Citrus College alumnus Frank Ramirez, who is currently working toward his master in fine arts degree at California State University, Los Angeles. He won the region 8 Irene Ryan competition and recently participated in the national competition, where he received the classical acting award.
This article originally appeared in the May 2023 edition of the Citrus View.