Young named national champion at American College Theatre Festival

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
April 27, 2011

Georgia Young, a graduate student in theatre at Texas State University-San Marcos from Kingston, Mass., was the national winner of the O’Neill National Critics Institute Scholarship during the American College Theatre Festival.

The ACT Festival was held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., April 19-23.

Young represented Texas State in both the Critics Award and Dramaturgy divisions at the festival, leading a record-setting contingent of five Texas State students on the national stage. Young’s award includes an all-expenses paid trip to attend the annual national playwriting conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Conn., this July. She will be working with leading professional newspaper and magazine critics from across the United States.

Texas State students earning accolades at the ACT Festival included Keylee Koop, who won a fellowship to the Margolis Method Summer Intensive held at the Margolis Brown Theater Company's new Historic Landmark building in Minneapolis, Minn. From her work at the National Festival, Laura Garza was offered an all-expenses paid opportunity to assistant direct at the Kennedy Center July 23-31 during the MFA Playwriting Intensive, where well-known Broadway and off-Broadway directors are invited to come and collaborate with the playwrights and dramaturgs on their new work.

Other Texas State students competing at this year’s ACTF included Oscar Cabrera, acting; Lupe Flores, 10-minute play; and Katherine Beamer, stage management.

Since 2001, the Department of Theatre at Texas State has been recognized at the Kennedy Center with two Producer Awards, two Special National Selection Team Fellowships and 17 National Finalists, including three National Champions.