Behind the scenes at the drama club’s KCACTF Festival debut.
“At the Falls, when we were first doing this production, I was a little self-conscious of course because there’s people looking at me performing in a silk bathrobe,” said Athena Lauzo, who played Nastya in The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls. “(At the Bing) it’s quadruple the amount of people and quadruple the amount of scary but it’s such an honor performing here, especially in the featured play at KCACTF.”
Revelers Club, SFCC’s drama club, won the top spot for Region 7 at the 50th Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival or KCACTF. They performed an abstract play following a Russian-American girl who goes back to Russia, which won out of 1,300 productions that were submitted. This award was a first for CCS and Revelers Club, they performed it at the Bing in front of other colleges and talent scouts. Spokane happened to host the festival this year. Students worked together in many ways to make all this all possible.
“It took us banding together to figure out how much we needed budget wise to be able to even go (to the festival) and then we had to figure out transportation and feeding our actors and workers when we were at the Bing,” said Danny Healy, president of Revelers Club and the play’s stage manager. “We also had to figure out everything schedule-wise with our jobs and school.”
Healy is graduating this Spring and says although he’s had a passion for acting since he was little, he has a talent for stage managing and behind-the-scenes work.
“I’m the one backstage making sure people are in places to go on stage when they’re supposed to,” said Healy. “I’m also the one who calls the lighting cues and the sound cues like when the phone goes off or the club music. We also had to figure out how to incorporate mics into our performance at the Bing.”
The festival ran from Feb. 18 to Feb. 23 with various workshops, audition opportunities and performances. It was held at Gonzaga University, the Double Tree Inn, the Spokane Convention Center, the INB and at the Bing Crosby Theatre. Healy helped organize the badges and registrations on the first day.
His director, Ashley DeMoville, worked with ASG, SFCC’s clubs, staff and faculty members to secure funding for the event. The Black Student Union alone donated $1,000 to offset the costs of production. They were all thanked in a newsletter and in the play’s programme.
“I really feel like we’re a part of a big family,” said DeMoville. “It’s overwhelming to see so much support.”
Another member of Revelers Club is freshman Ezra Way who did the music composition for the play.
“For this play I created my own music with help from the Director,” said Way. “I took certain scenes and transitions in the show and figured a beat to a drum that would help enthrall the scene into where we want the audience to feel because music itself is a feeling. You feel the emotion with music.”
Danny Healy invites other students to audition for the theatre program at SFCC saying that it helps in everyday life.
“It’s a good opportunity to get out of your shell and your comfort zone,” said Healy. “It will help you with public speaking and to be able to communicate with other people and understand the human condition better for other job opportunities like public relations or other jobs where you have to communicate with other people. It’s not just for theatre people.”