MBU theatre students nominated for prestigious Irene Ryan Scholarship

mbu theatre students were selected to participate in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s Region Five Conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from Jan. 19-25. The 19 students spent their week in workshops, classes and competition. The conference is reserved for exceptional collegiate theatre majors for each region.

Additionally, students were nominated for the prestigious Irene Ryan Scholarship, the highest honor in theatre higher education. mbu’s nominees included Rachel Yarbrough, Tyler Gruen, Cameron Tyler, Greggory Carr, Eliana Steele, Daniel Dilworth, Alle Head, Bradley Bliven, Olivia Leek and Nathaneal

Pezzo. The students performed alongside 312 elite individuals in the region. Leek, and Pezzo were two of the 16 students invited to the finalist round.

Students from the theatre program competed for a spot in the musical theatre intensive dance group. Cameron Tyler and Lindsey Peters were among the 20 students, out of 70, selected to perform. On the final night, Tyler and Peters performed a dance choreographed by a Broadway artist in front of hundreds of students at the festival.

“The work ethic of mbu theatre students is incomparable,” said Kasey Cox, mbu instructor of theatre. “We did not have to put aside our Christian values to be very successful. Students performed pieces where they got to be their true and authentic self. In a profession where it can be easy to compromise your values, students made the choice to pick pieces that were lined with truth.”

The Kennedy Center American College

Theater Festival began in 1969 by founding chairman Roger L. Stevens. The national theater program involves more than 20,000 students in eight geographic regions across the nation from college, and universities annually to encourage and celebrate the most diverse work produced on campuses. ■