EUGENE–University of Oregon theater students won several awards for acting, writing and lighting and costume design at the recent Northwest Drama Conference hosted jointly at the University of Idaho in Moscow and Washington State University in Pullman.

UO theater students also presented two plays at the conference that included Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival (KC/ACTF) Region VII activities and competitions.

The first UO play, last spring’s University Theatre production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona," is under consideration for performance in April at the national KC/ACTF festival in Washington, D.C. It was presented at the mid-February conference as one of three final entries from the northwestern region.

The second play from the UO Department of Theatre Arts was "Lab Theatre," a student-written and -produced one-act play, that was presented in the original play contest at the February conference.

"Lab Theatre" was a collaboration effort featuring the work of Daniel Dismuke, a junior theater arts major, Ashland; Ryan Honey, a senior theater arts major, Eugene; Jessica Langer, a sophomore sociology major, Rolling Hills, Calif.; Mocean Chandler Melvin, a senior theater arts major, Eugene; John Sanders, a senior theater arts major, Granite Bay, Calif.; Megan Smith, a senior music major, Davis, Calif.; and Scott Vogel, a senior theater arts and pre-psychology major, Grants Pass.

Students from these and other plays competed for individual honors as well.

Greg Hoffart, a third-year design student and Master of Fine Arts degree candidate, Eugene, won the KC/ACTF prize in lighting design for his design of "Machinal," produced by University Theatre in April 1998. His designs will represent Region VII at the national festival later this year in Washington, D.C., where he will compete with other regional winners for the national award, a $500 honorarium and a seven-day trip to New York City to visit theaters and design studios of some of the top professional designers.

Costume designs for "Machinal" by Heather Brooks, a theater arts master’s degree student, Ontario, received an honorable-mention citation in the competition. Also in the costume design category, the Northwest Drama Conference awarded Shannon Foord, a spring 1998 graduate from North Bend, an honorable mention for her designs for "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad," an unproduced, classroom project.

In the Irene Ryan Acting Competition, Ursula Aller, a senior theater arts major, Roseburg, and her partner Joel Harmon, a theater arts master’s degree student, Eugene, were awarded the first runner-up prize and will represent the region at the national conference if one of the two winners is unable to compete. Other UT thespians reaching the finals of the acting contest were Bridie Harrington, a senior theater arts major, Lake Oswego, and partner Holly Thomas, a senior theater arts major, Eagle River, Alaska.

University Theatre had 11 entries in the preliminaries of the Irene Ryan Acting Competition and six of them continued to the semi-final round. These included Melanie Moseley, a theater arts master’s degree student, Eugene, and her partner Megan Smith, a senior music major, Davis, Calif.; Jon Cole, a theater arts master’s degree student, Eugene, and his partner Elisa Morrison, a senior theater arts major, Corvallis; Rene Ragan, a senior theater arts and humanities major, Eugene, with Carrie Gardner, a senior theater arts major, West Linn; and Ryan Honey, a senior theater arts major, Eugene, and partner Scott Vogel, a junior theater arts and pre-psychology major, Grants Pass.

In the various writing categories, Jimmy Bickerstaff, a doctoral degree candidate from Eugene, was awarded the prize for Best Scholarly Paper. He also received an honorable mention for his participation in the Critic’s Forum for his reviewing of plays presented during the conference.

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