Local residents, Saint Michael's students shine at regional theater festival

2009 Feb 2

Keelia Liptak, daughter of Alan and Ellen Liptak of Moretown, participated as part of the Saint Michael's College contingent at the Region I American College Theatre Festival held January 27 to February 1 at Fitchburg (Mass.) State College and the Four Points Sheraton in Leominster, Mass. Over 1,100 students from 55 institutions participated in the annual festival. Twenty-eight Saint Michael's students traveled to the week-long conference along with their professor to participate, and attend workshops, productions and seminars led by theater professionals.

Liptak, a first-year student theater major, graduated from Harwood Union High School before coming to Saint Michael's, a liberal arts residential Catholic college located in the Burlington area of Vermont.

Four Saint Michael's students were nominated for excellence in acting based on their performances in SMC productions of "Closer than Ever" in spring 2008 and "The Heiress" in fall 2008. These four, Andrew Parise of Westborough, Mass., Brendan O'Leary of Holliston, Mass., Nathaniel Beliveau of Essex Junction, Vt., and Katherine Clark of New Rochelle, N.Y., competed in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition at the festival, with acting partners, Laura Michelle (Seifert), Kevin Parise, Julia Watson and Josh Bardier.

Nathaniel Beliveau and his acting partner Andrew Parise were selected to advance to the semi-final, then final rounds of competition, and Nathaniel Beliveau then won 3^rd place in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition, making him first alternate to go to the national finals of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in April. Beliveau was one of 12 selected for the finals out of 400 competitors.

Saint Michael's associate professor of theater Cathy Hurst of Essex Junction won Best Director of an Ensemble for the SMC production of "The Heiress." The show "The Heiress" itself won Best Ensemble Cast in the ACTF New England Region.

Miriam Andrew-Ohlman of St. Louis, Mo., was nominated as an outstanding stage manager for "Closer than Ever," and she thereby competed in the stage management category at the festival.

Rory Fitzgerald of Barre, Vt., was cast at the festival for a leading role in an original ten-minute play called "Snap."

Each year the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) Region I Festival brings students and faculty together at the end of January to see some of the area's strongest productions, participate in workshops, compete in a variety of areas in theatrical performance, design and production and to celebrate theater in general. The KCACTF goals are to encourage, recognize, and celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs; to provide opportunities for participants to develop their theater skills and professionalism, and to encourage colleges and universities to produce new plays, especially those written by students, as well as to stage the classics, and experimental works.

Saint Michael's College, www.smcvt.edu, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns, and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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