Following the eight regional festivals held in January and February this year, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival has included Hope College in the national awards established to recognize outstanding achievement for the Festival year of 2011.

The national awards were for Hope College Theatre’s production of “Gone Missing,” which had previously been selected to attend the Region III Festival held at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in January.  Directed by faculty member Daina Robins, the production was originally mounted at the college in April 2011 in the DeWitt Center main theatre.  Music and lyrics are by Michael Friedman with book by Steve Cosson.

Hope’s production of “Gone Missing” was named in the category of “Distinguished Production of a Musical,” along with productions from Ball State University, University of Southern Indiana, and Weber State University.  “Flipside:  The Patti Page Story,” produced by University of Central Oklahoma, was named “The Outstanding Production of a Musical.”

Robins, professor of theatre and chairperson of the department, was recognized as a “Distinguished Director of a Musical.”

Hope junior theatre-dance composite major Skye Edwards of Morrison, Colo., was awarded the “Outstanding Choreography” award for his work on the production. The award entitles Edwards to attend the National Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., running Tuesday-Saturday, April 17-21.   Edwards will have the opportunity to attend master classes and workshops with theatre professionals that are offered to the award recipients.

The National Awards Presentation will occur on Saturday afternoon, April 21, in the Kennedy Center Family Theater.

The National Awards were established in light of recent budget cuts to the Kennedy Center education department, which previously funded full productions to perform at the center.  The college’s production of “Rose and the Rime” had received such performance recognition in 2008, when it was one of only three full-length college/university-staged plays chosen for that year’s national festival from among the best productions highlighted during the eight ACTF regional festivals held around the U.S.  Hope also had full productions chosen for the highly competitive national event in 1983 and 1988.

See Photos from Production "Gone Missing"

https://hope.edu/pr/gallery/11gonemissing1.html