Liberal Arts and Sciences students keep racking up the honors. Performing arts seniors Kiah Kayser and Christina Holaday will represent Iowa State at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in April in Washington, D.C., after taking top honors at the festival’s regional competition in Lincoln, Neb. Earlier in January, Kayser won the stage management fellowship, signifying her as the top student stage manager, and Holaday won the Society of Directors and Choreographers fellowship, tabbing her as the best student director.
GrannySeveral other ISU students and two faculty members also were honored at the festival. Assistant professor of theatre Brad Dell is the vice-chair of the festival’s Region V. Matt Foss, lecturer in theatre, was this year’s Region V Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship coordinator. Ryan may be best known as Granny from the classic TV series, "The Beverly Hillbillies." Well, doggie!
Greenlee School student Zhenru Zhang placed eighth (out of 69 entries) in the Hearst multimedia awards for a really good video piece featuring Distinguished Professor Mary Swander’s poetry project with the Iowa School for the Deaf. "Poetry in Motion" appeared in ISU’s ethos magazine. Dennis Chamberlin, ethos adviser, said, “It was a wonderful story, and I’m glad that he received some recognition for it.” See Zhang’s video and the nice story by Jess Guess (then Jess Knight) that appeared on the LAS website.
Thanks to Brad and Michael Bugeja for the tips on these stories.
– Steve Jones