April 27, 1999
Dillingham won the $2,500 Irene Ryan Scholarship competition and the Classical Acting Award offered in the national competition. This is the first time a KU student has won the national Irene Ryan scholarship competition.
Dillingham was nominated for the competition last October for her performance in the KU English Alternative Theatre (EAT) production of "Victim Art." In January, she and her acting partner Alice Robison, Overland Park graduate student, advanced to the national level after winning the Irene Ryan Region Five acting competition in Ames, Iowa. "Winning this contest is significant for Megan should she choose to pursue acting as a career," said Paul Stephen Lim, EAT director and KU associate professor of English, who nominated Dillingham for the Irene Ryan competition.
Lim estimated that about 2,000 nominees competed in the national contest. The regional included 250 nominees from Kansas, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
The scholarship competition required the presentation of two contrasting audition pieces in less than five minutes. Dillingham presented a monologue from "The Primary English Class" by Israel Horovitz and a two-character scene from Shakespeare's "Henry V."
A panel of casting directors from commercial broadcast networks and theatre companies judged the competition.
Story by Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853