April 15, 2003

Contact: Paul Stephen Lim, Department of English, (785) 864-3642.

Fall 2002 KU graduate's play competing in national festival this week

LAWRENCE -- Tim Macy, fall 2002 University of Kansas graduate in English from Noel, Mo., and Topeka, is competing for a top award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival this week.

Macy's 10-minute play, "Attack of the Asians," will be staged at the national festival in Washington, D.C., through April 20. Seven other regional 10-minute play winners from across the nation will be read.

The winner will receive $1,000, a fellowship to attend a short play festival during the summer and publication of the play by Dramatic Publishing Inc.

Macy is the son of Rocky Macy of Topeka.

His play, "Attack of the Asians," focuses on an older couple with debilitating illnesses whose children disregard their parents once the children have financial and emotional independence. Macy said his experiences working in a Topeka restaurant with older patrons, "literally holding one another up, trying to maintain some foothold in a fast-paced society," inspired his topic.

Throughout the week Macy will attend all rehearsals of his play and will participate in playwriting workshops, which are offered in conjunction with the festival.

Macy originally wrote "Attack of the Asians" for a beginning playwriting class taught by Paul Stephen Lim, Conger-Gabel teaching professor of English at KU.

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival was founded by Roger L. Stevens in 1969. The festival serves to improve the quality of university-level theater in the United States through assessment of more than 18,000 student scripts.