KU News Release

Five plays by three KU playwrights to compete in theater festival Jan. 20-26

Adam Lott

Nick Medved

Whitney Rowland

LAWRENCE — Five plays written by three creative writing students at the University of Kansas are competing at the regional conference of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival to be held Jan. 20-26 in Omaha, Neb.

Productions of two plays by Whitney Rowland, a junior from Olathe, will be seen at the festival. “Lights Fade, Curtain,” directed by Paul Stephen Lim for the English Alternative Theatre at KU, is competing for the John Cauble Short Play Award. A benefit performance of the play will take place at 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan.19, at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St. Tickets can be purchased at the Lawrence Arts Center box office; cost is $6 for students, $8 for seniors $10 for the public.

“Tabula Rasa,” Rowland’s new full-length play, was directed by Beate Pettigrew for Johnson County Community College. It is competing for the Michael Kanin National Student Playwriting Award, the Paula Vogel Award for plays about traditionally disempowered voices, the Rosa Parks Award for plays on the subject of social issues and the David Mark Cohen Award.

In the 10-minute play competition, two of the six plays that will have staged readings in Omaha are “The Gazelle” by Nick Medved, a senior from Merriam; and “Erika’s Kite,” by Rowland. The winner in this category will advance to the national theater competition in April at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The script for “Please Take ... Seriously!,” a one-act play by Adam Lott, Lawrence senior, which was produced recently by English Alternative Theatre, is being considered for the Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award and the Paula Vogel Award.

All five plays were written in playwriting classes taught by Lim at KU. Lim founded English Alternative Theatre in 1989 to produce the plays of his students. To date, English Alternative Theatre has sent 24 plays by KU students to various regional theater festivals, and five of them were subsequently presented at the Kennedy Center.

In 1996, the Kennedy Center awarded a gold medallion to Lim for his work with student playwrights. He is the recipient of several teaching awards and is a Chancellors Club Teaching Professor at KU.

“Angels in the American Theatre: Patrons, Patronage and Philanthropy,” a book published recently by the University of Southern Illinois Press in its “Theatre in America” series, devotes a chapter to the history of English Alternative Theatre and its place in academic theater.

The KU playwrights are listed below by hometown, level in school, major, parents’ names and high school (when available).

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66044
Adam Brent Lott, senior in English; Garden City Senior High School.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Olathe 66061
Whitney Reece Rowland, junior in English, daughter of Susie Rowland; Olathe North High School.

From Overland Park 66212
Nicholas Medved, senior in English, son of Sandra J. Medved; Shawnee Mission East High School.

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.