UW-Green Bay Theatre & Dance students receive top honors at regional competition

Green Bay, WI — Twenty-three University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Theatre students traveled to Flint, MI in January to compete in the Region III Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival where several of the students took top honors.

UW-Green Bay junior Alyssa Rettke was named the winner of the National Playwriting Program John Cauble One Act Play competition. Of twenty-six submissions at the regional level, Rettke’s play, Blue Ribbon Baby was selected as just one of four that were performed at the regional festival. Rettke took first place and her play will represent the region for consideration to advance to the national level. Of the eight regions, only two scripts will be chosen to advance to the national competition. If chosen for the national competition, Rettke’s script will be produced at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Washington D.C. in April where she will have the chance to compete for additional professional development opportunities.

Senior Jasmine Christyne, and junior Audrey Soberg made it to the semi-final round in dance in the Musical Theatre Intensive competition. December 2022 graduate, Chase Grabowski took first place in the Musical Theatre Intensive in vocals. As the winner, Chase received a scholarship to attend an intensive program at Open Jar in New York City. Chase will also be representing the region at the national competition.

Ally Swigert, a junior at UW-Green Bay, was chosen by her peers from across the region to serve on the Regional Student Council. As a member of the council, Swigert will attend meetings and work to develop opportunities for student education and a support system for theatre students across the region. The council also takes an active role in the planning for the coming year’s festival and competitions.

Seniors Alax Stylinson and Kenny Thompson as well as sophomore Carter Bauer joined with two students from other universities to form a design team and compete in the Design Storm competition. The competition challenges students to put together design concepts for a script that is provided at the beginning of the festival. Students then have three days to develop their design concepts before presenting them to a panel of judges.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the UW-Green Bay team only had two days to develop their designs. Despite missing one day of work, the team took Honorable Mention.

According to Associate Professor Thomas Campbell, chair of Theatre and Dance at UW-Green Bay, the theatre students had a strong and well-received presence throughout the festival. Campbell stated, “Our students did remarkable work. In all categories and all aspects, they dove in, took risks, and showed their talent and professionalism. We could not be more proud of their work!”

Region III consists of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and western Ohio. The American College Theater Festival is part of the educational program sponsored by the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Each year, eight regional festivals happen across the country and a national festival is held every April in Washington D.C. More than 18,000 college and university students compete at the regional or national level annually.

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About UW-Green Bay
Established in 1965, UW-Green Bay is a public institution serving more than 9,600 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students and 95,000 continuing education learners each year. We educate students from pre- college through retirement and offer 200+ degrees, programs and certificates. UW-Green Bay graduates are resilient, inclusive, sustaining and engaged members of their communities, ready to rise to fearlessly face challenges, solve problems and embrace diverse ideas and people. With four campus locations, the University welcomes students from every corner of the world. In 2021, UW-Green Bay was the fastest-growing UW school in Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.uwgb.edu.

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