Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release
Dec. 10, 1999

Lawrence University Theatre Production Selected for Regional Competition  


     APPLETON, WIS. -- Encores are usually reserved for music concerts,
but Lawrence University's theatre department has been called back to the
stage to perform one. 
     Lawrence's first-term production of Brian Friel's "Translations,"
under the direction of Timothy X. Troy, Lawrence assistant professor of
theatre and drama, has been selected to compete in the regional finals
of the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival Jan. 5-8, 2000
in Milwaukee. 
     The play, which was performed four times in mid-November in Cloak
Theatre, was one of eight selected from among 40 entries in the
five-state Region III, which includes colleges and universities in
Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.  It was the only entry
chosen from among 11 Wisconsin nominated productions.  Lawrence students
will perform "Translations" on Friday, Jan. 7 at 1 p.m. in the Pabst
Theatre.        
     Approximately 60 productions from colleges and universities
nationwide have been selected as finalists for one of eight regional
competitions in January.  Four regional competition winners will then
advance to the national finals in April and perform at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C.
     "We're certainly honored and delighted to be singled out from among
so many high-quality programs in our region," said Troy, who performed
in the ACTF national finals in Washington as a student actor himself in
a University of Iowa production of "Nijinsky" in 1987.  "We know we do
excellent theatre work at Lawrence and it's very rewarding to have
someone from the outside confirm that."
     Nearly 1,000 productions and 20,000 students nationwide participate
annually in the ACTF competition.  The program was founded in 1969 to
encourage, recognize and celebrate the finest and most exciting work
produced in college and university theatre programs and provide
opportunities for participants to develop their theatre skills.         
     With no school size designations in the ACTF competition,
Lawrence's regional selection means its production was chosen over some
from much larger universities.
     "We're really up against theatre departments two and three times
our size, including many that have graduate students," said Troy, a 1985
Lawrence graduate who returned to the faculty of his alma mater in 1997.
"The goal of the ACTF is to promote excellence and what they saw in us
was a production that displayed uniform excellence in all areas --
acting, design and direction."  
     In addition to an invitation to the regional competition,
Lawrence's production also was awarded two Merit Awards by the ACTF for
acting ensemble and director.  
     Three members of the "Translations" cast -- Paul Hurley, a junior
from Maple Grove, Minn., Chris Meadows, a senior from Milwaukee and Cori
White, a junior from Minneapolis, Minn. -- were selected for the Irene
Ryan Acting Scholarship Competition.  They will be among more than 250
student actors who will perform individually before a panel of judges in
Milwaukee.  Two regional winners will receive $500 scholarships and
advance to the national finals in Washington, where two national winners
will be chosen and awarded $2,500 scholarships.  The Irene Ryan
Scholarship was established in the will of the late actor, best known
for her role as Granny on the TV hit show "The Beverly Hillbillies."
     First performed in 1980 at the height of IRA/British conflict in
Northern Ireland, "Translations" is set in 1832 in Baile Beag/Ballybeg,
Ireland.  It recalls the British army's campaign to replace the native
Gaelic with English in an attempt to end centuries of fighting by
setting up a political union based on a common language. 
     Other productions invited to the regional competition in Milwaukee
include:  "The Pirates of Penzance," North Central College;  "The Gut
Girls," Purdue University; "Plague of the Twentieth Century," Illinois
State University;  "Macbeth," Hillsdale College; "Beckett Works," Butler
University; "Native Son," Western Michigan University; and "Godspell,"
University of Michigan-Flint.