Allegheny College Student Kaitlin Mackenzie of New Castle Places First in National Theatre Competition

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MEADVILLE, PA (03/15/2010)(readMedia)-- Allegheny College student Kaitlin Mackenzie, daughter of Scott and Pamela Mackenzie of New Castle, has won the first place award in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, a national competition for undergraduate theatre scholars.

Mackenzie, a theatre and English double major and history minor, submitted a paper titled "The Innovation of Adaptation: The History and Artistic Contributions of Shared Experience Theatre Company." Her paper was one of 47 entries from students at colleges and universities across the United States.

Mackenzie's paper discusses Shared Experience, a British group that specializes in adapting literary works for theatrical performance. She initially wrote it for a junior seminar taught at Allegheny last fall by Beth Watkins, professor of theatre and communication arts.

"I'm delighted that Kaitlin won this award, though not surprised, because she's a lucid writer and an excellent scholar," Watkins said. "Her exploration of Shared Experience's techniques was a mature, insightful account of performance as a collaborative art – how actors work together with writers and directors to translate narrative into physical movement, and thereby to devise an original work of art."

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival is a national theatre program involving 18,000 students from more than 600 colleges and universities nationwide. Through the program, theatre departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment from respected scholars at state, regional and national festivals.

Allegheny College is a national liberal arts college where 2,100 students with unusual combinations of interests and talents develop highly valued abilities to explore critical issues from multiple perspectives.