Saint Michael's student Jill Holland of Mansfield, Mass., nominated for prestigious award in musical theater

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Jill Holland nominated for prestigious musical theater award

COLCHESTER, VT (03/28/2013)(readMedia)-- Performing in Ruthless!The Musical earned Saint Michael's College student Jill Holland of Mansfield, Mass., a nomination for the prestigious Richard Maltby Jr. Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, under the auspices of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Ms. Holland, a sophomore theater major at Saint Michael's is the daughter of Maura and Michael Holland of Mansfield, Mass. She graduated from Mansfield High School in 2010 before coming to Saint Michael's.

In February, the SMC Drama Club produced Ruthless! The Musical (music by Marvin Laird, lyrics by Joel Paley) directed by theatre majors Shannon Carroll ('15) and Zac Pesner ('15). The Kennedy Center respondent who attended and adjudicated the show nominated Jill Holland for her role as Judy Denmark/Ginger Denmark in the production.

Ms. Holland will attend the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Hyannis, Mass., in January 2014. She will join 20 other nominees for the Maltby Award nominated from other colleges and universities in the New England region. They will spend the festival week going to voice, acting and dance workshops, master classes, musical coachings, and more.

At the end of the week, they will present a musical theatre audition in a showcase. Last year two of the nominees were recipients of an internship with the Broadway Theatre Project, presented by Richard Maltby, Jr. so the rewards could be great. The prestige of being nominated is itself significant, said Professor Cathy Hurst, of the Saint Michael's College theater department.

Saint Michael's College www.smcvt.edu  students are challenged to do their best, find their niche, take on opportunities to grow, and immerse themselves in academic pursuits. Intellectual rigor, compassion, teamwork, caring-these characterize a Saint Michael's experience. A residential Catholic college, Saint Michael's is steeped in the social justice spirit of its founding priests, the Edmundites. Saint Michael's is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top 10 college towns. Headed by President John J. Neuhauser, the college has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Identified by the Princeton Review, 2013 as one of the nation's Best 377 Colleges, and included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013, Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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