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Cast members of “Déjà Vu” perform a scene from the play in December on the Fort Lewis College Theatre Building’s main stage. Surrounding Anna Jany in the bed are, from left, Tirrell Thomas, Adam Montoya, Ian William Colson, and Billy Pinto and Nathan Moran. The cast will perform the play Thursday at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival – Region VIII in St. George, Utah.
By the time most of you have cracked open the morning paper to read this article, 31 students and faculty members from the Fort Lewis College theater department will be halfway to St. George, Utah.
The FLC thespians, with a few crew members and professional watchdogs, are taking their production of Kari Margolis' “Déjà Vu" on the road to compete in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, KCACTF, at Dixie State College. The play ran for two weekends in December on the FLC Theatre main stage and is one of 10 selected from more than 60 entries by 30 colleges and universities in the western U.S.
“It's a phenomenal experience for them. I never got to do anything like this when I was in college," said Kathryn Moller, chairwoman of the FLC Theatre Department and lighting wizard for “Déjà Vu." As anyone who has seen the play can bear witness, the latter is no small accolade.
The regional festival opens today and runs through Sunday. The FLC troupe will take the stage for two performances of “Déjà Vu" on Thursday. The crew has only about four hours to set up the intricate lighting, digital projection and stage designs that make the play such a visual experience, and no one involved has ever even been in the Dixie State theater before.
For Margolis, who wrote, produced and directed “Déjà Vu," the logistics are almost an afterthought compared with the honor of being selected for the festival. She previously worked at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as a master teacher so she knows firsthand how prestigious it is to be included in the festival. The festival is divided into eight regions nationally, with 10 performances in each region. From the regionals, four productions will be selected to compete in April at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Margolis said she and the cast drew even more inspiration from Char Nelson, the Ken-nedy festival adjudicator who selected “Déjà Vu" for the regional competition.
“To have it go to regionals is wonderful, and while I think it would be wonderful to go to the center in D.C., this is a huge win in and of itself," Margolis said. “(Nelson) gave us an hour of over-the-top praise, infused confidence in the students and how touched she was, how it affected her and why this kind of theater is important. She came with high expectations and felt like they were more than met by the FLC students."
In addition to Thursday's ensemble performances, several individual student actors were singled out for their performances in “Déjà Vu" as well as “Seraphic Circus," FLC's fall theatrical production that ran in October.
Michelle Manygoats and Ian William Colson (“Circus") and Anna Jany, Matthew Mount and Patrick Wiabel (“Déjà Vu") will participate in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition at the festival, and Randi Foster, Jany and David “DJ" Henson will be awarded the Meritorious Achievement Award by the adjudicators. The award is given to students whose work exceeds the normal expectations of production participation.
ted@durangoherald.com