FIU production selected for Kennedy Center regional theatre festival

Congratulations to FIU's Department of Theatre & Dance. Romeo and Juliet: The East West Project, directed by associate professor Phillip Church, was selected to be performed at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival's (KCACTF) 2005 Region IV Festival this month. The play, which was selected through a competitive process, is one of seven that will be performed at the prestigious festival.

Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center's founding chairman, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.

In January and February of each year, regional festivals showcase the finest of each region's entered productions and offer a variety of activities, including workshops, symposia, and regional-level award programs. Regional festival productions are judged by a panel of three judges selected by the Kennedy Center and the KCACTF national committee. These judges in consultation with the artistic director select four to six of the best and most diverse regional festival productions to be showcased in the spring at the annual noncompetitive national festival at the Kennedy Center, all expenses paid.

FIU's Romeo & Juliet: The East West Project is set within a modern-day Muslim-American community. Romeo, a young college student and son to a wealthy American corporate magnate, falls in love with Juliet, the teenage daughter of a prosperous Iranian family. Ancient prejudices and deepening animosities between the two families finally lead to a tragic end.