Fullerton College Festivals
The Theatre Arts Department produces three theatre festivals at Fullerton College and participates in one national festival sponsored by the Kennedy Center. Two of the festivals, the Playwrights Festival and the Directors Festival, are produced by the Resident Theatre Company (RTC) , the experimental wing of the Theatre Arts program.
In January each year the Fullerton College RTC Playwrights' Festival assembles a company of student actors, professional directors, and a professional dramaturge in a two week process of helping playwrights to discover and develop their plays. Each play is given a careful workshop critique, several rehearsals, and a prepared reading for an audience of company members and general public, followed by a post-presentation discussion with the audience. Playwrights are invited to submit new scripts for consideration no later than the first week in October. Auditions for actors areconducted in November.
The RTC Directors Festival continues the Theatre Arts DepartmentŐs promise to provide all who are interested the opportunity to participate in the creation of live theatre. Professionals, amateurs, mentors and students are all welcome to this experimental forum for directors. During the month of June twenty to thirty short length plays and performance pieces are produced in the Bronwyn Dodson Theatre.
The keystone of the Theatre Arts high school outreach program is the Fullerton College High School Theatre Festival, produced in March in conjunction with the spring musical. Over sixty high schools send over two thousand actors and designers to Fullerton College's campus for two days of competition, workshops, and inspiration.
For the last ten years all main stage productions have been entered in the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. Regional adjudicators hold after show discussions with the performers and staff and nominate students for involvement in the Region VIII festival held in January or February. Students may be nominated for acting (Irene Ryan Nominations) and design (Costume, Set, and Lighting Design), and special recognition is given to crew members nominated by their directors. Fullerton College has been fortunate have our festival participants come away with outstanding honors. ACTF Award Winners