Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Aurora, N.Y.—The Wells College Theatre and Dance Department earned four awards from the Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS) for this fall's production of the Neil Simon play "Rumors." The awards will be conferred at the organization's annual banquet on Saturday, Nov. 18, at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, N.Y.

The honors include Excellence in Ensemble Acting, awarded to the cast; Excellence in Acting to Devon Harris '18 for his portrayal of Lenny Ganz; Excellence in Direction to Associate Professor of Theatre Siouxsie Easter and Excellence in Technical Design and Execution to technical director Patti Goebel, Katelyn Costello '18, Rosalina Maassen '18 and Barbara Murphy. The award designation of "excellence" indicates that the winners possess specific theatrical skills that are not routinely seen in non-professional productions.

Wells presented "Rumors" on the weekend of Oct. 27–28 in Phipps Auditorium of Macmillan Hall, during the annual Friends and Family Weekend. In addition to those named above, the production featured Kateri Pelton '18 as assistant director and Sabrina Fowler '18 as stage manager, as well as a cast and crew of students from a variety of disciplines and class years.

"It was such a joy to hear over 200 people laughing in the audience each night!" Professor Easter said. "We were very pleased when the adjudicator commented that Wells College has 'dynamic actors and designers.'"

The mission of TANYS, which was formed in 1987, is to foster the contribution of theatre to the lives of the citizens of New York State, to promote high standards of theatre practice through education and example and to encourage exchanges of information and knowledge through people-to-people and theatre-to-theatre exchanges.

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