By Judah Breitbach
Peninsula college students Steven Berry, Joe Crollard, Victoria Smith and Jonathan Mitchell were recognized by a talent scout from a national “Respondents Program” for their contribution to the College’s November 13 production of “Our Leading Lady,” according to a statement from the college.
The respondent, Ronn Campbell, visited Peninsula from Columbia Basin College to survey the local talent pool for selection to a regional event in Denver.
Campbell praised the cast of “Our Leading Lady,” the performance put on by director Richard Stephens, and the rest of the drama department. Berry, Crollard and Smith were selected collaboratively by Campbell and the college drama department to compete with the best collegiate actors from region 7, made up of west coast colleges.
The event, held in Denver next February, is equal parts student workshop and acting competition. The winning actor and their partner advance from their region to finals at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center.
Professor Lara Starcevich is gathering a cadre of students to attend the festivities. Starcevich said of the trip, “I’ve gone to this event the past ten years, and I’ve learned so much from it.”
She also said, “Placing well in the finals is a great stepping stool to a career in theater.” The trip is funded by the ASC as part of the Drama department’s allotted budget.
“I was pretty surprised, I didn’t expect it at all,” Berry said regarding the competition, “it is good to know that my hard work was worth it. It feels good to be selected.”
“It’s still kind of hard to believe, and at the same time it makes me kind of nervous. Which is good fuel to push me to do better. It will push me to work hard to be prepared and confident when I go,” Berry said.
Berry was fast tracked in his role in the play, given only three weeks to learn his part. “It was pretty hard to learn all those lines so quickly. I was reading them every chance I got,” he said.
“The big thing that helped was the wonderful cast helping me and of course our genius director Richard Stephens. They would read with me, and work with me on scenes, and of course had great patience with me,” Berry said.
Mitchell was also recognized for his extensive research for the production. He said of the work that went into getting the play stage ready, “A play is such a multi-headed beast with so many people working to make the show come together, so it’s nice for our small contribution to be recognized.”
