Above image by Rande Archer
After competing at last year’s Region 6 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), two Southeastern students, Miranda Miller and Matt Doyle, earned the opportunity to study with some of the best in their field.
Fourteen Southeastern students traveled with three faculty members to Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, to compete in a variety of categories including performance, directing and design, and technology. Doyle received two awards, the Barbizon Award for Excellence in Sound Design and the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas (SILV) Award for Excellence. Miller also received the SILV Award for Excellence. Three additional students placed as finalists.
Matt Doyle and Miranda Miller
Doyle and Miller both won for their sound design work on the highly-acclaimed Vonnie Borden Theatre production of She Kills Monsters.
“This was one of our most successful years at the KCACTF Regional Festival,” said Jim Winter, associate professor of theatre. “I am incredibly proud of how admirably our students represented our university and our theatre program.”
As a result of winning the SILV Award, both Miller and Doyle had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for a one-week masterclass—an experience they’ll never forget. For winning the Barbizon Award for Excellence in Sound Design, Doyle additionally was afforded the chance to work with prominent theater professionals during an intensive week-long masterclass in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center.
“It was one of the best academic experiences I’ve ever had,” DoyIe said of this program. “I got to meet a dozen of the best college sound and lighting designers from across the country. Every night after the masterclass we would get together and share notes and thoughts until late, late, late, which was incredibly inspiring and helped me develop all kinds of new skills and ideas to take to my next design. We all still keep in touch and regularly bounce ideas off each other and get feedback. The networking opportunity was one of the best you can hope for, as I now know both established and up-and-coming professionals based around the country.”
Doyle graduated from Southeastern this past summer, bringing into his new career the skills and professional network that he acquired during both the program and his time at Southeastern. He is now an assistant news director at Louisiana Radio Network in Baton Rouge, producing NPR’s Talk Louisiana and Ask The Governor.
