by: Camryn Stevens
The cast and crew of San Bernardino Valley College’s fall production of “Little Shop of Horrors” were selected to perform as an invited production at the 2023 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Region 8. This year’s Kennedy Center Festival was held at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Valley College students left on a charter bus Sunday, February 12th, and returned Saturday, February 18th. The festival ran Monday through Friday, and their performance occurred at 11 AM on Tuesday, February 14th.
Though SBVC has had many actors selected to attend the KC Festival for their individual performances, never in the department or school's history had an entire scene, let alone an entire production, been selected to attend.
The KCACTF Region 8 brings together theater students and faculty from colleges all across Arizona, Central and Southern California, Hawai’i, Southern Nevada, Utah, and Guam. Representatives from the festival attend hundreds of shows in this region to adjudicate and select nominees for the Irene Ryan Scholarship based on these performances. They also have the option to nominate a scene or entire production to be performed at the festival in February.
SBVC’s Theater Arts Department was one of eight productions invited and the only musical selected to attend the festival this season. The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is hosted once a year to “bring students and faculty together in mid-February to see one another’s work and share ideas,” according to their website. The festival includes performances, workshops, and seminars from “playwriting, auditioning, voice, movement, stage combat, [and] theater for children” to tech workshops like scene painting and scenery construction.
To document this great accomplishment, Valley’s Film, Television, and Media Department sent a film crew trio to accompany the production. At the festival and the weeks prior, this film crew followed the cast and conducted interviews for a documentary they were producing on this event. The trio consisted of Daniel Rodriguez, Samantha Morales, and Marlene Clara.
The cast and crew of Little Shop of Horrors were also joined by San Bernardino Valley College’s Arts and Humanities Dean, Leticia Hector. Dean Hector was a consequential advocate for getting the show on the road to Vegas. With her help and the help of other gracious donors across the campus, the department was able to raise the nearly $30,000 cost for the entire trip. This cost included festival participation fees, travel, room and board, and rebuilding and transporting the set. Throughout the festival, Dean Hector attended every audition or performance from a Valley student that she could, ensuring that these students felt supported and encouraged each step of the way.
The tech crew, under the direction of Senior Theater Arts Technical Specialists Michael Gonzales and Garrett Vaughn, worked the entire day, through the night, and until the next morning setting up for the show. Due to the festival being held in a conference center, there was no stage. Actors were instead performing in a ballroom, not a theater. The eight invited shows were tasked with constructing a new set and stage (lighting, sound system, stage floor and all) in the two days before the first show, and they spent the months before KCACTF rebuilding their sets, accounting for necessary adjustments. Because this venue did not have a theater, stage, or pit, the show was performed on an excellently crafted makeshift floor laid on literal hotel carpet. Tech crews from different colleges collaborated to make this happen, sharing supplies and assisting with set building.
In the time leading up to the show, cast members who weren’t setting up were busy running numbers with the show's musical director, Julie Edwards-Matanga. Between a tattoo parlor and a Starbucks in the enormous Vegas hotel was a piano with the words “Play Me” above it. It was here where the cast and musical director sat for hours running through music as passersby watched and applauded. They had a tech rehearsal on the set late that night, around 9 PM, and then arrived early the next morning for a dress rehearsal to prepare for the show.
The show was a success, and throughout the week, there was a buzz all around the hotel from festival participants raving about the amazing “Little Shop of Horrors.” Originally, the music for the show was provided by a live ensemble of Valley students and faculty. However, the band could not attend KCACTF in Las Vegas because at Valley's theater they performed in a pit underneath the stage, and this venue had no stage. Instead, the cast, as well as the tech crew operating the sound system, had to learn the show to new soundtracks different from the ones used in the original December show. Where before, the musical director and live band would follow the actors' cues on stage, the soundtracks were now leading the show. This was one of the many challenges faced in order to take “Little Shop of Horrors” to Las Vegas.
Another challenge was replacing the actor that played one of the lead roles, Mr. Mushnik. Wayne Hundley, who starred as this character when the show opened originally, had a scheduling conflict with another show he was a part of and could not attend the festival. Luckily, first year student Lawrence Romo stepped in to fill the spot, learning all of the lines, blocking, and choreography for Mr. Mushnik’s character, as well as retaining his original role as a one-scene character, Skip Snip.
The rest of the festival was more relaxed, with seven other productions available for viewing and an array of uniquely crafted workshops, like ballroom dance and voice acting, to participate in. In their time after each day’s events were over, students attending the festival were free to do whatever they pleased. Some students threw impromptu karaoke sessions in empty ballrooms while others explored the Las Vegas Strip and surrounding establishments.
Many students, however, spent their downtime preparing for the next day’s work. Of the four students nominated to compete for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, two advanced to the semi-finals. Samuel Rodriquez with his partner Ashley Eddy, and Camryn Stevens with her partner Monica Hart, were selected to compete on Wednesday, performing a monologue and two-person scene in front of judges and a full room of spectators.
Six students auditioned for MTI (the Musical Theater Initiative), and two advanced to the semi-finals. Immediately following their performance of “Little Shop of Horrors” on Tuesday, Ashley Eddy and Camryn Stevens booked it to another area of the conference for their auditions, which consisted of 15-30 measures each from two contrasting musical theater pieces.
Other performance opportunities included auditioning for a dance competition, 10-Minute Plays, One-Act Plays, or the Devised Piece. Samuel Rodriguez starred in the One-Act Play, Reflections, and Monica Hart was selected to perform in the Devised Piece. The show’s stage manager and SBVC student Angel Del Rio competed in the Stage Management Competition at the Festival. At the closing night's awards show, the director of “Little Shop of Horrors,” Melinda Fogle, won the Outstanding Director Award for directing the 10-Minute Play, Cooking With Catherine.
After the last show of the festival, the casts and crews of each production spent the evening “striking the set,” which is theater talk for disassembling the set. The rooms had to be cleared out for the next few conferences taking place in the bustling Las Vegas hotel. Schools were judged not only on their performance but also on how efficiently they loaded and unloaded their props and set components from the truck into the venue. For this, SBVC’s technical crew received the Golden Wrench Award (also awarded at the closing night’s award show), an indication of their efficiency in this area.
San Bernardino Valley College’s Monica Hart received several offers for her performance at the KC Festival, including a spot in the Irish Summer Theatre Programme at the National Theatre School of Ireland, the Gaiety School of Acting. After the festival, several students from San Bernardino Valley College’s Theater Arts Program were invited to Open Jar Institute’s six-day summer Broadway intensive. Gilbert Archuletta, Ashley Eddy, Raymond Henley, Ana Perez, Samuel Rodriguez, and Camryn Stevens were acknowledged for their standout performances during MTI and in “Little Shop of Horrors” at the festival, earning them this invite.
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