Arianna Kendra ‘17, Damien Figueras ‘16, and Gabriella Santoro ‘16 were awarded scholarships, grants, and other prizes for their work in Arcadia theater productions at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Region II Festival (KC/ACTF), Jan. 12-16 at West Chester University. At the festival, students from more than 60 colleges and universities in the KC/ACTF’s Region II participated in stage productions, activities, and workshops focused on musical theater, dance, puppetry, directing, lights, makeup, and more.

Figueras received an award in sound design that will allow him to attend a weeklong master class with the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas for Excellence in Technology and design in June. He also was awarded the KC/ACTF Award for Theatrical Design Excellence, with which he will present his work at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

“It was wonderful to see a community of artists come together to talk about the work that they were doing,” said Figueras. “As a student, it was a great learning experience to see how other people approach their work.” In addition to acting and directing Arcadia productions, Figueras has served as composer for Eurydice, sound engineer for Shout!, and sound designer for New Perspectives, of which he also directed one of the acts. 

Santoro was awarded a United States Institute for Theater Technology (USITT) Chesapeake Regional award for her makeup work in Bite Me. The award includes a scholarship to attend the full USITT conference in Salt Lake City next month. 

Kendra received honorable mention for her work designing hats for Miss Julie. Kendra has worked in the costume shop since her first year at Arcadia, and her work has appeared in every production since the fall 2013. 

“It was a very supportive environment, and we all cheered each other on,” she said.