BC Students Travel to Arizona for Theatre Arts Festival
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Recently, twenty-seven BC Theatre students traveled to Mesa, Arizona to participate in the Region 7/Region 8 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) at Mesa Community College. This Festival is a celebration of the work in Theatre Arts that college students in these regions have done throughout the year, as well as a place to audition and compete for scholarships, gain knowledge and skills through workshops, see plays, and network with students from other schools. This year, approximately 1,000 students attended the festival in Mesa, from colleges in California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. Over 150 workshops were offered by industry professionals and theatre faculty, and ten programs offered scholarships and the opportunity to move on to the national competition.
Bakersfield College students were more involved this year than ever before! Fourteen of our students participated in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship auditions, all of whom were nominated by outside ACTF respondents because of their outstanding acting work in 2024 theatre productions. Other students attended as acting partners and participated in other performances at the festival.
Three of our students - Riss Halbwachs, Savanna Lux, and Jesse Magdaleno - and their partners advanced to the Semi-Final Round of the Irene Ryan auditions, which is a huge accomplishment! Out of hundreds of preliminary participants, only sixty make it to the Semi-Final Round. Then, Jesse Magdaleno and his partner Nathan Armendariz made it to the Final Round of the audition-- the top fifteen participants of the entire festival. This is the first time a BC student has made it to the Final Round of the Irene Ryans.
We also had students participate in non-performance areas for the first time! Nathan Armendariz submitted his Costume Design for last spring's production of Metamorphoses in the Design, Technology, and Management (DTM) Program, presenting his design to a panel of ten professional designers and technicians. Tiffiny Wright, a Theatre and Journalism major at Bakersfield College, participated in the Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy (ITJA) Program, practicing the intersection of Journalism and Theatre by reporting on the festival for the Renegade Rip!
The final program that BC students participated in was the Musical Theatre Initiative (MTI). Jesse Magdaleno and Kimberly Villatoro participated in the Dance portion of MTI, collaborating with teachers from the Open Jar Institute, a renowned program that trains Broadway performers. Jesse Magdaleno once again made BC history by being the first BC student to advance to the Final Round of MTI Dance.
In the MTI Singing audition, BC students Jesse Magdaleno, Savanna Lux, Sophie Payne, Elizabeth Bomar, and Tiffiny Wright participated in the preliminary round-- this is the highest number of BC students to ever participate in this exciting program! Both Jesse Magdaleno and Sophie Payne advanced to the Semi-Final Round, and Jesse advanced to the Final Round!
In our most exciting moment of the festival, Jesse Magdaleno was awarded the Musical Theatre Initiative Recipient for the entire Region 8 Festival! Jesse will be representing Bakersfield College at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in April, participating in MTI at the National Level. He displayed not only an incredible talent for Musical Theatre, but impressive professionalism and work ethic.
The overwhelming support and enthusiasm our students showed for each other was so inspiring! This entire week proved that our BC students are dedicated and motivated to learn as much as they can about the things they are passionate about. They all took full advantage of these opportunities and were busy with workshops and programs from morning to night the entire week. They showed each other nothing but positivity and support, and the entire week was filled with inspirational performances, instruction, and mentorship.
