"Slavery" -- a play with music by SMC student Jonathan Payne -- has been selected from more than 360 plays at colleges and universities throughout the nation for the prestigious 2002 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.

It is one of just five productions -- and the only one from a community college -- to be showcased at the festival, which will be held April 15-21 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. "Slavery" will be performed April 20.

In addition, Payne has been named winner of the festival's John Cauble Short Play Award for playwriting. Payne wins a $1,000 prize and a publication agreement.

Sometimes referred to as the "Rose Bowl of College Theater," the Kennedy Center festival has launched many theater professional careers.

This is the second time in five years that an SMC production has been invited to the Kennedy Center.
In 1997, the SMC production of "Once on this Island" was one of just 11 plays nationwide - and the only one from a community college - to be selected for the festival.

"Slavery" was adapted, arranged, written and directed by Payne, a theatre arts mentor student who based the work on 1930s interviews of former slaves by the Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration. Payne, along with several other African American theatre students, is also an actor in the piece.

Payne's play -- developed under the mentorship of SMC theatre arts professors Adrianne Harrop and Terrin Adair-Lynch -- combines the oral and musical traditions of slavery in the United States before and during the Civil War.

"Slavery" was one of 14 plays selected for the Kennedy Center/ACTF western regional competition, held last month at California State University, Hayward. From regional contests, judges picked the finalists for the Kennedy Center. Besides SMC, the finalists are from Boston University, California State University at Fullerton, University of Minnesota at Duluth, and Point Park Conservatory of Performing Arts in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Back to top