Sierra Blanco (’26) National Semifinalist
Wins Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 1
Congratulations to Sierra and fingers crossed going forward. As a member institution Purchase students can submit their work to the Festival.
Here’s Sierra’s take on her journey—
“I am very proud to represent SUNY Purchase at the national level in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival 2024, having won in Region 1. (Go Panthers.)
I was thrilled that my play “Getting Rid of Ferdinand (the mouse play)” was well received and won for Region 1. This will send my play to the next level of adjudication at the Kennedy Center!
The entire process was great (after the initial challenge of figuring out how to navigate their labyrinth of a website and actually enter the play!) Here’s how it went - Kennedy Center divides the country into 8 regions. Purchase is in Region 1, ie the NorthEast. From the pool of plays submitted nationally, there are 6 one act plays and 6 ten-minute plays selected from each region as semifinalists to receive staged readings and further adjudication. Mine was one of the 6 ten- minute plays selected in Region 1. (All of the plays were fantastic.)
At the Region 1 KCACTF there was a week of really wonderful workshops, we cast the play from the pool of very talented student actors, I had a student director assigned and a sweet, calm mentor. We had rehearsals and a tech and the staged reading was followed by a peer review/talkback and then professional critique. At the closing ceremony it was announced that from the 6 staged readings, my play was one of 2 Winners for Region 1 in the ten-minute play category and would advance to the next level of adjudication at the Kennedy Center. (Fun!)
That means it’s one of 16 ten-minute plays nationally (2 from each of the 8 regions) that the Kennedy Center is now adjudicating to be in the final top 2 nationally (a winner and a runner up.) If I’m selected as one of the final 2 ten-minute plays I will go to the Kennedy Center the week of April 21st (my mistake before, I thought all 16 of us would go.) Hopefully Ferdinand is named one of the top 2 from the pool of 16 selected regional winners. Keeping all paws crossed for Ferdinand!
I do hope my play is selected as the top national winner of the Gary Garrison Ten Minute Play Award; I suspect I’m up against some stiff competition this year! They should announce their decision by March 15th. Either way, I’ve had an epic time with this process and would encourage other Purchase students to enter next year.”