BY: Isadora Nicolai
AUM student gets first place in the Irene Ryan Award and is nominated to compete for the Kennedy Center National College Theater Festival.
It is time to celebrate Auburn University at Montgomery’s Theatre Department. For the first time in history, an AUM theatre student was awarded first place in the Kennedy Center Regional College Festival. Theater major Yahzane Palmer was awarded the Irene Ryan Award on Feb. 6, taking first place in the South Region Competition for the festival.
The festival happened virtually due to health safety measures. There were around 2,000 students competing for the acting award. In order to participate, the Kennedy Center sent jurors to watch the plays that were being showcased at schools. After watching, they selected the actors whom they desired to participate in the festival. The competition required students to submit a monologue to be evaluated. After this evaluation, the jurors selected students to move on to the semi-finals. At this stage of the competition, a second monologue was required to be submitted alongside a scene with a partner. The students that made it through this round competed on the final stage, where both monologues were presented and the scenes were compiled and evaluated by jurors.
Yahzane Palmer, after working extremely hard and dedicating herself to excel in this opportunity, made it through all the stages and was nominated the winner of the Southeast Region. This region includes Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
For the first stage of the competition, Palmer presented a monologue from the play “Blues From an Alabama Sky” by Pearl Clage. With that performance, she advanced to the semifinals, where she performed a scene from the play showcased and produced at AUM: “The Importance of Being Earnest”. At this stage, she had to act with a partner. Her pick was her fellow actor Brandon Jerrell, whom she has been acting with since she was picked to participate in the contest. Another strong performance earned her a spot at the final round, where she performed a monologue from “Bootycandy” by Robert O’Hara. The compilation of all three performances earned her first place and a spot in the national stage of the festival.
Professor Neil David Seibel highlighted the importance of her choice of characters when it came to the final jurors’ decision: “She gave three really distinct characters. In “Blues From an Alabama Sky” her character was a very powerful sensual female character, and then the character from “Bootycandy” is a contrast to that— a trash-talking office worker. And it’s very funny, it is a comedy. Her character from “The Importance of Being Earnest” is Victorian, theatrical, so her vocal range was valued in that. It is still a comedy, but a very sophisticated style of comedy very different from the “Bootycandy” character. So she did a great job in picking these two to contrast that piece.”
For the national phase of the festival, Palmer will have to present the same pieces she performed for the regional phase. She and her scene partner are working extremely hard in order to perfect their performance for this big event. Palmer explained how it all just hit her at once when she got nominated for the semifinal round: “The main goal was to put out good work, contest or not. The main goal was to create good content that I could use. Once I found out I was nominated for the semi-final round it all got real for me.”
There is still a lot of work to be done on top of what the actors have already prepared. Palmer explained that time management is a big challenge in order to be able to build each one of her characters properly. Previous experiments conducted at Theatre AUM also helped the actress to understand her strengths and weaknesses. She shared, “I just finished a film class last semester, so this experiment really helped me to take what I learned and put it into work.”
The expectations are high for the next phase of the competition. The excitement is real, but both Palmer and Jarrel know it will take preparation and self-discovery in order to excel. Jarrell emphasized that the whole experience will involve a lot of learning about himself and the process to convert text into characters on stage: “I expect to learn a lot about myself, or about the process that others go through to convert text into people on the stage. As for how I am preparing, I am not certain there is enough preparation for something like this. I can’t say for certain if I am prepared, but will say that when the time comes, I will tell the story.”
Palmer is also uncertain about what to expect: “This is my first time actually involved with the KCACTF… To prepare I plan to read more plays, find more material, and build these characters into my spirit so they are ready to be seen, heard and believed.”
The amazing work that these young actors have put together, alongside AUM’s Theatre Department, will be put to the test on Apr. 11. As it was mentioned by Theatre AUM Professor Val Winkleman, the preparation for this contest is similar to the process athletes go through before important seasons or tournaments. It requires forgoing a lot involving regular students’ social lives, such as parties, off days, etc. It is a sacrifice that is worth the result.
AUM can’t wait to see what the future holds for these young talents. We wish the best of luck for our actors!