Glendale Community College

Hedda on Fire receives “Distinguished Recognition”

Glendale Community College Professor and Playwright, Jeanette Farr-Harkins received “Distinguished Recognition” under the David Mark Cohen Award category of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program.

The National Committee of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival celebrates institutions, productions, and individuals for their determination, adaptability, innovation and experimentation on home campuses nationwide. The play was selected out of several regional entries and national finalists for distinction.

The play, Hedda on Fire was commissioned by California State University Stanislaus for workshop and inclusion in their 2022 season.  The play is described as derivative work of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, whose protagonist is a descendent of Ibsen’s troubled character with the same name. This Hedda, a bacteriologist helping to solve the climate crisis, is challenged in her relationships post societal collapse, and challenges human’s responsibility in solving the problem.

Students from the CSU, Stanislaus, Department of Theatre Arts program contributed dramaturgically to the project under the mentorship of Professor, Carin Heidelbach.

Farr-Harkins and Heidelbach, both alumni of CSU, Stanislaus, met during their undergraduate studies and were participants in regional festivals when they were students. 

At the onset of the project, they began to collaborate as artists in residence through The Tofte Lake Center in Minnesota.

The David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award is one of the few reading awards that is open to faculty and professional playwrights in addition to student works. 

Farr-Harkins teaches playwriting at Glendale College, and has been produced and published in the United States and abroad.

Awards were celebrated by the Kennedy Center’s National Festival Awards Ceremony on Friday April 22, 2023 in the Kennedy Center Family Theatre.

ABOUT THE KENNEDY CENTER AMERICAN COLLEGE THEATER FESTIVAL

Developed in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center’s founding Chairman, the KCACTF encourages and celebrates the finest and most diverse theatrical productions from colleges and universities nationwide. Through the regional and national festivals, the KCACTF celebrates the achievements of theater programs, individual students, and faculty of colleges and universities throughout the United States.

The eight regional festivals provide opportunities for colleges and universities to showcase their finest work to diverse audiences of theater students and faculty from their regions. In addition to the invited productions, students and faculty attend workshops, master classes, juried design expositions, seminars, summer stock and graduate school auditions, and other professional development opportunities that build bridges between higher education and the professional theater community. In July 2014, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center along with the Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, and Stage Directors & Choreographers Foundation announced the start of the National Directors Fellowship (NDF), a five-year joint initiative that will fast-track the professional development of 25 early-career stage directors, five per year. As part of this year-long fellowship, the fellows will attend the MFA Playwrights’ Workshop and Directing Intensive, led by NNPN and KCACTF.

Since its establishment 52 years ago, KCACTF has reached millions of theatergoers and made important contributions to the professional development of countless college and university theater students nationwide. This was the first time since COVID-19 that festivals were held in person.

As an essential component of the living memorial to President Kennedy, the Center’s Education programs utilize the arts to embrace the ideals of service, justice, freedom, courage, and gratitude, and cultivate the Citizen Artists in all the people we serve. For more information, please visit kennedy-center.org/education/

FUNDING CREDITS

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, part of the Rubenstein Arts Access Program, is generously funded by David M. Rubenstein.

Additional support is provided by the Honorable Stuart Bernstein and Wilma E. Bernstein; the Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; and the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

For more information, please visit Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival