A group of 12 KSC students recently attended the Region 1 American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) in Albany, N.Y., at the Hilton Convention Center for five days of workshops, presentations and awards. Four of these students did not come back to Keene empty-handed.
The ACTF is a yearly conference dedicated to college students being able to show off their works, ranging from many areas of theatre, from acting to theatre tech and stage management. From Jan. 27-31, the festival also hosted workshops and contests for scholarship money. There are eight total regions, but Region 1 consisted of schools from all over New England and northeastern New York.
One of the awards was the Don Childs Cross Discipline Collaboration Award, won by sophomore Parker Eddy, fifth-year Cassi Ricks and senior Mackenzie Mann, the scene designer who was not available for comment before the publishing of this article. It was awarded for the collective students’ work on last semester’s TAD production of “Bridges of Madison County” at the Design Tech Management Expo held during the festival.
Eddy, a technical theater major and the sound designer for the show, said that Bridges was his first real sound design project since attending KSC. He was also the assistant sound designer for “The Creation of the World and Other Business,” which was 2025’s spring TAD production and the reason for his nomination for the same award at last year’s festival, but this show’s sound effects were in his hands when it came to the script.
“I did work that I’m proud of. I definitely was not expecting to get any kind of award from it, so I was very shocked, but it’s definitely something now that I’ve gone here and gone to that festival and had so many different experiences, it’s really motivating me to do more, to do better,” Eddy said.
As the sound designer, Eddy’s roles within the show were to go through the script and make creative choices for the show by adding various sound effects. One thing he mentioned doing specifically with Ricks was changing a monologue in the last song of the show where Francesca, the female lead for the show, was supposed to read a letter; instead, Robert, the male lead, read it himself in sections between verses of the song, considering in the story he was the one to write it.
“It was a very fun experience,” Eddy said. “My favorite parts were feeling like I was really part of the collaborative process, like what I said mattered – that’s why I’m really, really proud that they were like, ‘Here, for your collaboration’ because that was something I was super focused on.”
For the future, Eddy showed an interest in working at live events while also keeping himself open to sound design to give him a broader perspective and a wider variety of working with sound as a whole. His goal is to participate in at least one show per semester, “whatever that may be.”
One day, Eddy hopes to become “a master of sound design,” cognizant of everything he wants to learn and become proficient when it comes to the world of sound.
Ricks, the live sound engineer, made sure all of the actors and bands’ microphones were operational and at the right volumes during the show. This was her second time managing live sound for a show, the first being the fall of ‘24’s production of “Next to Normal,” which was where she started with audio mixing. After the show, she said she realized the interest she had in doing live sound work.
“I’m an acting major and I want to go into voice acting, and so I felt like getting into the live sound aspect and the sound engineering would be good practice for me to start mixing my own recordings and everything for when I’m submitting auditions in the future,” Ricks said.
Ben Montmagny, a KSC alum and guest artist for the show, was someone she brought up as helpful with the programming of the sound board and mixing the band so she could focus on the cast.
“It was a really, really fun experience and I’m really, really proud of all of us and all of the work we presented and how all of our work came together for the show,” said Ricks.
As a collaborative team, Eddy felt he built up a strong relationship with Mann and Ricks, saying all three of them were in the same theatre work study and that he worked with them during various parts of the show. Ricks said she felt the same way, considering she helped with some of the set painting with Mann and the work she and Eddy put together for the sound.
On the other hand of the ACTF, senior Kei Eaccarino also won an award for his acting in “Bridges of Madison County” as the male lead, Robert. This was the third ACTF he has attended. He won “Outstanding Work for a Dramatic Piece” in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Auditions both this year and last year, as well as the $1,000 Open Jar scholarship for Musical Theatre. He also won the entire Region for his musical theatre abilities, which is what is sending him to Nationals sometime in late April.
Along with getting many contacts at the show, Eaccarino said he felt the support around him at the festival this year especially, and that he felt that the musical theatre competition didn’t feel competitive, but much friendlier.
“All of the people this year were so vastly different in so many ways, and it intrigued everyone,” Eaccarino said. “It was such a nice time to be able to go.”
Hailing from an early elementary love for theater and a theatre participating and loving family, Eaccarino remembers his first play, “Rock of Ages” in middle school, was unforgettable.
“I will never forget Bridges [of Madison County],” Eaccarino said. “That was probably the most meaningful show I’ve ever been a part of. It showed me so much about myself, it helped me learn who I am as an actor; it helped me make a name for myself.”
Eaccarino said it was meaningful to see how his castmates grew and changed with the show as well, but that made the “post-show depression” hit the hardest. Still, he said he found his castmates to be close friends.
“They were sobbing harder than I was. It just made me feel even more grateful to know how supportive people are and to genuinely see how much I’m loved and appreciated,” Eaccarino said. “They’re such good people, and I’m so very proud of all of them for everything they’ve done.”
Eaccarino said coming from Keene State, a notably small school without a musical theatre program or BFA, made the honor even bigger. He said that being able to represent the school as much as he’s representing himself as a transgender man in today’s world was amazing.
“I’ve been so grateful for every opportunity I’ve had. I feel like there’s so much I have to prove to people, but they already see it,” Eaccarino said. “I feel so incredibly lucky and so happy that there’s a community of people who truly love and value and appreciate me and my artistry, and don’t think of me as any less. It just makes me really happy to know how far I’ve come from my first want to do theater.”
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
hayley@kscequinox.com
