GVSU awarded Best Performance at International Theatre Festival

An international audience at the Sapperlot International Festival of Youth Theatre in Brixen, Italy, voted the Best Performance Award to Grand Valley State University students.

Seven students and two faculty members attended the festival from May 31-June 4.  The students performed “Bard to Go: Kissing and Courting,” a production of the 2008 Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival which features love scenes from a selection of plays by Shakespeare.

Each year the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival produces Bard to Go for performance in local high schools and middle schools. The productions introduce young audiences to Shakespeare’s works by examining a central theme in a series of scenes from multiple plays. “Bard to Go: Kissing and Courting” toured eight West Michigan area middle and high schools last fall and then performed in Grand Rapids to raise funds for the student actors’ travel to Italy for the festival.

In Brixen, the Grand Valley cast members stayed with local families, attended performances by many international youth theatre groups, and had the opportunity to meet other young actors from around the world. The production was directed by Katherine Mayberry, an adjunct professor of English and Theatre, with dramaturgy by Rachel Anderson, an assistant professor of English.

Media may contact Katherine Mayberry at (616) 566-4758, or [email protected]

Photo: Front row: Julia Chateau, Evan Griffiths, Anna Walters. Second row: Sarah Stark, Jerold Worthem, Chris Kotcher, Arielle Leverett