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Department of Theatre Arts (THEA
Bloodroot: The Ballad of Clinch Mountain Bedford Boys
THE WRITING PROJECT
The Department of Theatre Arts' Writing Project is a program in which students create original plays based on Virginia history. The Women’s Project, a playwriting opportunity for 25 Liberty University Theatre Arts students, started as a research practicum during the Fall 2017 semester in response to student observations regarding the lack of gender parity in performance opportunities. Faculty decided to make the project created by The Women's Project a production for the 2018-19 season. The final rehearsal draft was titled BLOODROOT: THE BALLAD OF CLINCH MOUNTAIN. The rehearsal period commenced with 20 of the 25 playwrights taking on new roles in leadership and performance.
BLOODROOT: THE BALLAD OF CLINCH MOUNTAIN was recognized by Liberty's Center for Research & Scholarship (CRS) for the high level of creative student research and the quality of its outcome, despite not being the more traditional form of faculty/student collaboration. CRS decided to underwrite all production costs. The production continued to regionals in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in South Carolina and then was granted the national award from the Kennedy Center for excellence in student production and dramaturgy. Since that time, the department has continued with 3 more collaborations — BEDFORD BOYS (2019), DECIPHER: AN UNPENNED STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR (2021), and THE DARKEST EVENING (2022) — (all supported and funded by CRS).
Audio Theatre Convention Sonic-Con Returned Last Fall With Special “Animaniacs in Concert”
BY RYAN KLINKER
The creative minds and voices behind the Warner Brothers wacky cartoon “Animaniacs” and Focus on the Family’s “Adventures in Odyssey” joined the second annual SonicCon national audio theatre convention Oct. 22-24 on the Liberty University campus.
An “Animaniacs in Concert” event was held on Oct. 23 and featured performers Rob Paulsen (voice of Yakko and Pinky), Maurice LaMarche (Brain), and Emmy-winning composer Randy Rogel, who was accompanied in singalongs by the Liberty Symphony Orchestra in the Center for Music and the Worship Arts, Concert Hall.
“Adventures in Odyssey” co-creator Phil Lollar and cast members Katie Leigh (Connie Kendall) and Will Ryan (Eugene Meltsner) returned from last year’s inaugural convention to once again lead masterclasses. The “Animaniacs” performers and cartoon creator Butch Hartman, best known for his Nickelodeon shows “The Fairly OddParents” and “Danny Phantom,” led masterclasses. Other industry professionals in voice acting, writing, and sound design appeared with a new works festival, listening lounges, panel discussions, live audio performances, and fun voice competitions.
“Sonic-Con 2021 highlighted some wonderful talent within the voice acting industry, giving fans and aspiring professionals from across the country an opportunity to learn and be entertained,” said Sonic-Con Executive Director and Theatre Arts Professor Chris Nelson. “This is truly a one-of-a-kind audio theatre convention that Liberty’s School of Communication & the Arts was honored to host.”
For more information, visit Sonic-Con.org.
THE UNCUT SERIES
SCA expanded its offerings for 136 students of different ages to engage with the arts throughout the month of June. In addition to its annual Liberty University Theatre Camp (LUTC) for elementary school campers, SCA launched the Uncut Series of camps for high school and middle school students. Liberty’s Department of Theatre Arts has offered a summer camp for roughly 12 years, but Summer Arts Coordinator and Theatre Professor Chris Nelson developed the Uncut series for students to explore more artistic disciplines like dance, filmmaking, and art, each led by Liberty professors and students from those corresponding areas under SCA. Throughout the high school camps, Liberty professors taught classes in their discipline, followed by breakout sessions led by current Liberty students serving as counselors.
In these camps, students explored the diverse aspects of live performance and filmmaking. Each camp concluded with a chance for the campers to showcase what they had learned. The theatre sections of the Uncut camps performed cabaret-style shows with songs originally in stage musicals and movies; the film camp held red-carpet premieres for their short films; and the art camp held a gallery showcase. The students in LUTC applied the skills they learned by performing the children’s theatre show “How I Became a Pirate Younger@Part” for the public.
Miss Virginia 2021 Tatum Sheppard shares a passion for service cultivated at LU
BY JACOB COUCH
Serving others has never been a chore for Liberty University graduate Tatum Sheppard (’20), the newly crowned Miss Virginia. It’s a passion that she nurtured at LU through various activities on and off campus. “My time at Liberty shaped me as a person, as a Christian, and as a godly woman,” she said. “It wasn’t just about getting my degree, although the training that I got was great. Getting my education with a biblical worldview was critical in maturing me and teaching me to find my identity in Christ and not in the things that I do.” As part of the responsibilities of her reign leading up to the Miss America 2022 competition in December, Sheppard will go on an “ABC School Tour,” traveling to 70 different schools in the fall promoting her social impact initiative, “Mentoring Matters,” through the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. During the tour, she will also talk to students about drug and alcohol abuse prevention. Sheppard was involved in the organization as a Big Sister in high school and college; she completed a portion of Liberty’s required Christian Community Service (CSER) hours with the program as well as with Thomas Road Baptist Church. She said she understands the impact a mentor can have and is grateful that she attended a university with a longstanding tradition of service.
“I was so grateful to graduate from a college that taught me not only what I needed to know to succeed in my career but also how I was going to succeed as a person and as a Christian,” she said.
Sheppard earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Liberty and also worked as a tour guide at the Hancock Welcome Center — both areas that proved to be training grounds for her success in the Miss Virginia pageant. “My theatre degree was put to good use this week,” she said, laughing. “We had a talent portion in the competition which is 35 percent of our score. I performed a Broadway vocal, so I was able to use all my training (from college).” Sheppard said that working as a tour guide at the welcome center has helped her to relate to all different ages. “When you are a tour guide, you get a wide range of people you are talking to,” she said. “It could be anyone from a younger sibling to a grandfather who brought their granddaughter, and those are the types of people you have to be able to talk to as Miss Virginia.” In addition to her training at Liberty, Sheppard said she was taught by the best mentor she could have: her mother Kellye, who was crowned Miss America in 1987.
“I watched my mom my whole life, and that made an impression on me,” she said. “My mom is the best role model I could ever ask for. She is so godly, and she is so servant-hearted. She was also crucial in teaching me where my identity should be.” Sheppard said through her mother’s professional theatre experiences as well as her father’s coaching profession, she was exposed early in life to a variety of different interests that she is still grateful for today. “I did theatre, played basketball and volleyball. I was doing everything,” she said. “It made my siblings and me very wellrounded, but we always knew not to tie our identity to any of the things we were doing but to who we are in Christ.” Sheppard said that once her pageant time is over, she hopes she is remembered for her character and passion in showing the love of Christ to those she encountered along the way. “Every person I come in contact with, I want them to be seen and become known,” she said. “I want to see people the way that God sees us, and I want to leave that impression on them.”
Sheppard’s heart for serving Christ was seen day in and day out while at Liberty by Linda Cooper, chair of the Theatre Arts Department. “I am so proud of this accomplishment of Tatum’s, but I am not surprised,” Cooper said. “She is a talented, intelligent, confident young woman who speaks boldly about her faith and runs through every door God has opened for her. We expect a wonderful future for her and are glad we have been a small part of her journey.”
Student Awards and Accomplishments
• Kaleb Lindevaldsen received a Broadcast Education Association award for excellence in sound editing of “The Encounter.”
• The Department of Theatre Arts has competed in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (ACTF) for over ten years. Students who have participated in this festival have been nominated for the Irene Ryan Award, a national acting award for excellence in the craft and art of acting and design. Recent nominees include: Gretchen Eckert as Elinor Dashwood, Ashley Banker as Lucy Steele/Gossip, and Sarah Beattie for Stage Management — all in the show “Sense and Sensibility.”
Other ACTF award nominees include:
•2020 Writing Project Team for excellence in Dramaturgy for “Decipher” •Maia Anderson – Irene Ryan Award for her role as Mary Bowser in “Decipher” •Seth Somers – Irene Ryan Award for his role as Timothy Webster in “Decipher” •Jordan Prather – Irene Ryan Award for her role as Elizabeth Van Lew in “Decipher” •Claire Flores – ACTF recognition in excellence in Stage Management for “Decipher”
•Aaron Hall – ACTF recognition for excellence in Projections Design for “Decipher” •Mattea Harrison – ACTF recognition for excellence in Costume Design for “Decipher” •Melanie Ernst – ACTF recognition for excellence in Assistant Directing for “Decipher” •Alyssa Hall – ACTF recognition for Hair & Makeup Design for “Decipher”
Faculty Awards and Accomplishments
In 2019, the Department of Theatre Arts received national awards for the Distinguished Production of a New Work, Distinguished Achievement of Dramaturgy, Distinguished Exploration of a Historical Legacy, and National Commendation of Student Writers and Director, Scott Hayes, for “Bloodroot: The Ballad of Clinch Mountain.”
Professor Linda Cooper was also given the national award for Dramaturgy for the Writing Project.
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