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
