The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) is awarding the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with its Standing Ovation Award for 2014. The award will be presented on June 28 during the Saturday Showcase at the International Thespian Festival at UNL. Paul Steger, Director of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, will accept the award on behalf of Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who had a previous travel commitment.
“When we developed the relationship between our two organizations, we were looking for a venue for our largest event,” said Julie Woffington, Executive Director of the EdTA. “However, the relationship between our two organizations has yielded far more than that. Your team has become our trusted partner.”
The Standing Ovation Award was developed to recognize a corporation or organization that makes significant contributions to the Educational Theatre Association in supporting its mission of “shaping lives through theatre education.”
Previous recipients of the Standing Ovation Award have included Samuel French, Broadway Cares-Equity Fights AIDS, Music Theatre International, Procter & Gamble Productions and the Bravo Network.
“I am quite surprised and humbled by this award,” Steger said. “We have been hosting the Festival for nearly 20 years now. It’s been a really good partnership, and we love working with them on it. We are the oldest dramatic training program at a land-grant institution in this country. So it’s a wonderful opportunity to be recognized for having that kind of commitment to dramatic study and theatre study and to be able to host the Thespian Festival.”
UNL has hosted the International Thespian Festival since 1995. This year’s festival is June 23-28. More than 2,800 students and teachers will converge for the week-long celebration of theatre that includes performances, workshops and masterclasses and auditions for college admission. The event also hosts a handful of mainstage shows put on by high school theatre troupes and seen by the entire delegation.
“It’s a great boon for us to have that many students here, individuals from the best training programs in the county here to watch these kids perform,” Steger said. “The students come here, and they meet 2,800 more kids that are just like them. It opens their eyes to what they might be able to do, interacting with people.”
The award celebrates the commitment of the entire University to the Festival. UNL offers many amenities for the festival-goers. While on campus, they stay in residence halls and eat in dining halls. The university also provides classroom and workshop space, including spaces in the Temple Building, Westbrook Music Building and the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
“There are so many partners across campus that work with us on it, including University Housing, the Lied Center for Performing Arts, the Glenn Korff School of Music, Facilities and Planning,” Steger said. “Everybody works with us on this.”
In January, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the International Thespian Festival renewed their agreement to ensure that the University will host the annual event through 2019.