ESU Theatre Majors Earn Honors At Region II Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

ESU senior Kelsey Pulzone of Washington Township, N.J., earned the region’s National Stage Management Fellowship at the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival held at West Chester University earlier this month.

ESU junior Michael Lloret of East Stroudsburg, Pa., was named best male vocalist at the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s inaugural Musical Theatre Initiative.

East Stroudsburg University’s Theatre Department was the “small program that could” as two of its theatre majors earned top awards at the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) held earlier this month at West Chester University.

Senior Kelsey Pulzone of Washington Township, N.J., earned the region’s National Stage Management Fellowship while junior Michael Lloret of East Stroudsburg, Pa., was named best male vocalist of the conference’s inaugural Musical Theatre Initiative.

Founded in 1969, KCACTF is a national program that serves as a catalyst to improve the quality of college theatre through its network of more than 600 universities throughout the USA and is organized into eight geographic regions.

More than 75 schools from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Northwest New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia participated in the Region II festival.

For Kelsey Pulzone, the KCACTF competition was part of a journey that began when she attended an open house at ESU and toured the Theatre Department’s facilities with set and costume designer Yoshinori Tanokura, assistant professor of theatre, who became one of her mentors in the department.

Initially, she was interested in working on props, but Pulzone also explored the other technical theatre options while working on the department’s productions.  In her second semester, Pulzone took a course in stage management with Margaret Ball, Ph.D., associate professor of theatre, and “really liked how the stage manager was involved in every aspect of the production throughout the entire process, from casting to the final performance.”

A play’s director makes the artistic choices that guide a production, but the stage manager makes certain that these choices are carried through in every aspect of the production.  The stage manager also runs every rehearsal and performance of the play.

To guide the production, the stage manager creates a prompt book which contains all of the blocking for actors, the cues for the sound, lighting and props crews, and any other information needed to ensure that the production runs smoothly.

Pulzone learned her craft by working with the department’s experienced stage managers as an assistant.

“ESU has had a series of great student stage managers who raise the bar each year as they mentor the upcoming students,” Ball noted. “Two of our recent graduates are now working as professional stage managers.”

For the competition, Pulzone submitted the prompt book she created for ESU’s Fall 2013 production of Lord of the Flies; a letter of intent in which she explained her approach to stage management; and a letter of recommendation from Becky Solis, the play’s guest director and an ESU theatre alumna.

Pulzone expanded on her stage management philosophy in the interview portion of the competition.

“The paperwork is important, and I try to stay ahead of people’s needs,” she said. “But the most important element is understanding the people I’m working with.  I want to be sure that my director, actors and crews have the utmost confidence in me.”

“As Kelsey focused on her stage management skills, she started asking the right questions to pursue a career, and I saw growth in her work,” Tanokura noted.  “Our students know that we expect them to push and reach higher, and she’s an excellent example of that.”

When her name was called out as the winner of the competition, Pulzone said she felt momentarily paralyzed.

“I couldn’t move,” she said. “I really expected one of the students from West Chester to win.  My friends had to pull me out of the seat and push me toward the stage.”

As one of eight National Stage Management Fellows, Pulzone will go to Washington, D.C., in April to attend the National KCACTF conference where she’ll work with a team of professional stage managers, make internship and job contacts, and possibly stage manage one of the festival productions.

Though she will be stage managing the rehearsals of ESU’s production of The Wizard of Oz during this time period, Pulzone is confident that she can handle both.

“I’ll figure all this out,” she said.  “It’s what I’ve learned to do.”

Michael Lloret, who began his musical theatre career at East Stroudsburg High School North, considered majoring in media communications and technology when he came to ESU, but knew his calling was elsewhere.

“I just had to keep doing musical theatre,” he said.

As a theatre work-study student, Lloret is sound designer for the department, and also works in the scene shop.  He is president of the Musical Theatre Organization (MTO), a group that performs both on and off campus, most recently at the Stroudsmoor Christmas tree lighting.  Last spring he directed the group’s cabaret production, We are Who We Are.

“ESU’s Theatre Department may be small,” he noted, “but there are big opportunities here and students get lots of attention from the professors.”

At the conference, Lloret got up at 5:30 a.m. to sign up at 6 a.m. for one of the limited number of audition slots for the Musical Theatre Initiative.

“I was first in line,” he said proudly.

Competitors performed only for the judges during the initial auditions. In the final round of 16, however, performers sang in front of all the contestants.  Lloret, who sang last in the finals said, “I was really nervous when I realized that I was up against some major competitors.”

For his audition, Lloret sang the title number from the 1963 musical She Loves Me.

“Michael has a wonderful voice,” Ball noted, “but the most important thing in musical theatre is to learn to act the song. In the 1 1/2 years he’s been developing this audition piece, he’s worked to hone his acting skills and it really came through in this performance.”

In addition to winning a $250 scholarship award, Lloret earned an opportunity to perform at the festival’s closing event.

“Getting a standing ovation from the crowd in that large auditorium was incredible,” he said.  “It’s something that will keep me going in the future when I’m auditioning with 300 other people.”

“KCACTF’s Region II is highly competitive, so these are big wins for ESU,” Ball noted. “They showcase the Theatre Department strengths–a student-focused program and strong mentoring of students.”

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