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Discovering you have a hidden talent can be very satisfying — and earning recognition for it even more so, as Boston College junior Florence Hudson can relate.
Hudson and fellow junior Nzinga Williams were honored earlier this month at the Region 1 section of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, which promotes excellence and diversity in undergraduate theater. Hudson won second place for her regional entry in costume design, while Williams received an honorable mention for her national entry in stage management.
A double major in theatre and human development from Nashville, Hudson created costume designs for “The Magic Flute” as a class project (entries for regional competitions don’t have to be part of an actual production). While she had taken part in school theatrical activities prior to arriving at BC, Hudson had little behind-the-scenes experience. Desiring to become “a more well-rounded theatre student,” she took classes in directing and costume design and did a work-study stint in costume design at Robsham Theater.
Hudson says her design for “The Magic Flute,” Mozart’s famous opera, was inspired by her love of fantasy and fairy tales. But the actual process involved far more than simply dashing off drawings on a whim, she notes: “You have to think, ‘How does the costume move on the character? How does the costume affect his or her presence?’”
For the comic Papagena, for example, Hudson designed a bird cage-like dress, “something big, fluffy and bouncy, so that it rocks back and forth on her. I thought the costume helped create the right overall look for her, and could be incorporated into her actions and movements.”
Hudson was pleasantly surprised at her second-place finish in the festival competition, especially given the judges’ professional credentials. “Two of them were costume designers from Las Vegas — very strict and hard to please,” says Hudson, who hopes to work as an adolescent counselor while continuing to pursue her passion for theater.
Williams, a native of Cambridge who also has lived in Trinidad and Florida, began working on the “tech side” of theater as a fifth-grader and has cultivated a solid background in stage management at BC.
“It’s a lot of fun, but also a lot of work,” says Williams, a theatre major with a minor in sociology. “As a stage manager you start working on the production aspect with the director in the summer. I’ve been involved in organizing auditions, all scheduling, taking notes on blocking, props and other things. I am also the liaison between the actors, director and designers, which means you have to communicate effectively with everyone.”
As stage manager for last fall’s production of “She Stoops to Conquer” at Robsham, Williams found the rapport she established with her assistant stage managers and the cast put to an unexpected test when, during the all-important tech rehearsal, the play’s director had to attend to a family emergency. Williams and her colleagues “put our heads together” to make things run as smoothly as possible until the director returned — “he really only had to adjust one or two things.”
As part of her evaluation for the Kennedy Center competition, Williams was interviewed by a professional stage manager who also assessed the note-taking and records Williams kept for the play.
“I was really shocked and honored to have gotten an honorable mention,” says Williams, who plans to work in stage management and production and hopes to someday open her own theater company. “Out of 39 stage managers competing, I was one of four people to get any sort of award. Stage managing is not like nursing or math or science — I cannot take a test to evaluate my skill or knowledge level. And because of the nature of the job there is often not much feedback. So it was nice to get some sort of positive reinforcement.”
The honors for Williams and Hudson marked the latest success at the Kennedy Center festival for BC’s Theatre Department, which in the past several years has garnered awards in both the festival’s regional and national competitions. These include a national award for dramaturgy won by Megan Rulison '06 in 2005 and a Region 1 Directing Fellowship Award earned by Anthony Nunziata '06 in 2006.
“It’s incredibly exciting for students to be awarded for their hard work,” said Associate Professor of Theatre Crystal Tiala. “This annual event has grown significantly over the past decade, bringing in schools from New York to Maine to compete in events such as acting, directing, playwriting, dramaturgy, design, technology and administration.”