SIX COLUMBIA COLLEGE THEATER STUDENTS NAMED LIBERACE SCHOLARS
Foundation Doubles Grant for 2005 Merit Scholarship Award to Chicago Arts College
Chicago IL - The Liberace Foundation and Columbia College Chicago have awarded merit-based scholarships to six of the college's outstanding theater students. Competing in a field of their peers, these aspiring theater professionals, were judged to represent "the highest degree of excellence in their particular area of the theater" by a jury comprised faculty from their department.
Three of the students - Eric Burgher, Sarah Seaman and Ashley Dobson - are receiving the award for the second year, having been named Columbia's first Liberace Scholars in 2004. Kyle Kratsky, Meghan Murphy and Lindsay Naas join them this year as all six carry the honorific of Liberace Scholars. The students, who hail from varied backgrounds, are concentrating in several different areas of theater arts.
Eric Burgher, who grew up in West Bloomfield, Michigan and graduated from West Bloomfield High School in 2002, is working on his undergraduate degree in acting. He came to Columbia as a freshman, choosing the school, in part, because of its location.
Ashley Dobson came directly to Columbia in the fall of 2002, after graduating from Pulaski High School in her hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin. She liked the idea of pursuing her degree in musical theater at Columbia because of the nature of the faculty, and the location. Ashley appeared in Guys and Dolls at Columbia this year and was tapped for a couple of special projects: in February she danced for Ben Vereen, and in April she sang for Mary Tyler Moore -- both stars were in town to participate in the college's "Conversations in the Arts" series.
Scenic design major Sarah Seaman has found Columbia to be "a breath of fresh air" after experiencing two other college programs since graduating from West Hall High School, in Gainesville, Georgia, in 2000. Sarah, who started at Gainesville College and then transferred to University of Illinois Chicago, selected Columbia because of its emphasis on blending theory with a good grounding in liberal arts and the very important practical skills necessary to achieving professional success. Sarah's been very busy the past year designing productions for Columbia and the Oak Park Festival Theater. This summer she is working on The Princess and the Pea for Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Orpheus Descending for the American Theater Company.
Kyle Kratky started at Columbia as a freshman after his 2002 graduation from West Belleville High School in his hometown of Belleville, Illinois. A directing major, Kyle chose the school because of its reputation for practical, hands-on experience and its faculty of working professionals." He has not been disappointed, and credits the practical experience at Columbia with giving him the skills to land "a few professional gigs"— most recently as stage manager for "Sketchbook 5" Collaboraction's annual new plays festival.
Acting major Meghan Murphy grew up in Lansing, Illinois and entered Columbia as a freshman after her graduation from Thornton Fractional South High School in 2002. Meghan was also attracted to Columbia because of the professional faculty and liked the location in a major city with a thriving cultural scene. Since coming to Columbia, Meghan has appeared in many theatrical productions, including the staring role of Desdemona in Othello.
Acting major Lindsay Naas came to Columbia in 2003 from her hometown of Chiesterfield, Missouri. Though she entered as a freshman, she had already appeared in many theatrical productions at her alma mater, Parkway Central High School. She chose Columbia because of the variety of coursework she is able to pursue - both in her theater studies and her other interest, American Sign Language. Someday, she hopes to use her ASL skills (she's pursuing a minor in the field while at Columbia) to open a Deaf Theater. At Columbia Lindsay's appeared in The Three Penny Opera, Guys and Dolls, and The Pajama Game. In the fall term, she'll portray Little Red Ridinghood in Into the Woods.
The mission of the Liberace Foundation is to help talented students pursue careers in the performing and creative arts through scholarship assistance. Since 1976, The Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts has awarded more than 4.5 million dollars in scholarship grants to over 100 universities, schools and organizations including The Julliard School, Northwestern University, Oberlin and UCLA. For more information visit www.liberace.org.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Founded in 1890 as a communications school for women, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a "hands-on minds-on" approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the current leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D. Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Through the diversity of its students and graduates, the school brings a rich vision and multiplicity of voices to American culture. For further information visit www.colum.edu.
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