April 1st, 2023
MANKATO – Wounded Healers, presented at the 2023 Region 5 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) in January, received seven national awards in an announcement earlier today. KCACTF announced the national awards for productions showcased at regional festivals throughout the country in January-March, 2023.
Wounded Healers received awards for: The Citizen Artist Award; The Distinguished Achievement in the Facilitation of a Brave Rehearsal Space; Distinguished Achievement in Production Design; Distinguished Achievement in Lighting Design for Steven Smith’s design,; Distinguished Performance Ensemble for the work of Lyreshia Ghostlon-Green, Marquise Myles, Daniel Walker, and Joaquin Warren; Outstanding Production of a New Work; and Outstanding Director of a New Work for Timothy Berry’s directing work.
Dr. Timothy Berry, Interim Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Equity Initiatives at Minnesota State University, Mankato, wrote, composed and directed Wounded Healers. It premiered in 2019 and was presented as part of the 2021-2022 Mainstage season at the Department of Theatre and Dance at Minnesota State University, Mankato, which qualified the production for consideration in the Region V Festival.
Wounded Healers expresses the ways in which Black bodies have suffered, transcended their own pain, and fostered healing through creativity throughout the course of human history. Through the generations of systematic racism, dehumanization, biased and racist policing practices and disparities and health and education, black bodies have creatively persisted and survived against all odds.
The KCACTF announcement distributed earlier today said the awards are, “in recognition of a dynamic season of compelling work by theatre artists in higher education across the country. Congratulations to all for a year in which colleges and universities re-connected, re-launched, and re-ignited the passions of theatre artists to the great benefit of audiences nationwide.”