Theatre students take top honors

Published or Revised March 10, 2005

Paris Junior College speech and theatre students once again proved to be one of the top colleges at the recent State Play Festival held at Weatherford College. For the ninth consecutive year the PJC play production was rated superior, and all the main actors and student designers of PJC's production, "The Lion in Winter," won awards of Superior or Excellent. PJC was the only school to be voted Superior in both set design and costume design by all the directors from competing colleges and the two critic judges, Dr. Terry Lewis of Texas A&M at Corpus Christi and George Sorensen of Texas Tech. "Our students did a fantastic job in all areas of production at the festival," said John Wright, speech and drama instructor and director of the play. "It was a great experience and rewarding for all of them." Winning Superior Acting awards were Cody Stephens, Anna-Marie Hearn and Dustin Cordoba. Matt Ham, Josh Baker, Amanda Pearson and Steven Fontenot received Excellent Acting awards. Stephens and Stephanie Steinkoenig received double Superior Awards for design from both the critic judges and the play directors from other colleges. Fontenot and Scott Winchester won double Superior Awards in costume design. Other Superior Director's Choice Awards for design went to Hearn in makeup and hair design, and to Cordoba in lighting design. Kristy Riffle received an Excellent Director's Award for production assistance. Fontenot received an Excellent Award from the critic judges for sound design, and Cordoba received an Excellent Award from the judges in lighting design. Others students participating in the play were Joey Dean, Taylor Moseley, Laura Dial, and Jonathan Robinson.