Chrysalis: A Memory Play, written by Hollins M.F.A. playwright Gwyneth Strope, has received multiple honors from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) National Awards Committee for 2024.
KCACTF presented commendations to the Chrysalis company for Distinguished Achievement in Engagement of Community Care and Resources and Distinguished Achievement in Performance of a New Work. The National Awards Committee also recognized Roanoke theatre professional Amber Voeller (who played Mirage, the main character in Chrysalis) for Distinguished Achievement in Performance.
Weaving together altered memories, illusions, and gripping realities, Chrysalis illuminates the process of healing from past trauma and starting anew. Faced with a life-altering decision, Mirage chooses to confront her own memories of childhood and come face-to-face with the past versions of herself that she had shed many years before.
Chrysalis, which was Strope’s thesis work, was last year’s KCACTF Region IV recipient of the David L. Shelton Award, honoring a full-length, student-written play. In January, the Hollins theatre department produced it as part of the 2024 Hollins-Mill Mountain Winter Festival of New Works.
Strope is a playwright and actor who also serves as the producing manager for the Hollins Theatre Institute. She holds a B.A. in theatre from James Madison University in addition to her graduate degree from the Hollins Playwright’s Lab. Strope prides herself on being an interdisciplinary artist who amplifies the stories of women. Her other recently produced works are In Bloom at Tesseract Theatre, To Bathe or Not to Bathe at Missouri S&T, and Grace and the Ghost at Pipe Dreams Studio Theatre.
Developed in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center’s founding chairman, KCACTF encourages and recognizes the finest and most diverse theatrical productions from colleges and universities nationwide. Through regional and national festivals, KCACTF celebrates the achievements of theatre programs, individual students, and faculty of colleges and universities throughout the United States.
