Congratulations to several playwrights in the Hollins University Playwright’s Lab for their honors at The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) KCACTF Region IV Festival, held February 4-8, 2025, at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
James Harvey Stone, MFA student, is a finalist in the 10-minute play category for his play, We Meet at Ralph’s, one of six 10-minute plays invited to the 2024 regional festival and under consideration for a national nomination. Stone, the 2024 KCACTF Region IV David Shelton Award winner, had a full production of his play The Greenhouse presented at the 2025 festival, mounted in collaboration with William & Mary’s theatre department.
Alex Voeller, MFA student, was a runner up for the 2025 David L. Shelton award for full-length play.
Stephanie Goldman, MFA student, received meritorious achievement in playwriting for The Caregiver.
The Hollins nominees from the regional KCACTF festival are in national consideration for the John L. Cauble Award for Excellence in One-Act Playwriting.
Of note at this year’s festival was that each of the three one-act plays invited to the regional festival are by Hollins playwrights. This is the second time in festival history that all three one-act plays were written by Hollins playwrights:
- Ben Abbott, MFA student, recognized for his Nuptial Mass
- Stephanie Goldman, MFA student, recognized for her play The Caregiver
- David Veatch, MFA student, recognized for his play Twenty-Something Teenager
KCACTF celebrates the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs in the country. At the festival, theater students have their work critiqued, enhance their skills, and earn national recognition. Over the past decade, the Playwright’s Lab has received numerous KCACTF accolades for plays written by Hollins students and for productions mounted by the Hollins theatre department.
“The best measure of the success of our program is the success of our students,” says Todd Ristau, Director of the Hollins Playwright’s Lab, and winner of the national Kennedy Center Gold Medallion, one of the most prestigious awards in theater education. “KCACTF’s recognition of merit through award presentation has been a tangible way to demonstrate student success in a broad range of categories, which gives students the confidence to continue to pursue their dreams. As a direct result of our participation in KCACTF, many of our students have gained a national reputation along with additional professional opportunities such as productions and publications.”
Adds Stone, “My KCACTF experience was very special this year because of full production of The Greenhouse, which is at a place where audiences can see it up on its feet as a real piece of theatre, and We Meet At Ralph’s whose characters that are just starting their genesis in my mind—so, one play that I know is working and one that has more questions than answers,” notes Stone, a public-school theatre teacher, director, and writer living in Williamsburg, Va. who enrolled in the summer Playwright’s Lab in 2023. “I’m really grateful to Todd and my Playwright’s Lab faculty and colleagues for their support of my growth.”
The KCACTF awards aren’t the only accolades for Stone this year. His new The Bird of the Sea, written at Hollins, was produced by his high school students who have been named 2024-2025 Virginia High School League State Champions and 2025 Virginia Thespian State Champions. His students have been selected to represent Virginia at SETC 2025 and the 2025 International Thespian Festival as well.
More Hollins Playwrights Lab News:
Last month, Hollins playwrights had their works presented during the 2025 Hollins-Mill Mountain Winter Festival of New Works, hosted by Hollins in the Hollins Theater. Abbott’s play, Nuptial Mass, directed by fellow 2025 KCACTF honoree Veatch, enjoyed a full production. At the Winter Festival, Hollins MFA student ArLynn Parker debuted Frieda, directed by Vanna Richardson. Since 2012, the Hollins-Mill Mountain Winter Festival has offered Hollins graduate student playwrights the opportunity to mount pre-premiere developmental workshop productions of their plays with students, professionals, and community theatre artists in front of a live audience.
Maira Campbell, who was in the Lab’s first cohort of MFA students and who also completed the directing certificate, was recently honored by the inclusion of her documentary film, Maura & Maggie Get Callbacks (To Play Themselves), as an official selection at Cinequest Film Festival premiering on March 12.
The film has also been awarded the Kaiser Thrive Award, given each year by Kaiser Permanente to the most inspirational film of the festival, of which there are 70.
“I had no idea when I set out on this journey that the story of me and Maggie Wagner would resonate so much,” she says. “It is greatly due to the vision of our director, Tennyson Bardwell, and the collaboration of so many talented people on and off the screen.” Ticket information.
Congratulations to the talented Hollins playwrights for your recent achievements!
