Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival
Program Name
Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.
Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.
The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students annually from colleges and universities across the country. KCACTF aims to:
- Encourage, recognize, and celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs;
- Provide opportunities for participants to develop their theater skills and insight, and achieve professionalism;
- Improve the quality of college and university theater in the United States; and
- Encourage colleges and universities to give distinguished productions of new plays, especially those written by students; the classics, revitalized or newly conceived; and experimental works.
Since its inception, KCACTF has given more than 400,000 college theater students the opportunity to have their work critiqued, improve their dramatic skills, and receive national recognition for excellence. More than 16 million theatergoers have attended approximately 10,000 festival productions nationwide.
Visit https://www.kcactfresources.com/ for resources on anti-racism, self-care, and innovative theatre in the time of a global pandemic.
Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.
KCACTF Diversity and Inclusion Statement
The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival affirms its commitment to policies and practices of promoting inclusion and diversity in its leadership, both regional and national, as well as in its programming. We pledge to nurture talent in all areas of the theater based solely on merit and achievement. We encourage production respondents to avoid discriminatory comments and embrace the variety of artistic choices generated by the diversity of perspective that exists on college campuses across the country. We promote collegial exploration of new ideas, supported by a clear understanding of long-held artistic practices, fully respecting the communicated intentions of the playwright.
We encourage discourse that affects positive change in the ways that under-represented groups are portrayed onstage, and we oppose acts of cultural appropriation and character depictions that deepen existing cultural divides. We embrace the idea that diversity in experience and perspective makes our organization stronger and more relevant and is therefore essential to our educational mission of training the future artistic leadership in American theater.
Kennedy Center Education
Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation; Annenberg Foundation; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Bank of America; Bender Foundation, Inc.; Carter and Melissa Cafritz Trust; Carnegie Corporation of New York; DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Estée Lauder; Flocabulary; Harman Family Foundation; The Hearst Foundations; the Herb Alpert Foundation; the Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The King-White Family Foundation and Dr. J. Douglas White; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation;
Music Theatre International; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts; Newman’s Own Foundation; Nordstrom; Park Foundation, Inc.; Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Prince Charitable Trusts; Soundtrap; The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; and Volkswagen Group of America. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts.
The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.