Members of the BSU community took home five awards from the New England Theatre Conference’s annual banquet. Two alumni were also honored.
One of the evening’s top honors went to Dr. Colleen Rua, who earned the Nickole Award, as theater educator of the year.
“I was surprised and so honored,” Professor Rua said in a recent interview. “It particularly means a lot because I was nominated by my students.”
Dr. Rua has recently been selected to serve as artistic director of the new Family Performing Arts Center on campus.
Another of the evening’s big awards went to theater Professor Jim Quinn, who was honored with the Marie Philips Award for Service to NETC in honor of his more than two decades of service. During that time, Professor Quinn has served on the board for 20 years, initially as a member of the children’s and youth division, which he later chaired. He then served two terms as vice president of finance and two terms as president of the organization. After leaving the office of president, he took on the task of moving the NETC archives into a special collection at BSU for posterity. He has presented workshops on a wide variety of theater topics at almost every convention during his long association with NETC. He has been a convention co-planner three times and currently holds the position of clerk of the corporation.
Also honored with a Special Award was BSU’s Archives and Special Collections, represented by Archivist Orson Kingsley and Library Director Michael Somers. The award recognizes the work done on behalf of the NETC housing and maintaining the organization’s archives, for which a new home was needed several years ago. Mr. Kingsley said he was honored by the award, and hopes it will lead other organizations to consider allowing Bridgewater to host their collections.
“It’s the type of thing I hope has a snowball effect,” he said of the award. “We’ve been looking to increase our collections of material from outside organizations.”
Two BSU alumni were also recognized. Armand Marchand and George Charbonneau of the New Bedford Theatre Festival earned a Moss Hart Memorial Award for Best Theatrical Production in New England. The musicals specifically cited by the award committee were Les Misérables and Hairspray.
Last but not least, VetSpeak, a Dramatic Documentary that was presented on campus last year, was recognized with a Moss Heart Memorial Award in the college and university theatre division. The production was directed by Professor Suzanne Ramczyk. (Story by John Winters, G ’11, University News & Media)
