Stephen White Wins First Place at KCACTF

This year, a group of Bethel stu­dents at­tended the Kennedy Cen­ter Amer­i­can Col­lege The­atre Fes­ti­val (KCACTF), in Madi­son, Wis­con­sin, from Jan. 7-12. The group in­cluded Stephen White, a ju­nior the­atre per­for­mance ma­jor who won first place in the Mu­si­cal The­atre In­ten­sive. 

The KCACTF was founded in 1969 by Roger L. Stephens. KCACTF, which tra­di­tion­ally takes place in Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary every year, brings in more than 18,000 col­lege stu­dents from across the United States of Amer­ica. The im­pact­ful and in­flu­en­tial com­pe­ti­tion of­fers these stu­dents a wide range of ac­tiv­i­ties to par­tic­i­pate in, in­clud­ing work­shops, sym­posia, and re­gional-level award pro­grams. Since its birth, KCACTF has given more than 400,000 col­lege stu­dents the op­por­tu­nity to re­ceive con­struc­tive crit­i­cism to bet­ter their skills.  

White was­n’t ex­pect­ing to win the ti­tle. 

“I was quite sur­prised that I won and did­n’t re­ally know how to process the news,” White said. “I was be­yond ex­cited!” 

White greatly en­joyed his ex­pe­ri­ence at the KCACTF.  

“KCACTF broad­ened my spec­trum of what it takes to make the­atre what it is,” White said. “I was given the op­por­tu­nity to be im­mersed into a cul­ture of tal­ented, unique and di­verse peo­ple who love what I love... my the­atre goals were pushed, chal­lenged and well-nour­ished while at­tend­ing and I look for­ward to at­tend­ing every year I am able.” 

Along with his first-place ti­tle, Stephen White won $750 for his tal­ent. White will now at­tend the na­tional com­pe­ti­tion through the KCACTF held in Wash­ing­ton D.C. mid-April. White has the chance to com­pete against other re­gional fi­nal­ists for a full-ride trip to at­tend the Broad­way The­atre In­ten­sive in New York City in late Au­gust of this year.   

With these op­por­tu­ni­ties ahead of White, he hopes to learn more than what learned at re­gion­als. He is also ex­cited to make more friend­ships and try “win­ning the na­tion­als.” 

White wants Bethel to know that he counts it as a priv­i­lege to be blessed with his ac­com­plish­ment and is ask­ing for the Bethel fam­ily to keep him in his prayers as he goes to com­pete. White is look­ing for­ward to hav­ing an amaz­ing time at the Na­tional Com­pe­ti­tion in April 2020.