'Bandersnatch' to Participate in KCACTF Region 6 Festival

Midwestern State University's Department of Theatre will present its original production of Bandersnatch February 21-25, 2012, at the Region 6 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.

Bandersnatch was one of six stage productions invited from the six state region and more than 100 universities and colleges participating in the program. This marks the third time in four years that MSU has been invited to participate in the regional festival. KCACTF 6 is comprised universities and colleges in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Written by MSU Assistant Professor Brandon Smith and his colleague Josh Blann, the play follows Lief Gehrulling and his journey to defeat the dastardly Bandersnatch and rid his family of a horrible curse. This quirky, adventurous play was inspired by Lewis Carroll's poem, "Jabberwocky," and incorporates elaborate mechanical puppets created with the help of students in the McCoy School of Engineering.

In conjunction with the festival, Cody Bates, Zach Evetts, and Ripp Martin will present a workshop detailing their engineering designs for the production. The Bandersnatch project was recently featured on the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges' website for its innovation in undergraduate research with these robotic creatures.

Others universities and colleges participating in the festival are:

         Flipside: The Patti Page Story (a new musical - book by Greg White featuring the music of Patti Page), University of Central Oklahoma

         The Glory of Living by Rebecca Gilman, Centenary College of Louisiana

         Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Oklahoma City University

         The Zoo Story by Edward Albee, Rich Mountain Community College

         Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, University of Oklahoma