New Paltz student wins Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Award

NEW PALTZ – “The Dark I Know,” a musical written and directed by State University of New York at New Paltz student Alex Eisen and New York University student John Watts, was awarded the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Musical Theatre Award for 2013.

Eisen, a graduating senior at New Paltz, wrote the libretto and lyrics, and Watts was the project’s composer. New Paltz professor Stephen Kitsakos served as faculty mentor and helped craft and develop the script and the score.

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Musical Theatre Award 2013 recipient Alex Eisen and faculty mentor, Stephen Kitsakos.

“The Dark I Know” is the story of a photojournalist and her son in Germany who become involved with a Jewish family during the 1929 to 1939 rise to power of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party. The project was produced by Black Box productions and presented in fall 2012 at the Parker Theatre on the campus of New Paltz.

The (KCACTF) Musical Theatre Award comes with a $1,500 cash award, an expense-paid invitation to attend the National Festival in Washington, D.C. this spring, memberships in the Dramatists Guild and the Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis, and a professional development residency.

Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the KCACTF is a national theatre program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide, which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theatre in the United States.