January 24, 2007
San Diego State University Theatre of the World Festival announces: 10th Year Award Event Awards for Excellence in Innovative Theatre for All Ages
As part of the 10th anniversary celebration, the San Diego State University's Theatre of the World Festival is launching what will become an annual award program.
The 2007 McKerrow Award for Excellence in professional artistry will be
presented to Ric Averill at 8:00 PM on Friday, February 2nd, 2007,
between
performances on the opening night of the Festival.
The McKerrow Award for Excellence in professional artistry is named for
founding artistic director Maggi McKerrow, the recipient of this award
is a
professional theatre artist (playwright, director, designer) who has
distinguished him/herself by creating exceptional, innovative work for
and
about children and youth. A national and/or international reputation
and
multi-year track record of work in this field is essential.
The Festival Committee has selected Ric Averill because of his long record of innovative work in theatre for youth and strong contribution to the field. The award includes an honorarium in addition to the recognition.
Ric Averill has been a guest playwright at the Theatre of the World Festival every other year since 2001. The 2001 Festival included a reading of THE MAN SHE WAS, Ric's play about one of the many women who fought in the Civil War dressed as a man. In 2003 the Festival premiered a staged reading of the bi-lingual play Los Zapatos Magicos; Pedro's Magic Shoes. That play was given a full production at the 2005 Festival. Also, in 2005, the Festival did a staged reading of Ric's newest opera for youth, Grotesque Arabesque, based on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. In addition to receiving the award, Averill's newest play, Theseus and Icarus in the Labyrinth, will be presented as a staged reading. Ric is the founding Artistic Director of the Seem-To-Be Players, a Lawrence, Kansas, based theatre for youth company that tours the United States. Averill is the principle playwright, director and composer for the group based out the Lawrence Arts Center. In addition to his work there, Averill has served on the Boards of ASSITEJ/USA, the International Children's Theatre Association, and IPAY, the International Performing Arts for Youth organization that sponsors an annual Showcase. Averill works as a freelance playwright, director and composer and has had works commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, First Stage Milwaukee, the Coterie Theatre, Nashville Children's Theatre, the Vital Theatre, and the Children's Theatre Company of Sioux Falls.
Ric has composed two operas for children as well as a ballet/drama based on THE SNOW QUEEN. Averill has participated three times in the New Visions/ New Voices play development process, twice as a playwrigtht in the Bonderman IUPUI new play development symposium, and as an actor and director in both. Ric's plays and musicals are published by Dramatic Publishing.
Averill and his actress wife, Jeanne, live in Lawrence, Kansas, and work extensively in theatre and film. Daughter, Patricia, is a secondary school theatre teacher and actress also living in Lawrence and son, Will, currently residing in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom, is the head of the Crude Apache Theatre Company.
And . . . Averill currently has a screenplay co-written by son, Will, in development which will be filmed this summer.