ISU receives national recognition for musical theater performance
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POCATELLO — Idaho State University has earned four national awards for its production of the musical “Ordinary Days,” which was featured at the Black Box Theater in February and March 2021.
The awards were conferred during the recent Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, held virtually by the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
Idaho State Theater and Dance received awards for Special Achievement in the Production of a Musical, Special Achievement in Production Design and Special Achievement in Production and Performance Ensemble Unity, according to a news release from the university. And one of the performers, student Allysia Peine, took home the Special Achievement in Individual Performance.
The play, according to director and former faculty member Stefan Espinosa, explores the lives of four people dealing with loneliness despite living in the bustling New York City. That theme, Espinosa said in the release, was something easily relatable in the midst of a pandemic.
Due to COVID-related restrictions, the performance was live-streamed from an empty theater. And actors performed from inside of plexiglass “pods.”
“Putting on a performance during a pandemic offered challenges, but also opportunities,” Espinosa said. … “Necessity is the mother of invention, so they say, and the process of producing a musical during the pandemic led us to develop new ways of telling stories. We worked hard to turn COVID restrictions into an opportunity to create the art we love in a new way.”