Festival 58 Faculty Awards

KENNEDY CENTER GOLD MEDALLION

Casey Paradies

South Dakota State University

Casey Paradies is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC and holds a BA and MA in Theatre from UND and an MFA in Theatre Directing from The University of South Dakota. He is also an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and currently teaches theatre at South Dakota State University.  Casey is also a level 1 certified actor combatant with Dueling Arts International in rapier, small sword, and quarterstaff.  While musical theatre is his wheelhouse Casey’s research and teaching interests lie in performance style; specifically ancient Greek, Shakespeare, Commedia del’Arte and movement techniques. He has danced across the Midwest and upper-East Coast and 6 countries in Europe with Up with People’s: Roads.  Professionally he has played a variety of roles including The Emcee in Cabaret, Ensemble in Chicago, Will Parker in Oklahoma! Lord Montague in Romeo and Juliet, and was a founding actor of Jack DyVille’s NYC company F.A.C.T.  He received accolades from BroadwayWorld.com and The Kennedy Centers American College Theatre Festival for his adaptation of the Medieval Mystery Plays. As a director/choreographer Casey has helmed many productions around the Midwest including Shrek, Mary Poppins, Fiddler on the Roof), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Full Monty, Macbeth, Newsies, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Footloose, Oklahoma, Nunsense, Grease, and most recently Jesus Christ Superstar. He has served as a teaching artist for Sleepy Hollow Summer Theatre, and for the International Music Camp.   Casey has served as a respondent for KCACTF Region 5 for many years and last year received the Road Warrior Award.  He has also coordinated the drag show for the past 8 years.   He is honored to be a part of KCACTF Region 5 and revels in seeing his at home students and his region students succeed in all of their artistic endeavors.

Hannah Joyce

& Playwrights' Center

Hannah Joyce is a multi-faceted arts administrator, producer, educator and champion of new play development. As Director of Professional Resources and Education at Playwrights’ Center, a position she has shaped for over a decade, Hannah and her team foster ongoing vitality, visibility, opportunities and connection among theatre creators all over the world. During her five-year stint as the producing artistic director of the legendary William Inge Theatre Festival, Hannah curated multi-tiered opportunities for engagement, honoring major playwrights like two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage. A frequent participant in the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival, Hannah mentors student writers from across the nation. Along her dynamic journey through the arts, Hannah’s worked with The St. Louis Rep, The Black Rep, Prison Performing Arts, and That Uppity Theater Company's DisAbility Project, among many others. A proud mother of two and the eldest of eight, Hannah is devoted to the power of story and the many communities from which they emerge.

Founded in 1971 by six writers seeking artistic and professional support, Playwrights’ Center today serves more playwrights in more ways than any other organization in the country. One of the nation’s most generous and well-respected theater organizations, Playwrights’ Center focuses on both supporting playwrights and promoting new plays to production at theaters across the country. The Center has helped launch the careers of numerous nationally recognized artists, notably Daniel Alexander Jones, Lee Blessing, Carlyle Brown, Sheila Callaghan, Karl Gadjusek, Marcus Gardley, Idris Goodwin, Sarah Gubbins, Jordan Harrison, Jeffrey Hatcher, Craig Lucas, Martyna Majok, Melanie Marnich, Qui Nguyen, Kira Obolensky, and August Wilson. Work developed through Center programs has been seen nationwide on such stages as The Guthrie, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, The Public, Woolly Mammoth, and many others.

REGION 5 ROAD WARRIOR

Trevor Belt

Baker University

Trevor Belt is an Associate Professor and the Director of Theatre at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas. For Baker’s Music and Theatre Department, he serves as the primary director, designer, and technical director on university productions, as well as teaching coursework in acting, stagecraft, theatre history, literature, design, public speaking and academic writing. Professionally, his work as an actor and director has been seen throughout the Midwest, in venues like Music Theatre Heritage, Spinning Tree Theatre, The Paul Bunyan Playhouse, Highland Summer Theatre, The Western Playhouse, The Kansas City Fringe Festival, Maples Repertory Theatre, and alongside acting icons Ken Jennings and Da’Vine Joy Randolph at the Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock, Missouri. He is the former Director of Theatre at Allen Community College, and was the Founding Artistic Director for Relevance Productions, based in Kansas City. He is a proud graduate of State Fair Community College, the University of Central Missouri, and Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Sarah Belfrage Honerman

Minot State University

Sarah Belfrage Honerman (she/they) is the Director of Theatre at Minot State University. Belfrage Honerman grew up in the Midwest, originally from Sioux Falls, SD. Her youth was spent in a variety of ways, but none as significantly as her time in a darkened theatre. From watching her father play President Franklin Roosevelt to playing roles such as Milady in The Three Musketeers and the Princess of France in William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labors Lost, Belfrage Honerman has cultivated a diverse background and love of the art.

As a veteran educator, with over a decade of experience in the classroom and working in the theatre, Belfrage Honerman has developed specialized interests in the field. She has built and grown an award-winning high school theatre department. As a graduate student at Minnesota State University, Mankato (MNSU), she learned the craft of intimacy education and choreography. She has been hired to provide master classes and choreography for varying schools and productions. This work and her continued development of innovative education led to Belfrage Honerman being awarded as a Leader of the Pack from Northern State University and a Woman of Courage and Vision from the MNSU President’s Commission on the Status of Women. She is also a proud associate member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers union, a distinction that she earned as the Region V 2021 SDC Fellow from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Belfrage Honerman’s interest and engagement in learning more about intimacy education led to her being awarded the first ever Intimacy Education Fellowship from Theatrical Intimacy Education. She is currently working towards her Intimacy Director Certification with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators.

Doris Nash

Iowa State University

Doris Nash is a 1991 graduate of Iowa State with a degree in clothing and textiles; Doris has been the ISU Theatre costume shop supervisor since 1989. She has designed costumes for several productions, including A Christmas Carol, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Kiss Me, Kate, Treasure Island, Little Women, and Orpheus in the Underworld. Her summer employment has been with theaters such as the Santa Fe Opera, Emporia State University Summer Theatre, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Doris is an Iowa native and sings with Good Company and Ames Choral Society. She also has a BM in vocal performance from Coe College. In 2007, she bought a house, and shares it with two very spoiled cats! In 2008 she realized a lifelong dream and appeared on Jeopardy!, winning one game

NAAT/KCACTF ACTING TEACHER OF EXCELLENCE

Mollie Young

Wayne State College

Mollie M. Young earned her Bachelor of Science in Secondary Language Arts with a Field Endorsement from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska in 1997. She later completed her Master of Arts in Theatre Education at the University of Northern Colorado in 2018, deepening her commitment to arts education.

Since 2008, Mollie has had the privilege of teaching theatre at Wayne State College, working alongside students as they explore and develop their craft. She also teaches theatre courses at the University of South Dakota. Beyond the classroom, Mollie serves as an adjudicator and respondent for high school and college productions through KCACTF and Omaha Performing Arts. She values these opportunities to collaborate with directors and actors, offering feedback that supports and celebrates their creative process and artistic growth.