Posted: January 24, 2018Written by: Lauren Milbourne

Tags: 2017, featured, press release

Cuesta College’s award-winning Drama Department is once again gearing up to compete on the national stage. The production of Man of La Mancha, first debuting at Cuesta College in October of 2017, was chosen from among hundreds of schools to compete at the 2018 Kennedy Centre American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) in Mesa, AZ, February 19-23. Cuesta College is one of six colleges featured at KCACTF this year; this is the third Cuesta College Drama Department production to compete at the annual KCACTF in the past five years.

Prior to the competition, the public can catch a showing of Man of La Mancha as the cast and crew will reprise the production during the following dates and times in the Cuesta College Performing Arts Center’s Experimental Theater:

  • Friday, February 2, 7:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, February 3, 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, February 4, 2:00 p.m.
  • Friday, February 9, 7:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, February 10, 2:00 p.m.
  • Sunday, February 11, 2:00 p.m.

Set during the Spanish Inquisition and based on the 17th-century novel Don Quixote, the college’s drama students perform the poignant and rousing musical within the confines of a prison. The production also includes a gypsy/flamenco quintet of professional musicians.

“Man of La Mancha tells the romantic journey of a knight who sets out to right all wrongs and win the heart of the woman he loves,” said Director and Cuesta College Performing Arts Instructor bree valle.* “The show is filled with soaring music, romance, fantasy, and heartfelt gallantry.”

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at tickets.cuesta.edu or reserved by calling (805) 546-3198. All proceeds support student travel expenses to the KCACTF competition.

National and international acclaim for the Cuesta College Drama Department began in the spring of 2014 when original play pool '63 received five national awards from the KCACTF. In the spring of 2015, the Kennedy Center selected pool ’63 as the United States representative at the 2015 International University Theatre Festival (IUTF) in Mexico City. In the spring of 2016, the cast and crew of the college’s theatrical production Refried Elvis received six awards from the Kennedy Center after being featured at the 2016 KCACTF in Oahu, HI.

For questions about the college’s Drama Department, please call (805) 546-3195. For more information on the KCACTF Regional Festival 2018, visit their website.

*bree valle does not capitalize her first or last name.