Actors, puppeteers and approximately a thousand college students from schools located in different states will be visiting Central because of one passion: theatre.

Central will be hosting the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival Region VII the week of Feb. 16-22.

Scott Robinson, chair of the Central theatre department, sees the festival as not only being beneficial for the students involved, but also for the university.

“It really gives Central a good face,” Robinson said. “It’s great to have people come and see what good things we have here at Central. They get a sense of what the university has to offer and we’re making more of an effort to make it a recruitment event for transfer students.”

An aspect somewhat unique to Central is the theatre department’s advantage of having an actual “wig master” on staff. M. Catherine McMillen is one of four regularly certified wig masters in the country.

The Theater Festival has been annually bringing together students and educators for theatre workshops and dramatic meeting of the minds since 1969.

The event includes workshops led by faculty and professionals, keynote speakers, some top reviewed collegiate shows of the area and networking opportunities.

Four of the shows that will be featured at Central will be open to the public.

Among some of the rather interestingly titled workshops offered this year are: “Sex, Power, and Magic as Seen through the Characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Scottish Play,” “Pinterest to Prezi: Tools to help designers and directors start the conversation,” and “Where did we sit on the bus?,” a one man show by hip hop artist Brian Quijada.

Robinson is optimistic about this year’s event at Central.

“I think it is an awesome place for students to see how they compare to other students that are going to be in their same industry,” Robinson said. “It lets them see what that competition is going to be like when they get out into that industry.”

Skyler Gahley, senior theatrical performance major, also sees the Theater Festival as a positive experience ripe with opportunity.

“It’s a lot of fun because you get to experience different teachers from all of the different colleges that come,” Gahley said. “It’s nice to learn under your own teachers but then you get a quick intensive with the guy from Colorado, and then a keynote speaker gives you an hour lecture on their specialty, and things like that. It’s a big week of lots of learning.”

This year Gahley is head student coordinator of the event.

She is also leading a quarterstaff workshop on stage combat.

“Last year was my first year going and I was empowered to be a better artist,” Gahley said.

Patrick Dizney, assistant professor of performance at Central, participated in Theater Festival as an undergraduate and is now in his second year as Vice Chair of Region VII.

He said, in his capacity as an executive member of the conference, people from other regions are constantly requesting to come here.

“Sometimes in this industry we get a little bit competitive. We look at other people like ‘oh, if she gets the role then I won’t get the role,’” Dizney said. “But I think in our region […] we all realize that the competition is yourself.”

This week-long experience also opens doors for students looking for casting, transfers to four-year institutions and internships in the field.

The Theater Festival also allows students to see how different people learn and act differently depending on their environments and experiences.

“It’s great because it’s kind of a yardstick,” Dizney said. “And we all kind of want to look at yardsticks a little bit and say ‘How do we measure up? Where do we fall into this? Are we holding our own? I think we are.’”