By Gerard Flanagan, news writer/photographer/social media, Office of University Communications

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Lauren Phillips, a senior at Campbellsville University from Campbellsville, Ky., has been selected to attend the national festival of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) as the Region IV representative of the Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy (ITJA).

The national festival will take place the first week of May in a virtual format.

Phillips, one of eight students selected to attend the national festival for ITJA, is the first Campbellsville University representative at the national festival.

“We're very excited CU will be represented in this way,” Starr Garrett, theatre director and professor of theatre, said. “It just shows the caliber of her work and artistry. It speaks highly of who she is and the education she received here at CU.”

For the national festival, Phillips worked with journalists from the New York Times and a freelance journalist who worked with American Theatre Magazine to write pitches for a production and a critique of a show.

Phillips also participated with ITJA during the regional festival and during nationwide ITJA programming led by Ashley Lee, a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and the national ITJA coordinator. Lee selected Phillips' writing to represent Region IV at the National Festival.

“All of that work together is what got her to the festival,” Garrett said. “When CU students participate in festival events, they are competing against schools of all sizes, including graduate programs, from those institutions.”

Phillips will graduate from Campbellsville University in May with a Bachelor of Science in Theater. She is minoring in film.

By finishing in the top nine of more than 300 entries, Phillips was a finalist in the Irene Ryan Scholarship Auditions.

Region IV of ITJA includes Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Phillips has received a nomination to next year's national festival for her sound design of the recent university production “Eurydice.”

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university that has enrolled up to 12,000 students yearly. The university offers over 100 programs of study including doctoral, masters, bachelors, associate and certification programs. The website for complete information is www.campbellsville.edu.