WWU Theatre students win awards at Region 7 American College Theatre Festival in Pasco

WWU Theatre students won several awards during the recent Region 7 2026 American College Theatre Festival. Region 7 includes Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming, along with Hawaii and northern sections of Nevada and California. 

Western’s production of “Tartuffe” was selected by the conference leadership as one of two shows to highlight as the best work in the region and Adriana Agudelo and partner Eva Nguyen won the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition out of 122 participants. “Tartuffe” played to a sold-out evening performance at the conference.

“Winning the regional Irene Ryan acting competition for the last four years in a row, with one runner-up, is testament to the rigor and quality of education our students receive from these amazing faculty every day,” said WWU Theatre’s Chair Rich Brown. “I tell prospective students that we’ve been damn good for a long time, and now we are truly great. It’s always been our goal to be the premiere undergraduate theatre training program in the region; I’d say we’ve reached that goal.”

Western student Cady Adair won the Irene Ryan Comedy Award; Ava Nicholas won the Irene Ryan VASTA Award (Voice and Speech Trainers Association); Cassie Kiger won the Undergraduate Scholarly Paper Award; Finn Pignataro was a runner-up for the Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy Award; Beezus Murphy won the Full-Length Play competition; Eva Nyguen won the One-Act Play competition; Bella Andrade-Schwab won the 10-Minute Play competition — all three plays will advance to nationals; and the production team of “Tartuffe” won the Golden Hand Truck Award for safe load-in and load-out. 

Western has won the regional competition for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition three times in the past four years. Last year, Ella Newborn won second in the nation.

The national competition will be a virtual festival this year, and in Minneapolis at the Guthrie Theatre in the future. 

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Frances Badgett covers the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Fine and Performing Arts Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at badgetf@wwu.edu.