Rusty Ruth, associate professor of theatre at Wayne State College, will receive a Road Warrior Award during the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) for Region 5.
Ruth is one of three Road Warrior Award recipients who will be honored at the festival Sunday, Jan. 19-25, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Region 5 consists of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Ruth, who grew up in Deadwood, South Dakota, has worked professionally as an actor, stage manager, and assistant director for The Black Hills Playhouse, Dakota Players, and Highland Summer Theatre. He also served as the director of theatre at Mount Marty College and Lincoln Trail College, and as the executive artistic director for the Spencer Community Theatre in Spencer, Iowa.
Ruth’s passions are teaching acting, directing, dramatic literature, and stage dialect courses. Some plays he’s been involved with as an actor and director include “The Squirrels,” “Eurydice,” “She Kills Monsters,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “God of Carnage,” “November,” “Betrayal,” “Bus Stop,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” and “Of Mice and Men.”
Ruth is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and a member of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education where he currently serves as the conference planner for the focus group Theatre as a Liberal Art.
Ruth earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in Theatre from the University of South Dakota, and his master of fine arts degree in Directing from Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn.
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According to its website, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students annually from colleges and universities across the country. KCACTF aims to encourage, recognize, and celebrate the finest and most diverse work produced in university and college theater programs; provide opportunities for participants to develop their theater skills and insight, and achieve professionalism; improve the quality of college and university theater in the United States; and encourage colleges and universities to give distinguished productions of new plays, especially those written by students; the classics, revitalized or newly conceived; and experimental works.
Since its inception, KCACTF has given more than 400,000 college theater students the opportunity to have their work critiqued, improve their dramatic skills, and receive national recognition for excellence. More than 16 million theatergoers have attended approximately 10,000 festival productions nationwide.
