The show goes on

GSU alumna Melanie Kitchens honors memory of mentor

January 11, 2010 Connect Special

    Is the world really a stage? Georgia Southern alumna Melanie Kitchens would be happy if it is. Kitchens has been the head organizer of the Patti Pace Performance Festival since 2008. The Communication Arts Department in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Georgia Southern University will host the Patti Pace Performance Festival Jan. 29-30, in the Center for Art and Theatre.
    The festival is funded in part by a grant from the Campus Life Enrichment Committee. No-cost, open-campus registration will begin in early Jan. of 2010. Registration deadline is Fri., Jan. 22. Seating is limited so early registration is recommended.
    TO REGISTER, email rkennerly@georgiasouthern.edu. Indicate “Pace Registration” in the subject line; include names, student or faculty, and department in the body. Registrants will receive a schedule events and other important festival information.
    Dr. Rebecca Kennerly, assistant professor in the Communication Arts Department, is the local contact person and invited keynote speaker. She has been working with University of Georgia instructor and head organizer Melanie Kitchens in preparing for the festival.
    While Kitchens was an undergraduate communication arts student majoring in theater at GSU, Dr. Patricia (Patti) Pace was her professor and mentor. Pace encouraged her to continue her education. Kitchens received her Masters of Arts in communication studies and her Ph.D. in performance studies from Louisiana State University. Kitchens taught performance classes at LSU and is an accomplished performer and director, having staged numerous shows in the Black Box Theater at LSU and at regional and national conferences. “I wouldn’t have done any of that without the help of Patti,” Kitchens said.
    Pace served as a teacher and theater director at GSU from 1985 until she passed away in 2000. While at GSU, she and fellow colleagues organized a performance festival. However, Pace passed away before the first festival was convened in 2001 on St. Simons Island, Ga. The festival was named in Patti’s honor the following year.
    As stated by Pace and other festival organizers, the Patti Pace Performance Festival is a spring retreat bringing “together teachers, students, scholars, and artists in a community of discovery.”
    The Patti Pace Performance Festival is a non-competitive performance festival, allowing students and professionals to “be together in an environment that feels safer and more intimate than a conference,” Kitchens said.
    The festival will come to GSU for the first time Jan. 29-30, 2010. The theme will be “Returning Home: The Poetics of Nostalgia.” To Kitchens, nostalgia is something that should be viewed in a positive light. “People harp on nostalgia as a negative thing. We are trying to look at the positives: going home and embracing the memories and embracing the changes and embracing who we are,” Kitchens said.
    Since GSU is the home of Pace’s theater family and where her husband Professor Richard Flynn continues to teach, Kitchens believes the theme is appropriate. “We are very excited to bring the festival to Statesboro,” she said.
    This year in addition to invited lecturers and performers, Kitchens and festival co-producer Lisa Flanagan from LSU will conduct a performance workshop for undergraduate students, allowing them to perform, network, and learn about their chosen field.
    For more information on the Patti Pace Performance Festival, please contact co-organizer Rebecca Kennerly at (912) 478-7325 or at rkennerly@georgiasouthern.edu.

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