The Theatre Program

• 2007-2008 Theatre Highlight Video (External Link to YouTube)
• Third annual CCC Theatre summer community play announced
• Theatre aims for 100 student department in 2008-2009
• CCC Theatre acquires rights to longest running off-Broadway play
• CCC Theatre Camp for children returns with two summer productions
• Scripts now available for 2008 Summer Children's Theatre production
• Rubber Chicken Factory leads to alumni success
• CCC Theatre alumni working professionally across the U.S.
• Theatre Department Performance Schedule
• Theatre Blog (External Link)

The Coffeyville Community College Theatre Department is one of the largest community college programs in the state of Kansas.  CCC Theatre's professional program gives freshmen and sophomores frequent opportunities to learn, grow, and perform from a variety of assignments and productions: acting, technical productions, playwriting, directing, and designing.  The academic year features seven Main Stage  Season productions (including six Rubber Chicken Factory Improvisational Comedy shows).  We offer a musical, student directed plays, student original plays, contemporary plays, edgy plays, and classical plays of all styles and periods.  All CCC theatre students, regardless of major, are welcomed and encouraged to participate in theatre.  No theatre experience is necessary.  There is no audition required for a theatre scholarship, only a recommendation and an interview.  The Theatre Department on an average has sixty theatre students on scholarship.

Theatre Director

Mark Frank
B.A. Viterbo College
M.F.A. Western Illinois University
Web Site:  www.markfrankplays.com

Mark Frank is enjoying starting his fourteenth year as Theatre/Technical Director at Coffeyville Community College where he has one of the largest community college theatre programs in the state. He has directed and acted in over seventy professional and community productions. Some of his favorites have been, The Color of Slumber, Bat Boy, Greek Soup, Little Shop of Horrors, Agamemnon, Just Being Barry White, No-Code, Peter Pan, The Underpants, Titus Andronicus, Charley's Aunt and The Crucible. During the summer Mark is the Artistic Director of Children’s Summer Theatre. He shares the Artistic Direction of the Rubber Chicken Factory Improvisational Comedy Troupe with his wife Bethanie. He has conducted playwriting, acting, and improvisational comedy workshops at many theatre conventions and festivals in the Midwest. In 2004 he won a Merit Award at the The American College Theatre Festival for Greek Soup for outstanding writing of a Farce. In 2006 and 2007 two of Mark’s plays, Hurricane Iphigenia, Category 5, Tragedy in Darfur, and The Al-Mahmudiyah Incident: The Rape and Murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi were held for consideration for the KCACTF Festival. Mark was named CCC Professor of the Year in 2000 and this year in 2006. He was also honored as the Coffeyville Chamber of Commerce Post-Secondary Educator in the year 2000. In 2001, Mark won the NACADA/ACT (National Academic Advising Association) Outstanding Advisor Award. In 2002 Mark became a published playwright having published A Collection of Plays by Mark Frank and published Volume II in 2005. His plays have been produced at CCC, ICC, Pace University in New York, and at Colorado State University. He has a Bachelors degree in theatre and dance from Viterbo University and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in acting from Western Illinois University.

Spencer/Rounds Performing Arts Theatre

• CCC’s Theatre is a newly remodeled, state-of-the-art facility and one of the most attractive theatres in southeast Kansas.
• 336 seats (thrust seating)
• A brand new light and sound system purchased in 2001 gives students the opportunity to work with the latest equipment.
• $167,000 to renovate theatre donated by CCC alumnus John Rounds in honor of his friend and late CCC alumnus F. Warren Spencer.

World Playwriting Professional Playwriting Program

Each year theatre students are given the opportunity to take the New World Playwriting class at CCC and write their own ten-minute play.  Their play is then staged as a reader's theatre piece at the end of the semester with a cast of their choosing.  Their play is finally produced as a staged production the next academic year as part of the New World Student Directed One-Act Festival held in December.  Each script is then entered into the American College Theatre Festival Ten-Minute Play Competition to be possibly produced at the annual festival.

Photo Albums From Past Performances

Tick...Tick....Boom (Spring 2008)
Rock of Troy (Spring 2008)
Brighton Beach Memoirs (Spring 2008)
Student Directed One Acts (Fall 2007)
Hamlet (Fall 2007)
One Acts Festival (Spring 2007)
The Crucible (Spring 2007)
The Last 5 Years (Spring 2007)
A Christmas Carol Photo Album (Fall 2006)
Hurricane Iphigenia - Category 7 (Tragedy in Darfur) (Fall 2006)
I Swear By the Eyes of Oedipus (Spring 2006)
Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage (Spring 2006)
Ismene (Spring 2006)
Beauty and the Beast (Fall 2005)
Seussical (Summer 2005 Children's Theatre)
The Underpants (Spring 2005)
Bunny, Bunny and Dangerous Dealings (Spring 2005)
Joan (Spring 2005)
Bat Boy, the Musical (Fall 2004)
Oleanna (Fall 2004)
Big River (Spring 2004)
God's Favorite (Spring 2004)
2003 One Act Plays (Fall 2003)
Greek Soup (Fall 2003)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Summer 2003 Children's Theatre)
Titus Andronicus (Spring 2003)
No Code (Spring 2003)
2002 One Act Plays (Fall 2002)
Pippin (Fall 2002)
Agamemnon (Spring 2002)

Transferring To A Four Year College

Each CCC theatre student and non-theatre student that transfers to a four-year college are assisted with application and audition for scholarship money at the four-year college level.  CCC theatre faculty also help ensure that college credits from CCC transfer to the four-year college the student attends.

Children's Summer Theatre

Children's Summer Theatre offers children ages 6-17 an opportunity to perform on the stage.  The children's productions is presented each summer in July and held in the Spencer/Rounds Theatre.  For more information, check out the Children's Summer Theatre Web Site.

Improv

The Rubber Chicken Factory Improvisational Comedy Troupe performs six times a year (three times a semester).  The troupe is run by theatre instructor Bethanie Frank.  To be considered for the troupe, students must enroll in Improvisational classes offered at CCC each semester.  The troupe is cast for the performances by participation, attitude, and performance in the improv classes.  Special permission must be given to enroll in the improv classes.  See the improv website for more information.

Theatre Department Awards/Delta Psi Omega

Each spring the Theatre Department awards an assortment of awards from the past production year in categories of: Outstanding Freshman, Outstanding Sophomore, Outstanding Student Director, and Outstanding Two-Year Theatre Student.  CCC Theatre Students also have the opportunity to be nominated and initiated in Delta Psi Omega, a dramatic fraternity that is an organization run by theatre students from the Theatre Department.

ACTF

Each year the CCC Theatre Department enters one of its plays in the American College Theatre Festival.  The aim of this national education theatre program is to identify and promote quality in college-level theatre productions.  To this end, each production entered is eligible for adjudication by a regional American College Theatre Festival representative.  If selected, the production becomes part of the national festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Students nominated for the Irene Ryan Awards travel to compete at the annual ACTF competition.

Scholarship Information

Theatre performance and technical scholarships are offered each semester to talented students.  These scholarships include tuition for 21 credit hours (maximum) and loan of books for those classes.  Students must return the books at the end of the school session or purchase them.  CCC theatre scholarships are not limited to theatre majors.  Recipients must maintain a 2.5 grade point average and participate in the CCC productions as a cast member or technical staff member and work 30 hours a semester for the theatre department and take two theatre classes a semester (Theatre Production and a three credit theatre class of the student’s choice).  Students who excel academically (3.5 or higher in high school) may be eligible for a Presidential Scholarship.

CCC Theatre Major

Degree:  Associate of Arts
The Theatre curriculum is designed for the student who plans to earn an Associate of Arts degree at CCC and transfer to a four-year college and earn a baccalaureate degree. [Theatre Course Descriptions] 

For More Information

Mark Frank
Director of Theatre
Coffeyville Community College
400 West 11th
Coffeyville, KS  67337
(620) 251-7700, ext. 2145
E-mail:  markf@coffeyville.edu