Miami University Assistant Professor
of Theater, Howard Blanning, nominated Berning
for the award. Berning wrote the play for Dr.
Blanning's English 314 class, “Playwriting.”
“Dr. Blanning gave us stipulations and
limitations with the assignment,” Brandon
said. “He told us to keep it in one room,
on one day….”
According to Berning, the main character finds
himself trapped in a white room adorned with
pictures of his life. There is another person
in the room also struggling, both characters
trying to define their lives.
While admitting some excitement, Berning, already
a veteran of modeling and acting, remains reserved
and calm about the honor.
“I guess I am surprised as far as my
writing is concerned,” he said. “I
was a high school drop out, messed around, experimented
with the wrong things. I was a low-level student
who didn't’t try until one day someone
told me to go to college.”
Since then, his success has been a shock to
him. Married for two years, Berning has a two-year-old
daughter and a one-month-old son. He works in
a chiropractic office and continues to model
while attending Miami Hamilton full time. He
plans to continue his studies in pre-med, unless
more doors open in playwriting. This spring,
A Painted Life, will open on the Hamilton campus.
Berning is one of 18,000 students to benefit
from The KCACTF, a national theater program
involving students from colleges and universities
nationwide, which has served as a catalyst in
improving the quality of college theater in
the United States. The program has grown into
a network of more than 600 academic institutions
throughout the country, where theater departments
and student artists showcase their work and
receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.
Illinois State University and Eureka College
co-hosted the regional event. In addition to
playwriting, students competed in theater productions
and the areas of acting, design, and criticism.
Among the festival guests were actor and Illinois
State alumnus Gary Cole (“Midnight Caller,”
“Fatal Vision,” the Brady Bunch
movies and, currently, “The West Wing”),
Curt Columbus of Steppenwolf Theatre Company,
Curt Toftel and of the Kentucky Shakespeare
Festival and Western Illinois University President
Al Goldfarb, former provost at Illinois State
and a professor of theatre history. |
