Category Archives: David Kahn

New Theatre Arts Scholarships Awarded

TRFT Chair David Kahn writes:scholarships

I’m happy to announce the awarding of two external scholarships I secured this year.  Based on a preselection of finalists and an impressive set of audition/interviews yesterday, the committee from the Rossmoor Retirement Community Theatre group awarded a $2000 scholarship to Yoshi Asai and a $1750 scholarship to Alex Draa.  The other finalists, Dani Issa and Will Corkery, were also impressive and the committee was genuinely sorry they couldn’t award all four.  The $2000 Wilcox Scholarship will be awarded on an annual basis to a qualified ongoing theatre student.

Kudos to Professor Kahn for his hard work on behalf of the Department and its students, and congratulations to the winners and finalists!

Come See ZOOT SUIT, Opening April 23

Zoot Suit

Click to enlarge to see dates and times.

Zoot Suit, an award-winning play by SJSU alum Luis Valdez, is being directed by his son, Kinan Valdez and staged at the University Theatre, beginning April 23. A landmark work of Chicano theatre, Zoot Suit also features work by musical director Emiliano Valdez.

Luis Valdez has this to say about the production:

“I wish to thank [David Kahn], Barnaby [Dallas], Buddy [Butler] and the entire support staff at San Jose State for staging such a thrilling production of Zoot Suit at the University Theatre.  I am, of course, enormously proud of Kinan’s direction, and particularly impressed by his ability to distill the best  talents of student actors, dancers, designers, technicians, etc.  For me to see Zoot Suit at my alma mater  is to close a very large circle of dreams and aspirations 50 years wide.   I can only hope the students will be inspired to go out and take on the world when they graduate, taking with them as I did fond memories of their high times at San Jose State.  Abrazos, Luis Valdez.”

Click for a closer look at this amazing production at SJSU.

And check out this news story from NBC Bay Area News and Telemundo’s Comunidad Del Valle.

SAN JOSE STATE DOMINATES BEA: NATION’S BIGGEST STUDENT FILM CONTEST

[PDF OF THIS PRESS RELEASE]bea_festival2014

San Jose State Students and Faculty won the top prizes this year at the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts (the BEA.)

Among the awards: Best in Show; Best Faculty Educational or Instructional Video; second and third in feature-length scriptwriting; and second in short subject scriptwriting. See BEA announcement of winners.

The BEA, established in 1955, is by far the nation’s largest association of Radio-TV-Film programs, with 260 member institutions. Their Festival of Media Arts is the most important student film competition in America.

“No school took more important awards at the festival than we did this year,” said Dept. of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre Chair David Kahn. “It’s time people recognize we have one of the best undergraduate film programs in the CSU system, and maybe the nation.”

bea_festwinner

Winner of Best in Show was ”Always Learning,” a feature-length, student-made film about a 17-year-old home-schooled boy trying to persuade his overprotective mother to let him leave for college. Student writer-director Robert Krakower was home-schooled to the age of 14. “I’m so grateful to San Jose State,” said Krakower. “It’s incredible that they take the risk of letting students direct feature length, and I don’t think I could have picked a more amazing place to study film.” [Follow “Always Learning” on Facebook]

always_learning

 

TRFT students on the set of the BEA award-winning "Best in Show" feature film Always Learning

TRFT students on the set of the BEA award-winning “Best in Show” feature film Always Learning

Krakower’s movie was produced by the SJSU Dept. of Radio, TV, Film and Theatre’s feature film production entity: Spartan Film Studios. It was shot over a summer by 60 students in 26 days, with an almost entirely student crew and cast, supervised by faculty and professionals (Barnaby Dallas and Nick Martinez are department leads for Spartan Film Studios.)

Executive producer Barnaby Dallas said, “San Jose State is unique among the nation’s film programs in that it supports feature-length moviemaking, and Spartan Film Studios has had a string of successful indies written and directed by students and faculty.”

Meanwhile, Prof. of Film Production Babak Sarrafan won the Educational or Instructional Video Award of Excellence for “The Green Ninja Episode 4: Styrofoam Man,” the latest installment in his ongoing series about an environmental ninja. Sarrafan said, “My aim is to make environmental responsibility entertaining. Styrofoam Man was one of the Green Ninja’s most nefarious opponents, but he was action-packed and recycled.”

 green_ninja

San Jose State’s nationally recognized screenwriting program took three top awards, starting with Radio-TV-Film major Kamran Sohrabi’s second place in feature-length student screenwriting for his drama, “I Divorce You, I Divorce You,” the story of an Iranian American family torn apart when a divorce threatens the family business.

“For years now, our brilliant student screenwriters win top awards at the most important student screenwriting contests,” said Prof. of Screenwriting Scott Sublett. “We also took 1-2-3 in feature screenwriting at the most recent CSU Media Arts Festival, and for years our screenwriters have won or placed in the BEA in the scriptwriting categories.”

Placing second in the Short Subject screenwriting category was SJSU MFA Creative Writing major Michael Quintana, for “Blind Date,” about a man who learns about himself on a blind date with a sightless woman.

RTVF major Jarrod Hodgdon won third place in the Feature Scriptwriting category for “Things Are Gonna Change Around Here.”

BEA RESULTS FOR SJSU:

 STUDENT VIDEO COMPETITION

Best of Festival (Narrative): Robert Krakower (writer-director) & Jon Magram (producer), San Jose State University; “Always Learning”

 STUDENT SCRIPTWRITING

Short Subject, 2nd Place: Michael Quintana, San Jose State University; “The Blind Date”

Feature, 2nd Place: Kamran Sohrabi, San Jose State University; “I Divorce You, I Divorce You”

Feature, 3rd Place: Jarred Hodgdon, San Jose State University; Things are Gonna Change Around Here”

 FACULTY VIDEO COMPETITION

Educational or Instructional Video Award of Excellence:  Babak Sarrafan, San Jose State University; “The Green Ninja Episode 4: Styrofoam Man”

[PDF OF THIS PRESS RELEASE]