WWU Theatre Production of ‘#HereToo – WWU' Earns Three Kennedy Center Awards 

Western Washington University’s original production of “#HereToo – WWU,” a company-created play drawn largely from interviews with young activists confronting the gun violence epidemic in America, has won three awards from the Kennedy Center.  

The awards received were the Citizen Artist Award, Distinguished Company-Generated or Devised Work, and Outstanding Lead Devisers of a Company-Generated Work.  

#HereToo – WWU explores stories of gun violence, survivors and activism and was first staged last summer as part of Western Summer Theatre and was re-staged last November at Western’s Performing Arts Center. The play was also performed at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s regional festival in Fort Collins, Colorado, last February. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of our entire department for this recognition brought to WWU’s Theatre & Dance by the artists involved in devising and performing #HereToo - WWU. The Citizen Artist award demonstrates best the heart of our training and course work in our bachelor’s degree – to engage one’s artistry in service of social justice,” said Western Professor of Theatre and Dance Rich Brown. 

This marks Brown’s second Outstanding Lead Deviser award from the Kennedy Center; the first came in 2012 for his work on “US.”  

The production of #HereToo - WWU involved collaboration with Barbara Pitts McAdams, a long-time member of the award-winning Tectonic Theatre Project of New York City. 

“To collaborate with Barbara Pitts-McAdams, a founding member of the Tectonic Theatre Project, and earn national recognition from the Kennedy Center for a second time demonstrates that WWU Theatre has earned its national presence in the devised theatre training world,” Brown said. 

For more information about the Kennedy Center awards or #HereToo – WWU,” contact Western Washington University Professor of Theatre and Dance Rich Brown at rich.brown@wwu.edu.