The Kennedy Center Presents New Wilder Award
THE KENNEDY CENTER AMERICAN COLLEGE THEATRE FESTIVAL WILDER AWARD
Against the backdrop of the cosmos, Thornton Wilder celebrated the individual human heart. His plays, novels, and essays offer one of world literature’s finest treatments of our loves, hopes, struggles, and dreams. Honoring his compassion, his understanding, and his radical imagination, which have opened doors for generations of artists past, present and yet to come, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Wilder Award recognizes an individual or program showcasing a ground-breaking, innovative and humanistic achievement that has shown evidence of changing and enriching lives.
Stephanie Lutz, KCACTF 2024 Wilder Award Winner
We are thrilled to announce that the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival presented the inaugural Thornton Wilder Award to Stephanie Lutz for groundbreaking work on the Vectorworks Artificial Intelligence Drafting Tool. Lutz’z project is designed to ultimately create expanded accessibility for disabled individuals in the entertainment industry.
Lutz’s AI Drafting extension project will allow expanded accessibility for disabled individuals and create a new way of interaction with drafting software on the market. It leverages the use of machine learning to give predictions of steps, tools, and ultimately an executable file for direct manipulation of the drafting space. The project is currently in the research development phase.
Stephanie Lutz is a lighting and projection designer from Oakley, CA and is an MFA candidate at University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. She learned C++ and Python coding as a means to help disabled individuals, like herself, with tools and workarounds in software required for theatre. Lutz plans to start a development company for projects that will aid disabled individuals in the entertainment industry. Lutz says “when disabled or underrepresented individuals are accommodated and lifted up, theatre as an entirety rises to new heights.”