“The big picture of the Southeastern Theater Confer-ence is everyone wants to at-tend,” said Dr. Ken Zimmerman, a Dramatic Arts professor. Jennifer Baumgardner, Maggie Olmstead, Karen Saldana and Kevin Shell made the cut to go to SETC on March 5-8, 2003 in Arlington, Virginia with Dr. Doug Cook and Dr. Ken Zimmerman. But before these four students were selected to attend, they began as a group of seven selected from UTM. In October, the Tennessee Theater Association held auditions in Chattanooga where these four students, plus Ryan Leyhue, Tori Shaw and Trina Tapping, went through individual screenings by judges. If they passed these, they were allowed to attend the SETC. There were over 100 promising actors at the TTA auditions. “This was the third year UTM attended the TTA auditions,” said Dr. Zimmerman. “It says a lot about our students hard work, dedication, preparation and confidence in dramatic arts.” At the conference, 13 states and 700 actors will be involved in the workshops, play competitions and gaining knowledge from keynote speakers over the weekend. There will be combined theater auditions from all of those 13 states, which is 150 to 200 theaters that will send producers and directors to the conference. “This is a great opportunity for me to use the skills I possess.” said Kevin Shell. Dr. Zimmerman describes it as “a 60-second job interview for actors.” Shell had the lead in the recent Vanguard production of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor.