MUNCIE, Ind. -- For the second year in a row, the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival has awarded its top national honor to a Ball State University theater professor.

Faculty scenic designer David C. "Kip" Shawger Jr. received the prestigious Gold Medallion at the KC/ACTF Midwest Region III competition Jan. 10-14 in Milwaukee. He was nominated for the award by ACTF regional chair Carolyn Gillespie.

The honor recognizes Shawger’s longtime service and dedication to college theater on the regional and national levels. Ball State theater department chair Don LaCasse earned the same award last year.

Ball State is the first school in the country to have Gold Medallion winners in two consecutive years, Shawger noted.

"It speaks well of the department," he said. "We’re sending out a good message. It’s also a reinforcement that what I’m doing is quality work, and that’s what I strive for."

His award-winning design work also has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, Indiana Arts Commission, U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology and Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Shawger joined the Ball State faculty in 1975 and serves as head of design and resident designer in the Department of Theatre and Dance. He has worked on many Ball State stage productions, and his design students have gone on to graduate programs and theater and film work from New York to Los Angeles.

He has been active in the American College Theatre Festival since 1981 and is the past design chair for the Midwest region. For 10 years he has traveled the region as a member of the executive selection committee, and he still serves on the ACTF’s national design committee.

Shawger’s more than 250 design credits include the New York production of "Pelleas and Melisande" at the Schapiro Theatre and

scenery for American Entertainment Productions, Bitak Productions, Carnival Cruise Lines and the PBS children’s television series "The Adventures of Elmer and Friends."

Today he is designing theme park productions for Elitch Gardens in Denver, Adventureland Park in Des Moines, Iowa, and Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Mo. He has done work for the Peoria Players, Muncie Civic Theatre, Actor’s Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he has been a visiting artist in residence twice.

Shawger’s career also has included acting roles in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest," "1776," "After the Fall" and "Arsenic and Old Lace." He has been published in Theatre Crafts Magazine and other leading theatrical journals and two educational videos.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about this story, contact Kip Shawger at (765) 285-8748 or e-mail: dshawger@bsu.edu)