Fairytales will be brought to life at the second annual Patti Pace Performance Festival at the Black Box Theater Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday Feb. 2.

The festival is put on in honor of the late Patricia Pace, who was a professor and theatre director at Georgia Southern University from 1985 until her death in 2000.

“Conceived by Patti and several others, the Patti Pace Performance Festival was to be a spring retreat that brought together teachers, students, scholars, and artists in a community of discovery,” festival coordinator, Melanie Kitchens said.

The theme for this year’s festival is “Performing Fairytales.” The participants will go through a workshop led by Tracy Stephenson Shaffer that recreates both new and old fairytale stories.

There will be a special guest performance at this year’s festival. “The Tragical, Comical, Ahistorical Adventures of Pinocchio” will be performed by Reilly Theater actors, Christopher Krejci and Derek Mudd on Friday Feb 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the black box theater in the CAT.

The registration deadline to participate in the festival is Jan. 29. Registration is open to both students and faculty. Registration information can be obtained through Rebecca Kennerly, communication arts professor.

The workshop will commence on Friday and on Saturday where the participants will perform short plays that have been created and rehearsed for the past day and a half. The performance is free and open to the public, but some content may not be appropriate for children.

“The student workshop and the final performance of their new, collaborative work at the end of the festival, is my favorite part. I am continually amazed at the creativity and pure guts that students bring to this work. And, it is so much fun too,” Event Coordinator, Kennerly said.

The festival is not meant to be a competitive event. The purpose of the Patti Pace Performance Festival is for performers and directors to receive critical feedback on their show, for students to participate in an acting workshop and have a chance to perform.

“Students are exposed to performance work and students from schools across the nation and to graduate schools and professors too. So, the festival promotes performance studies as a serious discipline in the academy,” Kennerly said.