Irene Ryan Scholarship nomination Neal Echols, has been nominated for an Irene Ryan Scholarship By Staff Writer Washington, DC :Neal Echols (04), has been nominated by the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival, for an Irene Ryan Scholarship. It was Neal's portrayal of Robert, a brilliant, but aging mathematician, in David Auburn's pulitzer prize winning play "Proof", that garnered Neal the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) nomination. Neal will travel to Jacksonville, Florida this March to compete against other actor nominees from Georgia. He must prepare an audition package which must include a scene (with a partner),a song and a monologue. If passed on as the winner of the region, Neal will have to perform the same package later next year at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in front of the KCACTF board as well as Broadway "scouts" and agents from national tours across the country. The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States