 |
Theatre production opportunities
Children’s theatre (October)
The annual children’s theatre show is faculty designed and directed. It is presented to between 6,000 and 8,000 area schoolchildren and gives theatre students opportunities for physical comedy and exaggerated acting. Recent shows: The Wind in the Willows, The Council and Honk Jr.
Mainstage shows (November, February and April)
To give students experience with all aspects of theatre—producing, directing, acting, lighting, sound, set and costuming—three faculty-designed-and-directed productions occur each year. At least one out of every six shows is a musical. Recent shows: Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey and Galileo. In 2004, the department produced an original musical, And God Said, 10 Old Testament stories taken verbatim from the Bible. Northwestern theatre professor Jeff Barker collaborated with Old Testament scholar Dr. Tom Boogaart on the project. Broadway composer Ron Melrose wrote the production's music.
Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (January)
Every year, Northwestern theatre students attend the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, a gathering of students from undergraduate and graduate theatre programs in an eight-state region. Northwestern students often earn recognition in acting, design and playwriting competitions. Regional winners travel to the national festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; five Northwestern College theatre students have earned this distinction so far.
World premiere festival (March)
The work of Northwestern’s student playwrights hits the stage annually in a spring festival of original plays, both one-act and full length. The student-written, directed and acted shows are an opportunity for theatre students and others on campus to try a variety of theatre roles. In 2005 students produced the full-length play Master's Degree by Megan Hodgin '06, about her family's experience with her mother's breast cancer.
Professional theatre (summer)
Jeff and Karen Barker are founding members of Eastcheap Theatre Collection, a company that attracts other professional artists to Orange City in the summer. Recently, students had the opportunity to work alongside Eastcheap’s professional artists to present Spinning into Butter, by Rebecca Gilman, about the challenges of diversity on a mostly white campus.
|
|
|
|
 Theatre and speech |
|
|
|
