Playwrights present original one-acts

Northwestern College students will present 13 new plays during the 13th annual World Premiere Festival March 28 and 29. Performances begin at 6 p.m. each night in the England Theatre of the DeWitt Theatre Arts Center. Community members are invited to attend the free event, and to come and go between performances.

Reheat, by senior Cody Bauer, is a comedy about a hasty marriage arrangement for Claire, who’s pregnant. The play will be directed by junior Jon Manchester. Margareta DeBoer plays Claire. Other actors are Benjamin Bees, Andrew Norris and Micah Trapp.

Senior Vaughn Donahue will direct Bees’ play Eye of the Beholder, about an artist gaining a view beyond what he sees. Bees is a junior. Actors in the drama are Brady Greer Huffman and Phil Kosakowski.

Experimentation on Predestined Orientation and the Fixing of Neurohormones in Sheep, written by junior Amanda Bracklein and directed by Drew David Vander Werff, also a junior, will star Tucker Schneider, James Gordon Thomas III and Professor Karen Barker. In the play, a mother eavesdrops on a conversation between her son and his boyfriend.

DeBoer, a junior, wrote Last Call, a comedy about romance and untimely bathroom breaks. Junior Hannah McBride will direct Josh Doorenbos, Samantha Olson and Nick Rohlf.

Brandon Assmann, Ian Dudley and Emily Kingsley will act in Dirtier, about addiction. The play was written by Doorenbos, a junior; sophomore Baylie Heims will direct.

Senior Jean Punt will direct Love is Like Falling, by Sarah Dee Hollibaugh, also a senior. The drama about feminism and marriage stars Kristen Olson-Jones and Bryce Vander Stelt.

Hot Air Balloons, Hemlock and Howard, by junior Kelly Holtom, is about an elderly couple facing debilitating illness and lost dreams. Actors are Vander Stelt and Michelle Becker. They will be directed by junior Libby Burkitt.

Greer Huffman’s Soft, about moving friendship to romance, will be directed by Punt. Bracklein and Cody Raak have roles in the production.

Greer Huffman, a junior, will direct Tortellini Carbanara, by senior Matt Hulstein. The story of Mark, stood up by his date, and Angie, a pregnant waitress, will be acted by Manchester, McBride and Schneider.

Relationships are also a theme in For the Love of Richard Simmons by Britta Kaltenbach, a senior. Hollibaugh and Eduardo Rodriguez are acting.

Punt’s play Painful Experiences explores the lessons to be learned through physical pain. Dudley, Anna Korver and Jen Shafer star in the drama. They will be directed by Bracklein.

Shattered to Roses by Raak is a scene between a musician and his girlfriend, who is torn between two job offers. Sophomore Marit Langley will direct Doorenbos and Valerie Love.

I Think I Know You, by junior Hannah Sauerwein, is also about frustration brought on by art and relationships. Hollibaugh will direct Kory Jensen, Susan Schoenrock and Samantha Schouweiler.

For the order and approximate start times of the world premiere one-acts, contact Kelly Van Marel, DeWitt Theatre Arts Center manager, 712-707-7341 or kvanmar@nwciowa.edu.