Director and graduate of Goshen College (‘88) and Bethany Christian High School (‘84), Bruce A. Hostetler will present the 2015 Roy H. Umble Master Class Jan. 20-24, featuring workshops, a keynote address and a reading of his newest play “Feral.”

Hostetler is currently resident stage director for the Portland Revels, artistic director of CompassWorks, and a freelance theater/opera director, producer and playwright. His four operas have toured the West Coast and his play “Feral” was a hit at the 2013 Fertile Ground Festival in Portland. He is also past president of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance.

“Our goal is always to bring in successful theater artists with a national profile and, in the case of Bruce Hostetler, we’re thrilled that he is also an alumnus of our own GC theater program,” said Doug Caskey, professor and chair of the theater department. “Bruce is eager to share with GC students about his career journey since leaving his ‘Umble Center home.’”

In his 25-year directing career, Hostetler has directed more than 150 theater, musical and opera productions from New York to Santa Cruz. He founded The Backporch Theatre Company in Goshen and directed Shakespeare plays for the Goshen parks system. He was producing director for the Carnegie Mellon Summer New Plays Project, where he worked with playwrights Craig Wright (Pavilion) and Aaron Posner (The Chosen), and from 1999-2003 he worked for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. He holds a master’s degree in directing from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.

Drawn from over 600 interviews with Portlanders experiencing homelessness, Hostetler’s play “Feral” highlights the stories of individuals and families who struggle to retain their self-identity and humanity in the face of homelessness.

The Roy H. Umble Master Class in Communication and Theater was established with gifts from Goshen College alumni who had benefitted from professor Umble’s teaching and inspiration. An initial gift from Janette Brunk in 1994 served as a tribute to both Umble and her parents, Perry and Fern Brunk, who developed an appreciation of theater because of their daughter’s involvement in it. In 1996, alumnus David E. Yoder, one of Umble’s many former students and admirers, initiated a fundraising effort to build an endowment to support a master class.

The Roy H. Umble Master Class brings nationally known practitioners and experts in speech and theater to the Goshen College campus annually for events and activities, which enrich and inspire students, faculty, the broader campus and local church communities.

All events are free and open to the public.