Three Goshen College students participated in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Region III Festival over winter break. Dontaye Albert and Fatima Rhana, two first-year theater majors, participated in an acting competition while Sarah Bailey, a sophomore theater and sign language interpreting double major, entered a directing competition. Albert was awarded the Irene Ryan Selection Drama Award, while Bailey directed the winning team in the Design Storm competition. The acting competition included many steps.  “You audition with a monologue, and if you make it to the semifinals, you have to do a different monologue and a scene,” Rhana said. “If...

By Phil Witmer-Rich • January 28, 2022 • Arts

This weekend in Umble Theater, the Goshen College Theater Department will present its fall mainstage production, Brooklyn Bridge by Melissa James Gibson.  When Sasha, a fifth-grade latch-key kid, can’t locate a pen to write her due-tomorrow report on the Brooklyn Bridge, she musters the guts to defy her mother’s restrictions and leave their apartment for assistance. There, in front of the gorgeous bridge, she encounters a diverse group of neighbors, each unique in their own way but all sharing a profound good-heartedness.  This lighthearted play celebrates the creation of things such as research papers, bridges and communities. Sasha discovers along...

By Mariela Esparza • November 11, 2021 • Arts

Last weekend, Goshen College’s theater department presented their first fall performance of the year with Barbara Lindsay’s play Heavenly Light. Lindsay’s play takes place in a dystopian-like world and follows freedom fighter Lucinda Celeste, who goes on a journey toward self-discovery and reclaiming one’s voice. “Even when things are hard … and she is broken … she is still finding good in the world,” said Abigail Greaser, the director of the play. This is Lindsay’s second time winning the Goshen Peace Play award, a contest surrounding peace. The winning play is performed each year, but due to COVID-19, Heavenly Light...

By Jakyra Green • October 7, 2021 • Arts

The theater department will be kicking off their 2021-22 season with in-person performances of the winner of the 2020 Goshen College Peace Play Contest: Barbara Lindsay’s Heavenly Light directed by Abigail Greaser.  The Goshen College Peace Play Contest is the only annual contest dedicated exclusively to plays concerning peace and peace-associated topics in the United States.  Typically, the winning play is performed each year, but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production of Heavenly Light was postponed for one year. This fall is the first time the script will premiere on the stage.  Adapted from a different body of her...

By Mariela Esparza • September 9, 2021 • Arts

The Goshen Theater Department’s 2020-2021 COVID-19 Season continues this upcoming weekend with “Orfeo ed Euridice.” Composed by Christoph Willibald Glück in 1762, “Orfeo ed Euridice” is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Orpheus travels to the underworld to rescue his wife Eurydice after she dies of a snake bite. In the opera version of the story, love triumphs, and Orpheus is successful in his mission to save Eurydice. However, according to Amy Budd, assistant professor of theater, “Orfeo ed Euridice” didn’t always have a happy ending. “[Orfeo ed Euridice] was a commission… for the name...

By Patrick Webb • March 25, 2021 • Arts

If Amy Budd’s life could be portrayed as a meal she was preparing, it would be a pot of uncertainty simmering on her kitchen stove. Among its main ingredients: moving to a new place and starting a new job, all seasoned heartily with the presence of a global pandemic. Budd keeps a watchful eye on the pot but doesn’t let it stress her out as she enjoys her oats and yogurt. Though her daily routine is “never the same twice,” Goshen College’s newest theater professor always makes time to sit down and eat a good breakfast. This is especially important...

By Riley Borntreger • March 18, 2021 • Features

Student-led productions are taking the (virtual) stage this semester. Gloria Bontrager-Thomas, a third-year theater major, and Abigail Greaser, a fifth-year theater and music major, are preparing to direct productions for Goshen College’s 2021 Winter One-Acts performance. Bontrager-Thomas is relatively new to directing, but not to the realm of theater. She is currently serving as stage manager for GC’s spring mainstage.  “I’m a stage manager by trade and practice,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in directing but haven’t really had the opportunity until now. I took a directing class last semester and was able to … learn the craft.” Greaser...

By Augusta Nafziger • January 21, 2021 • Arts

When Goshen College’s campus shut down last March, the cast of “Cymbeline” was only two weeks away from opening night. “Cymbeline,” the theater department’s spring mainstage, was then put on hold as performing in front of a live audience was no longer possible. The cast and production teams eventually chose to postpone the play until this fall, when it could be presented in a nontraditional format. “We thought about moving immediately to a Zoom format and finishing the production right away,” said Anna Kurtz Kuk, associate professor of theater. “We thought about doing something online during May term or perhaps...

By Erica Gunden • October 22, 2020 • Arts

The Goshen College Theater Department presented its first program of the 2020-2021 theater season this past weekend as a part of Goshen College’s virtual Homecoming Weekend.  A livestreamed production of “Peace, Play, Pandemic: A Virtual Theater Experience” revisited the winning works of the 2008 and 1984 Goshen College Peace Play Contests: Here to Serve You by Barbara Lindsay and After the First Death by Richard Stayton.  Here to Serve You was presented as a stage performance, while After the First Death was presented in a split-screen Zoom format. Both plays were pre-recorded.  In order for the productions to take place,...

By Augusta Nafziger • October 8, 2020 • Arts

Almost 20 years ago, Seattle playwright Barbara Lindsay had an idea: a former freedom fighter summoned back into action. Many years and several iterations of the story later, Lindsay is now the 2020 winner—and the only second-time honoree—of the Goshen College Peace Play Contest. Lindsay is an award-winning playwright and actor from Santa Monica, California, currently settled in Seattle with her husband. Her plays and monologues have been performed worldwide and in over 30 states, though Lindsay says she never intended to become a professional playwright. She wanted to become a theatrical actress and only began writing while studying as...

By Emmalene Rupp • September 3, 2020 • Arts

Twenty-nine performers. Three shows. One show-stopping weekend. In the latest installment of the Goshen College theater department’s “Season of Love and Light,” the college’s music and theater departments worked together to showcase a variety of musical theater and operatic scenes.  “A Musical Cabaret of Love and Light” was performed over Valentine’s Day weekend: Feb. 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m., as well as a matinee at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16. While this was not the first time a cabaret like this was performed, 2020 marked the first time the scenes made their way to the Umble stage from...

By Cristina Jantz • February 21, 2020 • Arts

The 2020 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) in Madison, WI proved once again that not even freezing temperatures can stop theater kids. The nationwide festival is broken into regions, with the Region 3 midwestern schools meeting annually to network, advance learning and showcase their craft with like-minded students and faculty. Goshen College takes a group to the festival every year, with many participants attending to compete or partake in weeklong intensives. This year’s group of 17 was no exception. In the technical element competitions, Shianne Harrison, junior, and Jonah Yoder, class of ‘19, both featured work from the...

By Olivia Smucker • January 16, 2020 • Arts

Winter is coming — to the Umble Center, that is. The Goshen College Theater Department will continue this year’s “Season of Love and Light” with their production of “Almost, Maine” by John Cariani. It opens this Friday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. and will run through Sunday, Nov. 24. Almost, Maine is a fictional town that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States. On a cold, clear, winter night as the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, the town’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways. “I think...

By Cristina Jantz • November 13, 2019 • Arts

There’s only one time of year where improvised TED talks and live action YouTube videos are to be expected: Bad Theater for a Good Cause. The second annual event on Sunday, Nov. 3, had the audience in stitches with student performances of acts and topics that wouldn’t normally grace the Umble Center stage. From a “Hamlet” soliloquy delivered in the style of Hank Hill to speed dating with characters from musicals, students get to bring their best “bad theater” to the stage. The “Good Cause,” of course is that in order to attend the show, audience members must make food...

By Olivia Smucker • November 6, 2019 • Arts

Spooky season has arrived and with it comes copious amounts of candy, haunted houses, hayrides and Skelton. Yes, Skelton, you read that correctly. Red Skelton.    There are many local theater companies in the area, but none quite compare to Premier Arts, a community theater based out of Elkhart. From larger Broadway-like productions to smaller, more intimate shows, Premier Arts never fails to bring premium musical theater to Michiana.  This week, Premier Arts is putting on an original musical about the life and legacy of the American comedy entertainer, Red Skelton. Executive Artistic Director Craig Gibson wrote the script for the...

By Amber Heydon • October 9, 2019 • Arts