Lukas Thompson is perhaps a familiar face around campus; he was in “Godspell” last semester, performed in the “Miscast Cabaret” last weekend and is often seen around campus in a well-picked bow tie. Thompson is a first-year student from the Goshen area. He is a vocal performance major, and is involved in theatre. “My debut show was ‘Charleston Junior’ at Goshen Middle school my eighth grade year,” Thompson said. “I decided to audition for it because I thought it would be fun.” Thompson’s involvement in the show led to him being in all four musicals that his high school put...

By Elsa Lantz • February 18, 2016 • Features

At the age of nine, Martin Flowers landed his first role as the lead in his church’s Easter program. Acting out a script created from a sermon, a small number of children gathered to perform in front of the entire church. He didn’t know this first experience with performing would later catapult him into being a prominent figure in both the theater and music departments at Goshen College 10 years later.  While Flowers has had a part in every Goshen College mainstage, he is also a vocalist with the Men’s Chorus and Chamber Choir, and is currently preparing for his...

By Ashley Davenport • January 28, 2016 • Features

Thirteen GC theater and music students are performing this fall in “Godspell,” a musical that brings the narrative of Jesus to life through song and dance. Jacob Zehr, a sophomore music education major who played the leading role of Jesus, enjoyed building relationships with the rest of the cast, his 12 disciples, as well as the crew throughout the rehearsal and performance process. “I think one of the biggest joys was being able to experience a very real sense of community and love with the cast and crew,” he said. “They are the single reason I will cherish this experience...

By Jenae Longenecker • November 19, 2015 • News

The 2012 revised version of “Godspell” will open this weekend as Goshen College’s Fall Main Stage. ”Godspell” follows the story of Jesus and his disciples in a modern setting. The story is about the community of Jesus’ followers and how they come together as a group, growing together in their common love for Jesus. Fourteen students make up the “Godspell” cast, including sophomore Jacob Zehr as Jesus and senior Ben Ganger as John the Baptist/Judas Iscariot, as well as seniors Paul Zehr, Martin Flowers and Christina Hofer; juniors Galed Krisjayanta, Maggie Weaver, Sadie Gustafson-Zook and Morgan Short; sophomores Emily Evans...

By Christi Sessa • November 12, 2015 • Arts

“And should Joaquín Murrieta ever be needed again, he will return!” Those words resonated as the last declaration of Joaquín Murrieta in Tuesday night’s performance of “Los Valientes: The Courageous Ones.” Hosted by the Center for Intercultural and International Education, in collaboration with the Spanish department and theater department, “Los Valientes” is a performance combining music and dramatic historical retellings of the lives of famous Latinos. The performance featured multiple musical pieces, including both interludes and a soundtrack to the dramatic events. The pieces were performed by a trio of instrumentalists: Ju Young Lee, cellist, Chien-I Yang, pianist, and Michael...

By Lydia Good • October 29, 2015 • Arts

“Bombers” opened this past weekend as the One Act play, critiquing societal prejudices of people different from ourselves and the seemingly routine violence we’ve come to accept on college campuses. The play was performed by first-years Jonah Yoder and Ben Meyer Reimer and sophomores Morgan Yordy and A’Sean Street. The story takes place on a university campus in the present time. A young, white, lacrosse player is killed when his car is blown up in a parking lot, and the search to find the bomber ensues. The audience follows along as four students are questioned because they are stereotyped. Street...

By Jordan Waidelich • October 8, 2015 • News

This Saturday, Goshen College students who are interested in theater gathered to play “Win, Lose, or Act,” a high-energy version of charades. The event was hosted by GC Players, which is a student-run club that branches off from the theater department. Christina Hofer, a senior and vice president of GC Players, describes it as “a group that seeks to make theater more accessible for majors and non-majors beyond the regular main stages and one acts each semester.” Andrew Moeggenborg, assistant professor of theater and GC Players faculty adviser, added that the club also “holds workshops and events in order to...

By Grace Weaver • September 24, 2015 • Arts

This fall, Goshen College will bring “Godspell” to the Umble Center stage, a musical that tells the story of the community created by Jesus during his time on earth. Community and fellowship are at the heart of Mennonite culture and by extension a large part of the GC experience. According to director Doug Liechty-Caskey and music director Scott Hochstetler, this makes Stephen Schwartz’s musical “Godspell” a perfect fit for our campus. “This is a show that brings the cast together in a special way while sharing the teachings that are central to our faith,” said Hochstetler, describing why this show...

By Alex Hochstetler • September 10, 2015 • Arts

GC Players, a student-led theater club, will bring attention to acts of domestic violence against women in Juarez City by hosting the play “Women of Ciudad Juarez” for the Goshen community. “Women of Ciudad Juárez,” is a powerful tribute to the hundreds of women who were raped, tortured, and murdered during the past two decades in Juarez City, a city located next to the Mexican border. It will be staged at Goshen College’s Umble Center on Wednesday, April 22. The play was originally written in Spanish by Cristina Michaus, a famous Mexican film actress, documentary filmmaker, and playwright. The performance...

By Kayla Riportella • April 16, 2015 • Arts

Every night this week, the students involved with the spring mainstage will gather in Umble Center to put finishing touches on the play “The Boys Next Door.” Set in New England in the 1980s, the play examines the lives of four intellectually disabled men, played by senior Brett Conrad, juniors Paul Zehr and Ben Ganger, and sophomore Jesse Bontrager, and their caretaker, played by junior Martin Flowers. Students began putting the play together months ago. “A lot of us were reading the play last semester and getting acquainted with it,” said Flowers. Because the play deals with mental health, the...

By Maria Jantz • March 19, 2015 • Arts

If you stopped by the Umble Center on Friday night, you would have found a crew of cross-dressing students, some on stage, and some in the audience for the second annual Miscast Cabaret. Sponsored by The GC Players, this production gave students an opportunity to don clothing of another gender and present scenes, songs and monologues that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to perform. Although the performance was all in good fun, junior Martin Flowers, president of The GC Players, prefaced the show with the reminder that the performance was meant to be a safe space free of ridicule....

By Sadie Gustafson-Zook • March 12, 2015 • Arts

Instead of sleeping in and having some good old college free time this past Saturday, Paul Zehr spent the morning calling cues as head stage manager for the Winter One Acts, and then, following a short afternoon break, performed that evening as one of seven soloists for the 55th Annual Concerto-Aria Concert. Like many theater and music performance majors on campus, Zehr finds himself committed to hours of rehearsal every day, in addition to other outside responsibilities. Already this semester, Zehr represented Goshen College at the American Collegiate Theater Festival in Milwaukee as a scene partner for the Irene-Ryan Acting...

By Christina Hofer • February 12, 2015 • Arts

This weekend, the Goshen College Theater Department will be putting on three one-act plays: “Miniature Migrants,” “Reality TV Island,” and “Confianza.” Students from many disciplines have been working hard to put together this show that includes both comedic and serious moments. According to Martin Flowers, junior theater and music double major and stage manager for one of the plays, “all the plays are written, directed, stage managed, acted and designed by students.” Doug Caskey, professor of theater, sees the Winter One Acts as “a vital part of GC’s educational theater program providing students with the opportunity to further develop skills...

By Jenae Longenecker • February 12, 2015 • Arts

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...

By Com-Mar • January 22, 2015 • Arts

“Heavenly Voices,” a play written by Goshen College professor Pat Lehman, has made an impact on both its audience members and the women involved in its production. “Heavenly Voices” grew out of the Mennonite Woman of Color Oral History Project. From 2000-06, Lehman and her colleague Linda Christophel traveled across the United States interviewing Mennonite women of color about their experiences with racism in their communities, both in and out of church. Lehman and Christophel both come from bi-racial and multicultural families, and their own experiences with racism and discrimination spurred them on to hear the stories of other women....

By Katie Hurst • October 8, 2014 • Features