The 2014 Peace Plays will be presented this weekend as part of the homecoming activities. The Peace Play contest challenges playwrights to tell a story about peace in a one-act play. Anyone, from anywhere in the world, can submit a piece to the contest. Goshen College faculty members read the submissions and choose the winner and runner up to be presented at GC. The two plays, “Out From Under With Mary” and “I Scream, You Scream,” are the 2014 first- and second-place winners, respectively. The first was written by Chris Shaw Swanson. The second, the runner up and was written...

By Elizabeth Franks-North • October 1, 2014 • Arts

Michelle Milne has returned this semester from travelling, performing, and teaching around the country to, once again, act as an assistant professor of theater at Goshen College. Between 2005-10, Milne was at GC and she taught classes such as Playwriting, Voice for the Actor, and Movement for the Stage as well as directed plays such as “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Big Love.” Since her departure from Goshen College in 2010, Milne has engaged in a variety of different projects and events in the fields of theater, choreography, writing and many others. “Doing a variety of projects is always exciting,”...

By Kolton Nay • September 17, 2014 • Features

Goshen College’s production of Mozart’s timeless play, The Marriage of Figaro debuted in Umble Center last weekend. Presented by both Goshen College’s music and theater departments, this program features a total of six acts and a 15 minute intermission after the second act. The Marriage of Figaro incorporates music sung in both English and Italian (with super titles for clarity). This 18th century comedy staged in 21st century New York City, captures the light-hearted festivities of a wedding. If you haven’t had the chance to see this production, there are two opportunities left to do so. The remaining performances will...

By Kayla Riportella • April 2, 2014 • Arts

The Goshen College Theatre Department performed the plays “Stay Tuned” and “Do Not Gentle” for Winter One Acts at the Umble Center last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “Stay Tuned” was written by 1999 GC alumnus Peter Eash-Scott. The play explored the impact of the external voices of our daily lives upon our relationships with others. Grace Swartzendruber, GC performance venue production manager, directed “Stay Tuned,” which featured Brett Conrad, a junior; Karsten Hess, a senior; Lea Ramer, a first-year; Nick Peebles, a first-year; and Adrienne Schmucker, a sophomore. “It was my first time performing a one act play at Goshen...

By Shina Park • February 19, 2014 • Arts

‘Why do I have to choose between my son and my church? Why do I have to choose between my son and God?’ These were the questions Ted Swartz asked of audience members this past weekend during the unveiling of his new show, “Learning to Play: A (Timely) Conversation about Sexuality and the Church.” The play, which premiered at Goshen College Sunday evening and as an abridged version at Monday morning’s convocation, grapples with a faith community’s questions about same sex relationships, as a father processes his son’s decision to come out. Swartz, who is the writer, producer and performer...

By Kate Stoltzfus • January 29, 2014 • News

When it comes to social justice and faith issues within the church, a little humor can go a long way. This is exactly what actor Ted Swartz and his team of talented musicians and actors provide for audiences across the U.S. Through comedic storytelling and passionate messages, Ted and Co. raise important questions about the true meaning of the church, social justice and gender issues. [caption id="attachment_29548" align="alignleft" width="234"] Ted Swartz will be a special guest on campus next week.Photo contributed[/caption] Fortunately, Ted and Co. will be gracing the Goshen College campus with their new show, “Learning to Play”, during...

By Maddie Birky • January 22, 2014 • News

Looking for a thought-provoking story and a good cry? Then you should see “Wit,” the theater department’s mainstage production, debuting 8p.m. Friday. “Wit” follows the story of Vivian Bearing, a professor of 17th century poetry. In her studies, her focus is on the holy sonnets of John Donne, a 16th century poet who founded the Metaphysical Poets. Unmarried with no living relatives, Vivian is diagnosed with advanced metastatic ovarian cancer. Vivian is played by Lauren Treiber, a senior. While most drama productions observe what is known as “the fourth wall,” “Wit” intentionally breaks this regularity by including the audience in...

By Brandi Brubaker • November 8, 2013 • Arts

A full audience spent an evening with Garrison Keillor, famed writer, storyteller and radio personality, Tuesday evening in Sauder Concert Hall. Keillor appeared in a suit and his signature red socks and sneakers, and began the night with personal stories as well as tales from his fictional town of Lake Wobegon. Halfway through the show, Keillor led audience members in singing a series of gospel and folk songs, such as “America the Beautiful” and the Doxology. He resumed with more tales, and ended with some of his own proverbs. What stood out? When asked what his favorite part of storytelling...

By Kate Friesen • October 22, 2013 • Arts Kate Stoltzfus • October 22, 2013 • Arts

On Tuesday evening, donors, supporters and film enthusiasts received a sneak peak into what Art House, the new indie film and live performance theater, has to offer downtown Goshen. “We mostly just want to get people in the space to show them what we’ve been dreaming about,” said Artistic Director Adrianne Nesbitt, whose brainchild is becoming a reality. In Early September, Nesbitt, board members and supporters began converting the former New World Arts space into an independent film space.  But they have also retained a black box theater which, according to Nesbitt, will be used for live theater performances, cd-release...

By Logan Miller • October 6, 2013 • Arts

“The Menno-Pause is a Gadfly (poking and prodding the GC sacred cows), a watchdog (checking and analyzing disciplinary action), a critic (positive or negative analysis of GC education), an extended student opinion board—and general all-around crap.” –Issue 1 of Menno-Pause Sam Steiner was suspended from Goshen College twice. The first time was for not handing in his chapel cards to confirm his attendance and then a year later he was suspended again, exiled this time along with three other students for the creation of an underground newspaper.  While this could easily be a front-page Record story of a current GC...

By Elizabeth Derstine • September 25, 2013 • Arts

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater would be too mainstream for Goshen’s Shakespeare company, GoShakes. The theater group has tackled a cabaret at a sushi bar and Romeo and Juliet in a reversed theater setting, – the audience claimed the stage while the actors bounded about in the spectator section. Their third and upcoming production A Sonnet Soundscape will be live at a bookstore, Better World Books, 8:30 Friday and at 3:00 Sunday and at a music store, Ignition Garage, at 8:30 Saturday. A Sonnet Soundscape is a collision of William Shakespeare’s sonnets and original music by Moral Circus, a local band. “The...

By Elizabeth Derstine • September 18, 2013 • Arts

GoShakes, a new theater organization in Goshen, will bring classic Shakespearean works to life by entertaining and educating audiences of all ages. Currently, the GoShakes cast and crew are working to bring the popular Shakespearian tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” to the stage. The show, which was cut from its normal running time of just over three hours to around one and a half, will be presented at the Goshen Theater in the beginning of May. GoShakes is the brainchild of Carrie Lee Bland-Kendall and Lindsay Nance, a 2006 graduate of Goshen College, who both have backgrounds in theater and currently reside...

By Christina Hofer • April 18, 2013 • Arts

Next week the Goshen College theater department will top off the semester with a pair of senior theater recitals by Vanessa Jones and Sammy Rosario. The first of the two shows, “Almost, Maine,” is a collection of two-person vignettes that all take place at the same time on a snowy starlit night in a small, fictional town in Maine. Jones and her cast, Paul Zehr, Jay Mast, Lucas Nafziger, Christina Hofer and Liz Core, will perform five scenes from the full production, directed by 2012 GC alum Phil Weaver-Stoesz. Jones first saw the production at the American College Theater Festival....

By Mara Weaver • April 18, 2013 • Arts

This Friday, the Goshen College theater department will premiere “The Diviners,” a play that takes place in a mythical southern Indiana town during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. “The Diviners focuses on an ex-preacher’s relationship with a young, illiterate man who has a gift for ‘divining’, or finding water,” explained Tamera Izlar, the director. “Their meeting prophetically links their future and seals their destiny,” said Izlar. It is this relationship and the illiterate man’s skill for divining that brings this community together during a difficult time. In addition to the script’s humor, tragedy and suspense,  The Diviners will include...

By Christina Hofer • April 3, 2013 • Arts

The Goshen College Winter One Acts will take the stage this weekend in the dual form of theater acts and film shorts—some new and some old. “Seldom is Heard” will appear in the Umble Center for the first time. The one act play, written by Mary Steelsmith, was runner-up for the 2012 Goshen Peace Play contest. The one act is directed by Nathan Vader, a senior, and the story follows the return of a wounded soldier from the war in Afghanistan to his wife and quiet home community in the Midwest. Vader hopes that the play’s themes will shed light...

By Emily Kraybill • February 13, 2013 • Arts