Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge” will be performed in the Umble Center for the following two weekends. The show, presented by the Goshen College Theater department, will showcase theater students’ talents. The play has six different show times during two weekends. On Friday and Saturday of both weeks, the show will start at 8 p.m. On the two Sundays, the show will start at 3 p.m. and this Sunday’s show will feature an ASL translation. “A View from the Bridge” is one of Arthur Miller’s less recognized works. Written in 1955, the play is classified as a modern...

By Jair Hernandez • November 2, 2011 • News

Goshen College Theater Department’s theme for 2011-2012, Strangers No More, is inspired by Mennonite hymn with the same title. The fall theater season starts with the Homecoming One Acts this weekend. Producer Doug Caskey said, “We want to give the theme new looks from different angles. The One Acts will open the season with lots of humor.” Three student-directed plays will be performed, including Overtones, by Alice Gerstenberg, directed by Aaron Kaufmann, a senior; Here We Are, by Dorothy Parker, directed by Emily Bowman, a senior; and Time Flies, by David Ives, directed by Josh Hofer, a fifth-year. “What would...

By Chau Ngoc Bao Bui • October 5, 2011 • News

The Goshen College theater department’s “Loyalty, Love and Loss” season will draw to a close with the spring opera double-bill of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” and Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief,” directed by Deb Brubaker, professor of music, and Scott Hochstetler, assistant professor of music. Both operas are in English, but they were written almost three hundred years apart from each other. “Dido and Aeneas” is one of the earliest English operas to be written. The story comes from Virgil’s “Aeneid,” a Roman first-century epic poem that tells the story of Aeneas, a hero from...

By Kristina Mast • April 7, 2011 • Features

The winter mainstage, “Translations” by Brian Friel, is a play steeped in historical and cultural significance. It explores the tensions that arise when a group of British officers force a small Irish town to change its place names to standardized British English. Much more than language is at stake in this scenario as the various characters fight for their cultural identities. “The play captures the essence of people operating in a language that is not their own,” said Tamera Izlar, the director of the play. “It warns: If you allow a foreign power to redefine your identity and sense of...

By Grace Parker • February 10, 2011 • Arts

Senior theater major Jenna Grubaugh recently placed in the top 10 percent of actors in the regional theater competition, American College Theater Festival (ACTF)–the first GC student in 6 years to advance this far in the competition. Grubaugh and her stage partner Kelly Frey, a junior, were able to progress through two rounds of competitions, being among the top 36 students in the Great Lakes region to advance up to that point. The GC nominees competed against students from the theater programs of universities such as Purdue, Michigan State, and Illinois State University. Grubaugh, along with 5 other Goshen College...

By Liz Core • January 20, 2011 • Arts

  Goshen College student playwrights, actors and designers are taking a risk. This fall, Goshen College’s theater department entered this year's Main Stage production, “Hindsight is 20/Something” into the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (ACTF). This is the first time original student work has been entered into the competition. In his office, Doug Caskey, professor of theater, had his eyes the calendar with anticipation. If the production was accepted, an invitation to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival will appear in his office by Monday, Dec. 4. If chosen, the students’ work will be critiqued by theater professionals...

By Kelsey Shue • December 2, 2010 • News

Though the fall semester is drawing to an end, for two seniors, Kristina Mast and Meg Kennell, the show is just getting started. This Sunday the curtain opens for “Mary Rose,” Mast's senior theater recital. Kennell's play, “Twilight: Los Angeles 92,” will be performed in December. Both Mast and Kennell began thinking about which play to choose last summer. The process has been collaborative; Mast acts in Kennell's play, and Kennell is directing for Mast. Mast's play, “Mary Rose,” is by  J.M. Barrie, who is best known for writing “Peter Pan.” The play, set in the 1870s, is about an...

By Kate Stoltzfus • November 17, 2010 • News

Patrick Maxwell and Patrick Ressler have a lot in common.  They share a first name, for starters.  They’re both seniors who have been heavily involved in the Goshen College theater department.  They both wrote a play this summer while studying abroad.  And both of their plays are being performed as the mainstage theater production this year. The fall mainstage, “Hindsight is 20/Something,” consists of “Here Lies Hope,” a play by Maxwell, and “Home of the Trojans,” a musical by Ressler.  As far as Doug Caskey, chair of the theater department and director of “Hindsight is 20/Something” knows, a fully student-written...

By Kristina Mast • November 3, 2010 • Features

An evening of discovery, reconciliation and deeply buried secrets are in store for audience members who attend the world premiere of “A Gentler Place,” this Friday, Oct. 1 in the Umble Center at 8 p.m. The winning play of the 2010 Goshen College Peace Play Contest, “A Gentler Place” is also the Goshen College directorial debut of Tamera Izlar, who joined GC this fall as assistant professor of theater. “A Gentler Place” will also run Saturday, Oct. 2 at 4 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 3 at 2 p.m. The playwright, Jeff Carter, will be in attendance for all three performances,...

By Matthew Amstutz • September 30, 2010 • Features

Members of Goshen College’s traveling worship team, Parables, are once again preparing to use music, drama, and personal faith stories to lead audiences on an hour-long spiritual journey. The focus for the 2010-2011 worship program is “Meeting Christ on the Journey,” a theme that the student-led team’s seven members agreed upon while planning for this season’s program. Over the next few weeks the group will begin to travel to congregations and other local venues to sing, perform, and share their own faith journeys. “This is a fun program that has a strong theme we all identify with,” said team member Emily...

By Ariel Ropp • September 23, 2010 • Arts

With the 2010-2011 academic year underway, Goshen College welcomes 20 new employees to campus this fall. Here’s a look at three new faculty members: Kent Palmer, informatics, Jan Emswiler, nursing and Tamera Izlar, theater. Kent Palmer Beginning this fall, students can be accepted into the informatics program – the first program at a Christian college in the midwest and the only informatics program available at a Mennonite institution. What is informatics, exactly? “In informatics, students learn how to use computers to preserve and store information,” said Palmer. “Through the use of computers they will learn to process information and then...

By Admin • September 9, 2010 • Features

This Friday evening at 8 p.m. Jenna Grubaugh, a theater major, will present her senior recital to the Goshen College community in hopes that it will spark political and ethical conversation among her audience members. The play, called Two Rooms, will be held in the Umble Center, and admission is free. A Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies minor, Grubaugh was committed from the beginning to finding a script that addressed an issue that “mattered.” “I love the kind of theater that is challenging and makes the audience think in a new way,” says Grubaugh. And so after much searching, Grubaugh...

By Sarah Rich • September 9, 2010 • Arts

This year's Spring mainstage Moliere's "Tartuffe" is filled with 17th century pomp, boasting a translation from the French that keeps the original rhyme scheme, elaborate costuming design complete with wigs and all manner of frills and Baroque-style music freshly composed by Assistant Director Patrick Ressler. As director Doug Caskey noted, however, despite having been written over 300 years ago, "Tartuffe" still retains much of its relevance today. The classic comedy tells the story of the seemingly pious Tartuffe, played by Sophomore Aaron Kaufmann, and his deception of the gentleman Orgon and his mother, Madame Pernelle. Tension both comedic and dramatic...

By Matilda Yoder • March 11, 2010 • News

A weekend packed with theater is coming to brighten the grey cold of January. Performances of the annual student-organized Winter One Acts begin Friday night after weeks of directing and working behind-the-scenes. The theme for this season’s theater productions is “Think for Yourself,” and the exciting one acts follow suit. The one acts, which are produced twice a year, are an opportunity for a wide selection of students to get involved in theater. The one acts this year, some of which are written by students, include: “I Am Not Batman,” “Birth,” “Business Ethics,” “Eukiah” and “Let Me Be.” From light design,...

By Andrea Kraybill • January 27, 2010 • Arts

“Noah? Noah? Noah?” “Oh, she’s with the theater group.” Ever wonder what those theater people are doing the first week of classes? Where do they go? Why do they get to miss class? Try to imagine waking up early in the morning to attend an hour-long workshop on basic unarmed stage combat, followed by a nice grueling round of acting competitions that last a few hours. Then, throw a quick sandwich in your mouth as you run down the halls of some unknown campus searching for the theater where you will watch an area college perform a full-length play. Afterwards,...

By Sarah Noah • January 20, 2010 • Arts