DIS

DISCOVER! | MARCH 12, 2016
6| Playbill
At a Glance:
WHAT: 21st annual World Premiere
Festival
WHERE: Allen Theatre of DeWitt
Theatre Arts Center, Northwestern
College, Orange City, IA
WHEN: Saturday, March 19 at 6:30
p.m.
COST: Free
CONTACT: 712-707-7341
ONLINE: nwciowa.edu
Plays:
“Daniel’s Game” by junior Julia
VanDyk
“These are the Countries” by AJ
Stoscher
“Meet My Parents” by junior Caroline
Trewet
“Plot for Teacher” by Warren Duncan
“The Mysterious Neighbor” by senior
Caitlin Porter
“Expecting” by senior Amanda
Hays
“No Complaints” by junior Carolyn
Hopkins
“The Doctor is In” by junior Kristen
Samek
“Sincerely, Mom” by junior Abigail
Bliss
“Roommates” by senior Justine
Johnson
“What’s Mine Isn’t Yours” by senior
Logan Wright
KATE HARLOW | STAFF WRITER
One night one acts
of
Northwestern College hosts World Premiere Festival March 19
One night, eleven plays, eleven
screenwriters with shows making
their world premieres.
Northwestern College is hosting
the 21st annual World Premiere Festival
on Saturday, March 19. Students
will be presenting 11 new plays with
the first play starting at 6:30 p.m. in
the Allen Theatre of the DeWitt Theatre
Arts Center. Students as well as
the public are invited to attend this
free event.
“At Northwestern, we believe if
we’re going to contribute to the culture,
we should be giving the culture
new plays! So we teach playwriting
courses, we have playwrights/
screenwriters on our faculty, and we
include new plays in our season,”
said Jeff Barker, professor of theatre
and speech at Northwestern College.
“Every year, in fact, we have a World
Premiere Festival. This year, we have
eleven one acts that will be presented,
including one that just won a major
award at the Kennedy Center/American
College Theatre Festival.”
The eleven plays were written in the
fall in the college’s “One-Act Playwriting”
course and all the plays are short,
about 10 pages each, which adds up to
about 10 minutes in length per play.
Each of the one act plays features a
different topic that the screenwriters,
director, actors and audience will get
to explore together.
“There is quite a variety! There are
plays about a robbery gone wrong,
a geography contest, the death of a
grandparent, the child of superhero
parents, the neighbors of Noah watching
him build the ark, and more,” said
Barker.
Some of the other plays will focus
on the bond between siblings, school
pranks, friendship, having children
and mistaken identity.
This is a unique experience for the
students in another aspect. Each of
the student playwrights will be directing
another student’s show. This is
done to give all of the students the
full experience of bringing a show to
the stage.
“We want our student playwrights
to experience the whole process from
blank page to opening night. We hope
they’ll be ready to work with directors
of their plays in the future,” Barker
said. “And we also want our students
to have plenty of opportunities to do
some directing while they’re here.”
It’s a special night for these theater
students, but it’s also a special night
for everyone else. They get the chance
to see eleven one act shows written
and directed by people before they
make a name for themselves. F
Orange City | Iowa