Imagine a theatrical performance with no starting script. Several actors listen intently to a volunteer from the audience tell a first-person story. On the cue, ...More
February 20th, 2014
Theater
Play explores relationships, social issues, through lens of photojournalist injured in Iraq war
A photojournalist returning from war-torn Iraq deals with the images her mind cannot erase and the personal, marital and moral choices that define her life in the Eastern Mennonite University theater production, Time Stands Still, directed by senior Amanda Chandler. Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Marguiles, Time Stands Still will be staged in the Lee E. Eshlema ...More
Pain and stubbornness put Hattie Berg on a now-loved path through EMU
Her back pain began sometime during her sophomore year of high school. It wasn’t too bad at first, nothing out of the ordinary. Aches and pains are part of a basketball player’s life, especially when that basketball player plays as long and hard as Hattie Berg had. The sport had been her life for as long as she could remember: rec leagues, summer leagues, summer camps and eventually on to t ...More
Student writes unflinching play, now staged, about 17-year-old dying of cancer
Two weeks before his senior thesis project due date, Eastern Mennonite University senior theater and writing studies major Michael Bodner decided on a path he’d never tread: He wanted to write a tragedy. “I’ve written a lot of comedy, satire and even horror, but I’ve never w ...More
Students make ‘As You Like It’ creatively their own at two-week camp, culminating in show, Aug. 28, 30 and 31
For Izzy Howard, it’s hard to choose between her passion for play writing and her love of performing. Lucky for her, she doesn’t have to. For the past two years, the 16-year-old Eastern Mennonite High School junior has been participating in CrashHouse Collaborative Theater — a project started in 2008 that allows local high school students t ...More
Updated: NYC Director Brings Rich Background to “Arms and the Man,” April 5-6
The lovely leading lady must choose between two men – one viewed as a war hero, though he is foolhardy, and one viewed as a coward, hiding with chocolates on his person instead of gun cartridges – in “Arms and the Man,” a George Bernard Shaw comedy staged by Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) this spring. Andrea Andresakis, a stage director and choreographer from New York City, d ...More
Human Trafficking, Sex Trade Take Center Stage in EMU Theater Production
Sex trade and human trafficking take center stage as the theater department at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) presents Silenced Auction, featuring the play “27 Million Voices.” Written and directed by Elizabeth Gannaway, performances for Silenced Auction are scheduled in the Lee E. Eshleman Studio Theater at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, Dec. 1, 7 and 8. “The central ...More
Plight of Undocumented Immigrants, in Actuality and in Drama
“We put one foot in front of the other and asked God for help with the next,” writes Kara Hartzler, in the voice of Marcela. A Guadalajaran woman crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona, Marcela is one of four immigrant characters Hartzler created using a combination of her training as both a playwright and immigration lawyer, in “No Rooster in the Desert.” ...More
Play Looks at Plight of Immigrants Seeking the “American Dream”
“No Roosters in the Desert,” a play revolving around the plight of four women trekking across the Sonoran desert towards the “American dream,” will open the 2012-13 MainStage season at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU). Showtimes ...More
Make a Splash With the Arts
At EMU, a Christian university like no other, students are learning to use art for social transformation, service within their community, to deepen their faith, and more. Theater As a theater student, you’ll act, direct and design productions, exploring your gifts and getting hands-on experience while ...More