Goshen College's fall mainstage production brings student work to life, Nov. 5-14

Event: Goshen College Fall Mainstage Production – " Hindsight is 20/Something," featuring two student-written works and directed by Doug Liechty Caskey
Dates and times: Nov. 5, 12, 13 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 7, 14 (ASL interpreted) at 3 p.m.
Location: Goshen College's Umble Center
Tickets: $8 adults, $5 students/seniors. For reservations, call (574) 535-7566 or e-mail welcomecenter@goshen.edu.

GOSHEN, Ind. – For the first time, the Goshen College mainstage production will consist solely of student-produced works. The Goshen College fall mainstage production features two student-written works offered collectively under the title, "Hindsight is 20/Something," and are directed by Doug Liechty Caskey. The plays will be performed Nov. 5, 12 and 13 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 7 and 14 (ASL interpreted) at 3 p.m. in Umble Center. Both works deal with young adult relationships in contemporary culture and the search to connect past experience to present reality.

Here Lies Hope, a play by senior Patrick Maxwell, is a study on human loneliness in the 21st century. Maxwell is a senior theater and interdisciplinary double major from Winchester, Mass. Through a series of one-on-one encounters set in an urban American landscape, the characters realize the struggle to both define themselves and to find hope in a world that boasts of connection at the same time that technology creates barriers to the honesty that exists only in face to face encounters.

Home of the Trojans, an everyday musical of mythical proportions, was conceived by Goshen College students Patrick Ressler and Julia Baker, with book, lyrics and music by Patrick Ressler. Ressler is a senior music composition major with a theater minor from Lititz. Pa. He also composed the music for the 15-person orchestra, and he conducts the orchestra for the performance. Baker is a junior interdisciplinary major from Fresno, Calif.

The musical takes on a playfully comedic approach to linking the past of Ancient Greece with the present of 21st century American collegiate culture. Through a rolling presentation of college student relational encounters, the students in Professor Z's Greek Mythology class come to realize that the tumultuous relationships of the mythical past uncannily ring true in their own relationships of the present.

For both Maxwell and Ressler, recent experiences studying abroad gave them the opportunity to focus and write. Maxwell wrote the majority of the play this past summer while he was in Senegal on Study-Service Term without the aid of a computer. And though Ressler and Baker conceived of the idea for this musical already in their first year at the college, the actual writing and composing came to fruition while Ressler was in Guatemala this summer.

This production is part of the Theater Department's 2010-11 "Loyalty, Love and Loss" season. The total running time of the production is two and a half hours. The production is not suitable for young children. Umble Center is accessible to wheelchairs and people with other physical limitations.

Tickets cost $8 adults, $5 students/seniors and can be purchased by calling the Goshen College Welcome Center in advance at (574) 535-7566.

The cast for "Here Lies Hope" includes junior Matt Lehman (Kidron, Ohio), sophomore Sam Jones (Trail City, S.D.), freshman Sara Klassen (Goshen), and junior Aaron Kaufmann (Tiskilwa, Ill.). The cast for "Home of the Trojans" includes senior Allison Yoder (Middlebury, Ind.), sophomore Vanessa Jones (Dolton, S.D.), sophomore Rachel N. Mast (Corvallis, Ore.), junior Kelly Frey (Shipshewana, Ind.), junior Stephanie Hollenberg (Elkhart, Ind.), Professor of Communication and Theater Doug Liechty Caskey (Goshen), senior Peter Garry (Pahoa, Hawaii), senior Adriel Santiago (Souderton, Pa.), freshman Joel Kawira (Shirati, Tanzania), sophomore Sammy Rosario (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) and junior Jay Mast (Goshen).

The orchestra includes senior Greta Breckbill (Stoughton, Wis.), freshman Josh Yoder (Tucson, Ariz.), sophomore Emily Hedrick (Telford, Pa.), sophomore Hannah Sandvold (Madison, Wis.), sophomore Chelsea Wimmer (Telford, Pa.), freshman Renae Weaver (Denver, Pa.), sophomore Justin Yoder (Perkasie, Pa.), sophomore Laura Woodward (North Newton, Kan.), senior Zach Yordy (Libertyville, Ill.), freshman Ruth Wiens (Newton, Kan.), senior Alysha Landis (Lansdale, Pa.), junior Lisa Horst (Goshen), senior James Green (Goshen), senior Ana Yoder (Elkhart, Ind.) and junior Aaron Kaufmann (Tiskilwa, Ill.).

Other production team members include Assistant Professor of Theater Tamera Islar, producer; Jerry Peters, technical director; senior Patrick Maxwell (Winchester, Mass.), assistant director; senior Patrick Ressler (Lititz, Pa.), music director; junior Emily Bowman (Millersburg, Ind.), production stage manager; freshman Sarah Lake-Rayburn (Champaign, Ill.), sophomore Clare Maxwell (Winchester, Mass.) and freshman Katie Miller (Goshen), assistant stage managers; junior Phil Stoesz (Goshen), set designer; junior Aaron Kaufmann (Tiskilwa, Ill.), light designer; senior Meg Kennell (Roanoke, Ill.), costume designer, scenic artist; senior Josh Hofer (Dolton, S.D.), sound designer; sophomore Emily Kraybill (Lancaster, Pa.), props designer; sophomore Hannah Bartel (Iowa City, Iowa), hair and make-up designer; freshman Jessica Sprunger (Goshen), costume assistant; junior Clayton Miller (Goshen) and junior Phil Stoesz (Goshen), master carpenters; sophomore Jenny Boehs (Laporte, Colo.) and junior Aaron Kaufmann (Tiskilwa, Ill.), master electricians; sophomore Marshal Watson (Goshen), sound board operator.

Editors: For more information about this release or to arrange an interview, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

### 

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college's Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron's Best Buys in Education, "Colleges of Distinction," "Making a Difference College Guide" and U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition, which named Goshen a "least debt college." Visit www.goshen.edu.