College of Fine Arts and Production

Photos by David Kadlubowski GCU News Bureau The Spring Dance Concert, titled “Dance Department Goes POP!”, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Ethington Theatre.      

The idea for the April issue of GCU Magazine actually was hatched in 2015, when we told the stories of some of the incoming students in the Class of 2019. Now they’re graduating, and it was time to see what their four years were like. The answer: It was a head-spinning time of growth, both on campus and for the students themselves. This issue also features the University’s first graduates from its engineering program and its Students Inspiring Students initiative, a look at how GCU teaches computer programming differently, the heartwarming story of Jesse Dalla Riva‘s transformation from drug addict to graduate, and a My LopeLife piece by another 2019 grad. There’s more: what’s ahead for the GCU men’s basketball program, the increasingly important communication tool utilized by online instructors and students, and yet another heartwarming story — this one on recent GCU Hall of Fame inductee Sharky Baker. To read the digital version, click here.  

Who needs to end the semester with a BANG if you could end it with a POP? The Spring Dance Concert premieres Friday and will be the final production at Ethington Theatre for the semester. Audiences can expect to hear an array of music of multiple musical icons and genres over the decades. Students will be performing contemporary, tap, ballet as well as classical jazz throughout the production. “There is something for everyone,” faculty member Kevin Godfrey-Chevalier said. Start times are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Washington High School senior Juan Ballez has watched his father struggle with mobility in his hand and, for years, wished there was a way he could help. Now, on the cusp of graduating, he thinks he knows a way — by becoming a biomedical engineer. His dream of helping people, like his father, came closer to fruition Tuesday at GCU, when he found out he was one of 43 students in the neighborhood surrounding GCU to receive the Students Inspiring Students scholarship. “It feels like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders,” said Juan after receiving the scholarship, which covers four years of tuition and books. “… I was determined. I was like, I can’t have my parents pay for it (college). I don’t want that burden on them.”

The Theater Department works hard to provide the best opportunities they can for their students. One of those opportunities was in the form of a workshop that took place over spring break to allow students to learn how to prepare for a professional audition outside of GCU. Robert Kolby Harper lead the workshop and helped students get a better understanding of how to feel more comfortable in an audition setting, as well as letting them know that it is ok to be yourself in an audition. “The biggest thing I take away from everything I’ve seen in what we’re doing here is just to be ourselves and try and shed the performance skin that we’ve all been built up to over the years,” said COFAP student Mykhal Polite.

Photos by David Kadlubowski GCU News Bureau John-Michael Tebelak’s “Godspell” premieres at Ethington Theatre on Friday, March 22. Showings will continue for the next two weekends on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.          

The premier of “Godspell” hits Ethington Theatre tonight, and offers a colorful musical experience, that showcases a modern interpretation of the book of Matthew. The music, composed by Stephen Swartz of Pippin and Wicked fame, provides a unique take on the stories, integrating forms of rock with adapted hymns. “We are singing the word of God and passages from the bible because we just feel an immense amount of joy about it and I feel like that’s what makes music in this show different than other shows,” cast member Charlotte Perkis said. The show will be performed March 22-24 and March 29-31. Friday and Saturday Shows begin at 7:30 p.m., while Sunday shows begin at 2 p.m.

For the seventh year in a row, the Dance Department has successfully had a piece selected to be featured in the American College Dance Association’s West Region gala. Three pieces of choreography were chosen for the weeklong conference, and Madison Knutson’s “The Sun Will Rise, and We Will Too” was among the 10 featured works in the gala. “I think it’s a testament to the strength of our program, which is still under 10 years old,” said Susannah Keita, Director of Dance.

This year’s Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival showcased how much talent the College of Fine Arts and Production’s Theater Department really has. Three GCU students made it to the semifinals in their respective regional categories, and two took second place. Some students even came home with scholarships and job interviews. “We had teachers as well as students from all kinds of other schools stop us a number of times and tell us how impressed they were with our students,” COFAP Assistant Dean William Symington said.

All the world’s a stage, as Shakespeare said, and GCU’s Theatre Department is taking that to heart with a new theatre troupe, Parables, which will leave the comforts of the GCU campus and take the show on the road, so to speak, to local schools in the community. What’s also different about this performance group, actually made up of two ensembles, is that its main focus is to spread the Gospel through theatre.