College of Fine Arts and Production

Keith Williams, well-versed in the modern dance style pioneered by the legendary Katherine Dunham, will teach and lecture on campus during the coming week. Williams has his own St. Louis-based company, Innervision Dance Theatre, which is involved in intergrating the arts into school curriculum.

The campus theatre is cultivating a new audience and reclaiming its place as a force on the metro Phoenix arts scene, less than two years after introducing its first class of theatre students since temporarily closing the program in 2006.

The Shakepearean play revolves around the confusing and often zany romantic antics of four characters: Lysander (Jake Swanson), Demetrius (Drew Swaine), Hermia (Elizabeth Pabst) and Helena (Krystle Brumm). All four actors are flat-out terrific in their roles, and keeping it all straight is secondary to enjoying what’s going on.

Set designer Bill Symington and director Michael Kary discuss the liberties they took with GCU’s rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Friday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 12 at 2:00 p.m. Friday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 18 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 19 at 2:00 p.m. To Purchase Tickets Please contact the Ethington Box Office at: 602.639.8880 or [email protected]

Not familiar with A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Let the cast fill you in on this intertwined lovers tale. Grand Canyon University and Ethington Theater are proud to present A Midsummer Nights Dream. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” Never was this truer than in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Follow the hilarious angst of teen love out of Athens and into the forest as four more of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers try to find a safe place to love who and how they please. Add into the mix a fractured fairy kingdom and a group of construction workers turned artists, and you have one of Shakespeare’s best loved plays.

If Shakespeare takes the measure of a serious actor, then perhaps no actor has a better take on the Bard than Drew Swaine. Swaine, a GCU junior, plays Demetrius in the Ethington Theatre production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” one of Shakespeare’s most popular works. The play begins a two-weekend run on campus Friday night. “I like Shakespeare, but I don’t think I’ve ever been intimidated by doing it,” Swaine says. “It’s good theatre, but it’s not inaccessible.”

Toga-clad students, including the nursing delegation from Chanchung, China, packed North Gym to capacity last night for the annual Mr. GCU pageant. Nothing could prepare our Chinese visitors for what they were about to see, but they jumped into the festivities with glee. “Mr. GCU is very inspiring,” said Pastor Tim Griffin, GCU Dean of Students. “But kinda creepy at times.” It wouldn’t be an ASGCU event without a heavy dose of lip-syncing, cross-dressing and man flesh. These are some of the best and brightest young men on campus and those in attendance will never be able to look at them the same way again.

Grand Canyon University and Ethington Theater are proud to present A Midsummer Nights Dream. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” Never was this truer than in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Follow the hilarious angst of teen love out of Athens and into the forest as four more of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers try to find a safe place to love who and how they please. Add into the mix a fractured fairy kingdom and a group of construction workers turned artists, and you have one of Shakespeare’s best loved plays. Written soon after Romeo and Juliet, the Bard takes a shot at the blindness of love and hits a bull’s eye. Friday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 12 at 2:00 p.m. Friday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 18 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 19 at 2:00 p.m. To Purchase Tickets Please contact the Ethington Box Office at: 602.639.8880 or [email protected]

GCU’s Musician of the Year from 2010-11, who plays both piano and guitar, is now a senior and she’s setting her sights on the future. Already Forte is building the connections needed for a shot at success. “My favorite thing is just sitting down and writing music,” she says.

The Ethington Dance Ensemble, under the guidance of GCU’s director of dance, Susannah Keita, has come a long way since its start a year ago. This production showcases that evolution, tackling several different styles of dance and combining them — sometimes even within one piece — smoothly and effortlessly. Thanks to the talented choreographers added to Keita’s staff this year and a program that is now 50 students strong, Thursday’s opening-night audience was shown a wide range of techniques and variations inspired by famous dancers and choreographers throughout history.