College of Fine Arts and Production

Carolyn “Carrie” Hurst is playing an important role in bringing theatre performances back inside Ethington Theatre, and she’s also undertaking an interesting personal project: She is creating a tiny house. The Technical Director and the Master Electrician has a background in scenic and lighting design and hopes to be an example to young girls in theatre. “That’s why I want to work for a university. I want to get younger students to realize, especially females, that this is a career path,” she said.

From murders to trap doors and secret passageways, there’s something for every mystery fan to enjoy this weekend as the theatre department returns to Ethington Theatre for its first play of the season, “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940.” “The thing to take away is that we wanted to have the most fun to welcome people back into the theatre,” director Michael Kary said.

Dalton Smith spent three semesters trying to make his original major work for him — and his father. But halfway into his sophomore year, he found himself longing to go into theatre. Now, starting his junior year as a Theatre Ars and Drama major, Smith can be found in the College of Fine Arts and Production’s scene shop or onstage in Ethington Theatre’s production of “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” which debuts Friday, Sept. 3. “I chose theatre arts because it’s what I wanted to do and it was like ‘if I’m going to go for this acting thing, I might as well put all my cards on the tablet,’” he said.

Three recent Theatre Education graduates from the College of Fine Arts and Production — Katie Norton, Isabel Potter and Daniel Hernandez — have found that this is a great time to make their mark on the field by teaching in middle school or high school. All three are applying the student-focused emphasis they learned in COFAP. “My goal and the reason why I went into teaching theatre is to inspire the next generation to go big,” Hernandez said.

It’s a season of celebration as College of Fine Arts and Production performances make their grand return to Ethington Theatre. Audiences will be welcomed back with an array of musicals, comedies and dramas as well as the return of indoor dance concerts. “I think it’s going to be just a really enjoyable season,” COFAP Assistant Dean of Theatre and Dance William Symington said. “I can’t wait to get back in the theatre and feel that energy between the cast and the audience.”

What started as a leap of faith for junior theatre major Daniella Brown would turn into a job as an A2, or production audio technician, for this summer’s Williamstown Theatre Festival. After the internship program she applied for folded, Brown received the offer with the Massachusetts summer program. She’s working on nine shows celebrating black playwrights and actors of color until late July.

Animation and visual effects instructor Richie Jimenez saw a need for more local opportunities for students to work in the animation field, so with the help of project partner Kevin Palmer, more opportunities were created. Through the creation of an animated short titled “Fishing for the Soul” the duo has hired on three GCU alumni to work on the project and hope to continue to raise funds via the project’s Kickstarter. “By including past students on the production team, Richie is showing first-hand how the skills learned in our Digital Design program can be put to work,” Digital Design Director Sheila Schumacher said. “As a mentor and leader for the students, he always looks for ways to challenge them to tell better stories and create engaging characters.”

It has been a long and memorable ride for theatre students Brand Brown, Christian Bradford and Tyler Sorrels in their time at GCU, and it wrapped up Monday afternoon as the trio walked across the Commencement stage. The active members of the College of Fine Arts and Production community used the milestone as an opportunity to look back on the memories they’ve made at GCU while also looking ahead to the future. “Sometimes it feels like you’re not in the right place in life and you haven’t been making the right choices, but it’s very refreshing to know that here I felt surrounded by a group of people who cared about me and that were willing to make mistakes and help each other grow,” Brown said.

Before seniors Morgan McCall, Ryan Ardelt and Alex Cavanaugh walk the Commencement stage later this month, the trio of friends had one more project up their sleeves. What started as an original submission to a 24-hour playwriting festival was adapted to an audio broadcast performance scheduled to premiere at 7 p.m. today. “It feels like coming home,” said McCall, the director. “It’s all amounted to this. All of us have worked really hard in this program, and our friendship has led up to this moment and all of our skills have led up to this moment.”

There were innovations aplenty as GCU dealt with the pandemic. But none of the required alterations were more visible than the cutouts in GCU Arena, where the basketball environment still was plenty loud enough to be noticed by visiting coaches. Reprinted from the February issue of GCU Magazine.