Ethington Theatre

From costumes to music to choreography, there’s something for everyone in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” which opens Friday night in Ethington Theatre. The dreamcoat is a production of the collaboration between the College of Arts and Media and College of Science, Engineering and Technology. “He’s got a personality, that coat,” costume designer Nola Yergen said with a grin. “It’s truly a one-of-a-kind work of art.” The performance also marks an important first for the University – fiberoptic cabling that enables an orchestra to perform the show’s music live from the GCU Recording Studio.

If you’re looking for something to do for Valentine’s weekend, Ethington Theatre has the solution. The College of Fine Arts and Production’s performance of Christopher Fry’s romantic comedy “The Lady’s Not For Burning” will light up the stage for the next two weekends. It is a performance that Director Claude Pensis has described as a 15th-century love story with a modern feel. “It’s about life and the joy of living,” Pensis said. “It really is a play about these people who are seemingly lost and through this one evening they find each other, and they find happiness.”

Ethington Theatre’s walls reverberated with movie magic the past few weeks as students and faculty created props for the Boylan sisters’ movie, “Identity Crisis,” while it was being filmed on campus. From portable dressing rooms and prop walls to the cloning machine used by the main character in the film, there is no shortage of GCU talent set to grace the screen. “The opportunity for college students to get involved with a Hollywood and national-level film is not something that comes up every day, to say the least,” said COFAP Assistant Dean of Theatre and Dance and “Identity Crisis” Art Director William Symington.

After a two-year break, the Dance Department will return to the Ethington Theatre stage this weekend with the Winter Dance Concert. Called “Emerge,” it will celebrate the growth and strength of the department from the uncertainty and stress of the pandemic. “Coming into this semester, our dance community, I feel, has never been stronger,” Director of Dance Bekki Price said.

Ethington Theatre’s second production of the season, “Radium Girls,” will transport audiences to the 1920s, before medical research fully understood the side effects of radium. The story follows Grace Fryer, a young watch painter, as she fights for her day in court. “Getting the chance to tell this story is really unique,” said Gretchen Carpenter, who plays Grace Fryer. “I think there’s a level of catharsis that’s going to be happening in the audience because it’s a really emotional show and I think that it’s going to capture a lot of hearts.”

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.

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.”

The GCU Theatre Department had another big year at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Brandon Brown and Abby Yee made it to the finals of the Irene Ryan Acting Competition, and Morgan McCall was offered a $1,500 scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts program. “I really focus on the feedback that they get at this level of performance more than if they get trophies,” Acting instructor Michael Kary said. “We have been doing better and better. I think that our school has grown in reputation because of its presence at the festival over the last few years.”

Ethington Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s “Henry V” features epic sword fighting, stunning costumes and a tale of a king’s growth as a person. The play, which opens tonight, also contains an important message that is just as relevant today as it was when the show was written in 1599. “I think what people can take away is some hope for what a leader of a country can be like,” director Michael Kary said. “A leader that’s inspiring, a leader that wrestles with ethical issues, and the one thing that stuck out to me in this production is how often he turns to God throughout for his decision-making and giving God glory for whatever victories he has.”