2007 Miracle Yearbook

T here arefew departments at Cedarville which can draw an excitable crowd ofcollegians to a single location on campus any given Friday or Saturday night. Though organizations and ministries normally draw their regulars from the same base groups,the Cedarville University heatre Department manages to draw studentsfrom all walks with the variety and quality of production they offer every year. With its rich and rigorous curriculum,the theatre department consistently produo talented students who bring colorful,intriguing,and quite often, ruthlessly heart-wrenching stories into the everyday lives oftheir audiences through independent plays and senior theatre productions. This year's fall semester began with the beautifully articulated "Less of Me...More of H i m;'a senior theatre project by Gretchen Riedel with the added acting talents offellow senior Donna Sweede. This classic story used dramatic monologues to seamlessly elicit moving parallels between the lives oftwo radically different women — Corrie ten Boom and Lisa Beamer. The very next weekend,NeXtage and Kelsey Nelson brought"Over the River and Through the Woods"to the Cedarville stage — a contemporary telling ofthe tension between family ties and personal ambition. Spring brought us"Under the Overpass,"Andrew Tripp's adaptation of the book written by Mike Yankoski detailing the five months he willingly spent homeless,and the first senior film project —"Twixters"— by Grant Letizia. For Andrew Tripp,the process was the culmination of his years at Cedarville: "Putting together a pla definitely tested all aspects of my theatre experience and training — from characterization to staging to organizational and administrative responsibilities." Grant Letizia's"Twixters"documented the tension often felt by twenty-somethingsjust learning to make their way in the world. In his own words,"It was incredible to be able to leave myfellows students with the encouragement that even though we may be in a time of great change,we can trust God with our futures and go out with reckless abandon into His adventure for our lives." A Victoria Duff's Senior Theatre Presentation drew quite a crowd as she was known around campusfor her theatrical performances in chapel, in independent theater plays,and on Cedarville's main stage. • Victoria speaks to a student of her late father's in her Senior Theater Project, titled "Proof." n Jodi Strychalski and King Harry Rob Rasmussen discuss the fate oftheir • daughter,Crystal Tuxhorn,in Crystal's Senior Theater Project,"The Ugly Duckling."