Why the Northwestern College theatre department is one of the school's gems

In one of the main hallways on the ground floor of the theater department's home, there's a wall of awards. Row after row of regional and national honors bestowed on the program from throughout the years. And in all sorts of categories. Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival recognitions for acting, production and writing and numerous other elements that come together for a performance.

Such representation across theatrical disciplines is by design. 

"If you come to Northwestern you’ll get training not just in acting but you learn how to be a designer, how to write plays, you learn about the history of the theater. We have a balanced, thorough, essentialist theater," Northwestern Theater Department Chair Bob Hubbard said. "Our students may specialize at the end of their career but they’re going to be exposed to everything and know how rich and multidimensional this artform is."

The faculty and staff, which runs seven deep on the department website, possess multidimensional abilities as well.

Hubbard noted that Ethan Koerner, a Northwestern theater instructor, not only has an aptitude for costume design and scene design but puppetry, too. For a 2021 production of "Jabberwocky," a retelling of the Lewis Carroll poem from "Through the Looking Glass," Koerner used shadow puppetry, which allowed masked actors to manipulate objects in the form of Carroll's fantastical creatures. Such a production was needed to conform with concerns over COVID-19. It won multiple awards at the 2021 national Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

Strong ties

Hubbard has taught in the department for 21 years and directed students through more than 20 performances. When Hubbard and his family came from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the DeWitt Theatre Arts Center was actually still under construction and shows were being held in a deconsecrated church. 

But the department appealed to him just the same.

"We wouldn’t have moved if we didn’t love Northwestern’s facilities and its department," he said.

One of the first productions Hubbard ever got to direct at Northwestern was a William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" which he has fond memories of all these years later. "Even though it was early in my career, it was one of the best shows I’ve ever directed," he said. Before the school year is up, Hubbard will direct Shakespeare's "Hamlet." As far as Hubbard knows, the Northwestern theater department hasn't tackled the Bard's longest play at least since Hubbard's been there. It's set to run from April 12 through April 20.

As a sort of balance to a tragedy about a prince exacting revenge against his uncle for the murder of his father, the 2023-2024 production schedule also includes "Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical," a dance concert called "Rush" and takes on the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews from the Drama Ministries Ensemble.

"We try to balance comedy and serious drama and tragedy. We don’t want everything to be dark and brooding. So we have 'Matilda,' to balance 'Hamlet," Hubbard said.

Readying 'Matilda'

During a rehearsal for "Matilda" in early October, Hubbard filled in as director for a night while Molly Wiebe Faber was out. At certain moments, Hubbard made sure to remind the performers to "stay in character, stay in character." 

"If it’s a massive show, a director has to be hands on balancing the stage and making sure the play is working because there are so many components from an acting, design and audience relation standpoint," Hubbard said about his approach to directing. "If it’s a smaller, more intimate show, I tend to let the actors play more and find the moments." 

Madison DenHerder, a senior theater major who's been in every single Northwestern production since freshman year, can be more blunt. When she's following along with the "Matilda" script from behind her laptop, she'll yell "Get your book" when a performer is running through a rehearsal and can't remember a line.

"As a freshman, I didn't think I'd be this involved," DenHerder said. "I really appreciate our emphasis on ensemble, making sure everyone is included and everyone participates and everyone can do everything," she added. 

Case in point, Northwestern alum Matt Foss (class of 2002) said he started off doing a lot of tech work early on for theater productions but got to a point where he felt comfortable and acting.

"The biggest skill set I had is persistence. And that’s not always true in a lot of arts. But you can earn your talent, in a lot of ways, within the theater," Foss said. 

Now a theater professor at the University of Toledo, Foss has directed at regional Shakespeare theaters across the country, acted in a Tony Award-winning production and even written a short film, called "Sons of Toledo," which screened at the Sioux City International Film Festival in 2022. 

"I think Northwestern trained us to see storytelling as service. Story preserves complexity and outpaces our presumptions and biases. We learn to be curious and empathetic and rigorous in our investigation," Foss said.

When he'd be in certain conversations with professors at Northwestern, Foss said he came to learn how stories can ask big, thorny questions of people while also providing answers to complex problems of the world.

Stories change

The way Hubbard sees it, each of those stories, even ones that feel older than time itself, becomes a new work in the hands of a new group of performers bringing it to life.

"If we want to move forward as an art form, we have to realize we’re part of an ongoing story," he said.

Over the course of his tenure at Northwestern, Hubbard said what he's come to hold quite dearly are the strong bonds forged while working on a production.

"When I was young, I thought the best thing was the acting. But it occurred to me, around my junior year of college, it wasn’t just the acting or directing or designing or the playwriting but what I really loved was how all of the things happened and flourished in community," he said.