Student's play selected for festival

“Choice,” an original play by Northwestern College junior Jacob Christiansen, has been selected for a reading at the Region Five Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Jan. 18–24.

Christiansen, a theatre major from Omaha, wrote the one-act play during the fall semester. The 10-minute drama is about a woman trying to end an affair with her husband’s friend. “I’m fond of David Mamet, often thought to be the playwright who best captures natural speech,” said Christiansen. “I acted in a Mamet production last semester and wanted to experiment with his more natural style of dialogue in my own playwriting.”

“Choice” is one of just six productions, chosen from a pool of 54, to be presented at the Region Five festival. Another Christiansen play, “Win,” about siblings planning their mother’s funeral, received honorable mention. Two Region Five productions will be selected to advance to the national KCACTF in Washington, D.C., in April. 

The 2015 KCACTF festival is being hosted by Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., in collaboration with the Ames Center for the Arts and the Guthrie Theater. In addition to Christiansen, other Northwestern theatre students will attend and participate in acting, technical design and other competitions.