Play by Northwestern student wins top prize

A play by Northwestern College junior Jacob Christiansen shared first-prize honors in the 10-Minute Play competition at the Region Five Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). The festival took place Jan. 18–24 and was hosted by Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., in collaboration with the Ames Center for the Arts and the Guthrie Theater.

Christiansen, a theatre major from Omaha, wrote “Choices” during the fall semester, about a woman trying to end an affair with her husband’s friend. Christiansen modeled the style of dialogue in his play after that of playwright David Mamet. “[Mamet is] often thought to be the playwright who best captures natural speech,” said Christiansen. “I wanted to experiment with that in my own writing.”

Christiansen’s play will now be considered for the 10-Minute Play competition at the national KCACTF. If “Choices” is selected, Christiansen will attend the national festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in April.

In addition to Christiansen, the creative artistry of two other students was recognized at KCACTF. Sound design by Rowan Sullivan, a senior from Long Beach, Calif., placed second in that category of competition; Sullivan designed sound for “Faustus,” a student-initiated performance. And sophomore Carolyn Hopkins, Clinton, Iowa, received honorable mention for the costumes she designed for a stage adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel “The Power and the Glory,” produced at Northwestern in November.

Twenty-five Northwestern theatre students attended the 47th annual regional festival to compete and attend theatre arts workshops alongside undergraduate and graduate students from six Midwestern states.