C of I student's play selected for regional festival
2011. 01. 21.
A play written by College of Idaho senior Thomas Newby has been chosen as a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. Newby's play, Waiting Games, will be performed alongside five other finalists from the Pacific Northwest on February 16-17 at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.
Newby, a Gibson Honors student emphasizing in music, theatre and creative writing, is the first C of I student to submit an original play to the KCACTF.
“I'm really excited about it,” Newby said. “There will be people there who could potentially put me in a position where I could continue to make theater, which is a nice thought. And it's a chance for us to show that the size or budget of a department doesn't dictate whether it can create quality material.”
Waiting Games involves two characters stuck in a wasteland, with no foreseeable end to their time there. The play explores issues of how to live in an environment without a higher authority dictating one's actions; issues that Newby feels mirror many aspects of modern society. Waiting Games is directed by Hannah Buckendorf and stars Danny Henson and Taylor Hawker. The play was performed on campus last fall and will be shown again at 7:30 p.m. January 26 in the Langroise Studio Theater.
C of I theatre professors Joe Golden and Mike Hartwell will accompany Newby and the cast and crew of Waiting Games to the regional festival, which also includes individual competitions and workshops. If Newby's play does well, it may qualify for the national festival this spring in Washington, D.C.
“This is a pretty big accomplishment,” Golden said. “Tom being chosen really speaks to his ambition and hard work. His play is done in a non-realistic style, which is difficult for a young writer. For him to create this complex webbing of stories and themes and absurdism taking place in a surreal world, it's pretty cool to see.”
Click here to see a short College of Idaho video about Newby's play.
Founded in 1891, The College of Idaho is the state's oldest private liberal arts college. It has a century-old tradition of educating some of the most accomplished graduates in Idaho, including six Rhodes Scholars, three Marshall Scholars, and another ten Truman and Goldwater Scholars. The College is located on a beautiful campus in Caldwell, Idaho. Its distinctive PEAK curriculum challenges students to attain competencies in the four knowledge peaks of the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and a professional field, enabling them to graduate with an academic major and three undergraduate minors in four years. For more information on The College of Idaho, visit www.collegeofidaho.edu.