This weekend, the Otterbein Theatre department is holding its annual Festival, which features original works, including seven plays, five dance routines and one short film all created and performed by Otterbein students.
Festival is a student run show sponsored by the theater department that is open to all Otterbein students who want to audition for a role or submit an original piece of work.
Festival is run by a committee of five theater students who oversee the preparation and follow through of the entire show. The committee reached out to students of all majors to fill the cast, and many creative writing majors stepped up to the challenge of writing plays and poetry to be featured.
“We are trying to accommodate what the students want and what the students could really get out of festival because really, you’re just supposed to know that festival is a time where you can really announce your love and your appreciation for theater and for producing something that makes you happy as an individual, not what anybody else tells you what you have to do,” said Sarah Simon, the company manager for Festival this year.
The unique part about Festival is that every showing is different. The show runs Thursday through Saturday for an hour and a half each night. Each piece is performed only once throughout the three-day span.
This year, there are 13 acts, featuring seven plays of various genres, five dance pieces and one short film. One of the dance acts will be accompanied by an original piece, composed and performed by a student in the music department.
The committee plans to continue to accept submissions from a variety of Otterbein students in a variety of majors, and hopes to attract more students wanting to participate in acting roles in the future.
The dates for Festival this year are Thursday, Jan. 28 through Saturday, Jan. 30. Each show starts at 8 p.m in the Campus Center pit theater. Admission is free, and doors open at 7:30 p.m.
