Dr. Joe Kreizinger directs students during a rehearsal for “Love/Sick,” Northwest's 28th annual Freshman/Transfer Showcase. Students will perform the showcase, which features a collection of short plays, Oct. 4-7. (Photos by Todd Weddle/Northwest Missouri State University)

Sept. 18, 2018

Northwest to present 28th annual Freshman/Transfer Showcase

By Grace Niemeyer, communication assistant

Through the process of preparing and producing a play, the annual Freshman/Transfer Showcase introduces first-year students to people and practices of Northwest's theatre program.

First-year students in Northwest Missouri State University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts will present “Love/Sick” as the 28th annual Freshman/Transfer Showcase.

Performances will be in the Studio Theatre at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4-6 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 6-7. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the box office up to one hour before show time.

“Love/Sick” is a collection of nine slightly twisted and completely hilarious short plays. Set on a Friday night in an alternate suburban reality, the quirky romp explores the pain and joy that come with being in love. Full of imperfect lovers and dreamers, “Love/Sick” is described as an unromantic comedy for the romantic in everyone.

“This is a show that is unexpected,” the show’s assistant director, Sydney Martin, who is a junior technical theatre and design major from Buckner, Missouri, said. “There are things in the show that are very relatable to many people’s lives and can really point out some truths about the human condition and that I feel will really resonate with not only the people working on the show, but those who come see it as well.”

The Freshman/Transfer Showcase introduces audiences to Theatre Northwest’s new performing arts majors while orienting the students with the people and practices of the theatre program. Students of all majors are encouraged to audition each fall.

“It is an intensive experience that instills professionalism into our new majors and serves both as a supplement to their previous experiences and an introduction to serious study of theatre,” Dr. Joe Kreizinger, the show’s director and a Northwest professor of theatre, said.

Martin appeared in Northwest’s 2016 Freshman/Transfer Showcase, “Hello-Goodbye.”  

“The Showcase really provides a stable foundation in our theatre community at Northwest for the freshmen and transfer students,” she said. “It allows them to learn what it truly means to be a theatre artist and full-time student and what it takes to balance that successfully and healthily. We focus on so much more than just the acting.”

Theatre Northwest’s 2018-2019 season features eight productions beginning with “A Fall Evening of One-Acts, Sept. 21-22. It continues with “Same Time, Next Year” by Bernard Slade, Nov. 8-11; “A Spring Evening of One-Acts,” Feb. 8-9, 2019; “Love Letters” by A.R. Gurney, Feb. 14-17, 2019; and “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, April 11-14, 2019.