Concordia’s upcoming senior thesis theatre production started with only a list. The college archives had chronicled the theatre productions the campus had performed beginning in 1927 to modern day and that list was a guiding force for Johnson’s senior thesis production, “Where We’ve Come From Where We’ve Been: 125 Years of Concordia Theatre.”
Johnson selected 10 shows to represent the history of the college’s theatre.
“I went through each decade and selected shows that had something to say about a societal value of the time, whether agreeing with or going against it,” Johnson says.
From Henrik Ibsen’s “Pillar of Society” to Adam Rapp’s “The Metal Children,” the plays ranged from more traditional to very modern. Johnson’s next step was to select a cutting from each play.
“Cutting a small section of a big work is difficult,” Johnson says. “You have to make sure that the cutting makes sense in the essence of the show and still portrays enough to the audience to make sense.”
Johnson’s advisor and Concordia’s director of theatre, Dr. David Wintersteen, helped her work through the transitions between scenes to assist with audience understanding.
“While the play is not a story, each selection follows a theme and reflects on the history of the college and how we have represented those progressive changes through the shows we have put on,” she says.
The show will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, on the main stage of Frances Frazier Comstock Theatre.
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