The show must go on William Jewell College offers entertainment through live theater
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Explore Liberty
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T
he college on the hill in Liberty has had a theater program for decades. While audiences are most often faculty, friends, family and alumni, the Garnett Peters Theater in Brown Hall on the William Jewell College campus seats 220 and often has room for more people in the audience. The liberal arts college offers bachelor’s degrees in theater, musical theater and education with speech and theater emphasis. Professor Nathan Wyman, director of the Jewell Theatre Company, and Chris McCoy, assistant professor of theater and the stage director for the Jewell Theatre Company, lead the program. Wyman specializes in stage design, production, scenery and lighting, while McCoy handles more of the directing. Together they create a team that provides students diverse experiences. “We offer professional productions,” McCoy said. “We offer comedies, musicals, dramas, … people will get a wide variety. To me, this is a chance to see the upcoming stars of tomorrow. We want to introduce students to challenges.”
This is a chance to see the upcoming stars of tomorrow. Chris McCoy
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Wyman agrees with the word “challenge.” In November 2015, the company presented “The Metamorphoses,” a narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid captured by contemporary playwright Mary Zimmerman. “We don’t shy away from challenging,” Wyman said. “We built a pool of water on the stage as the play requires. We brought in an engineer to make sure the floor could support it. As a
theater designer, that’s what we like to do.” McCoy said the department is adding a black box space next season. Wyman said Brown Hall used to house the college’s swimming pool and many Liberty kids used to take swimming lessons there, making it familiar to generations of locals. The new black box theater will seat around 60 and provide additional rehearsal space as well as the venue for an upcoming presentation of a comedy based on an ancient Greek play. “We also work with the music department, too,” Wyman said. “The students who want a
Jewell professors Chris McCoy and Nathan Wyman
