Theatre Program

The MasterWorks 2012 Theatre Production is The Jeweler's Shop by Karol Wojtyla (Samuel French) directed by Rich Swingle.
The MasterWorks Festival Theatre Program encourages performing excellence and the integration of faith and classical theatre. The program is open to qualified students ages 16 to 30. Please click here for audition requirements.

This year, we are proud to announce that the MasterWorks Theatre Program will be spending the final week of the festival on tour in New York City performing The Jeweler's Shop. Students will have the opportunity to perform for casting agents in New York, as well as for the public. More details will be released in the coming weeks.
Click here for more information about The Jeweler's Shop and director, Rich Swingle.

Update: This opportunity to tour in NYC has created such a demand and surge in applicants that we were unable to cast everyone in the touring company.  To accommodate the many excellent actors who applied, we have created an exciting new track within the Theatre Program: Long-Form Improv, directed by MasterWorks alumna Kaelen Carrier.  By the end of this three-week program, students will be equipped to take a suggestion from an audience and create a thirty-minute one-act play on the spot. Actors will study the works and influence of Viola Spolin, learn how improv is used professionally, and become experts on short and long improvisation forms. The disciple will be a real boon for actors, helping them cultivate spontaneity on stage, accelerate the creation of characters, and increase sensitivity to on-stage relationships.

While in Winona Lake, students spend daily classes and rehearsal time in development of the voice and body, scene study, rehearsal techniques, and gaining a Christian perspective on the art of theatre.

Class topics include:

  • Warm-ups
  • Physical and vocal training
  • Scene study
  • Script analysis
  • Individual monologue coaching
  • Audition workshops
  • Character creation
  • Movement
  • Classical text work

Daily rehearsals are geared toward multiple performances of a fully staged production. Other performance opportunities include Sunday morning worship services, the student honors recital, theatre improvisation, and MasterClasses with guest artists. Various MasterClasses have included stage combat, developing character, musical theatre, and Shakespearean acting techniques. Set-building and costuming are also part of the theatre training.


Christian faith is fostered in theatre studies, worship, devotions, prayer time before rehearsals, and festival-wide spiritual activities. Please see the Spiritual Life section for more information.

Past Guest Artists have also included:

  • John Kirby (acting coach on films Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Déjà Vu, and The Count of Monte Cristo, film)
  • Ken Wales (producer of Amazing Grace, Breakfast at Tiffany's, film and Christy, TV)
  • Beverly Holloway (casting director The Ultimate Gift, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, and An American Carol)
  • Curt Cloninger (performs one-man plays for audiences as large as 30,000)
  • Colin Harbinson (creator of the internationally performed musical Toymaker and Son)
  • Chad Rasor (fight choreographer and guest artist in residence for The Drifting Theatre)
  • John Forbes (international and Off-Broadway producer)
  • Larry Poland (Founding CEO of Mastermedia, Int'l)
  • Kohli Hessler Calhoun (dialect coach: NYU, Stella Adler Studio of Acting)
  • Mac Nelson (author: Memoirs of a Hollywood Adventure),  Acts of Renewal (perform original sketches for Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking)
  • Jimmy Sites (Spiritual Outdoor Adventures, TV)
  • Carol Dilley Jaudes (CATS, Broadway)
  • Peter Parros (As the World Turns, TV)
  • Jesse Corti (Heroes, 24, TV, Les Miserables on Broadway)
  • Julietta Marcelli (CATS on Broadway)
  • George Merritt (Jeckyl & Hyde on Broadway)
  • Edwina Findley (Law & Order, TV)
  • Mark Oppenlander (Taproot Theatre)
  • Bob Borwick (fight choreography, Taproot Theatre)
  • Kelly Balch (Sleeping Beauty and Little Mermaid, national tours)
  • Scott Nolte (artistic director, Taproot Theatre)
  • Karen Lund (director, Taproot Theatre)
  • Jeannette Clift George (The Hiding Place, film, Artistic Director of AD Players)
For video interviews with theatre students and faculty, click here.
1001 College Avenue, Winona Lake, IN 46590 1-888-836-2723
FREE CONCERTS
Weekends at 7:30pm | Mid June - Mid July
at the Rodeheaver Auditorium