Mennonite Weekly Review

GOSHEN, Ind. — Goshen College’s production of The Saint Plays was selected for inclusion in the American College Theater Festival, Region III, in Saginaw, Mich., Jan. 6-11.

The Goshen College production of *The Saint Plays* was selected for inclusion in the American College Theater Festival, Region III, in Saginaw, Mich., Jan. 6-11. From left (actors whose faces can be seen), are Kelly Jean Frey of Shipshewana, Tyler Yoder of Goshen and Patrick Ressler of Lititz, Pa. — Photo by Emily Miller/Goshen College

This is the first time the college has entered a production as a “participating” entry in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The Saint Plays, by playwright Erik Ehn and directed by assistant professor of theater Michelle Milne, was scheduled to be performed in a fully mounted production at the festival twice on Jan. 9.

“This is a huge honor, and places Saint Plays among the top college and university productions in the country,” Milne said.

The Saint Plays are a series of six short plays that link saints from the past with ordinary people. Exploring the connectedness between historical saints, contemporary life, earthly existence, spirit and eternity, The Saint Plays are about Joan of Arc, John the Baptist, St. Eulalia and St. George who fought a dragon. In addition, Ehn wrote a special piece about St. Rose of Viterbo, one of the two saints that mark former Goshen student Deanne Binde’s birthdate.

Binde, a junior Roman Catholic student, touched the lives of many people on campus during her years as a communication and theater major. After her death in a car crash in May, Milne, who had taught and directed Binde, decided to stage The Saint Plays, by Ehn, a Catholic award-winning, internationally renowned playwright who has previously explored theatrical responses to the genocide in Rwanda and works to promote peacebuilding through the arts.

Though Ehn, dean of the theater program at the California Institute of the Arts, did not know Binde and hadn’t written a play about the saint connected with Binde’s birthdate, he quickly offered to write a piece about Rose of Viterbo and Binde’s life when Milne contacted him.