10/29/24

By FHSU University Communications

HAYS, Kan. - A “profound story worth telling,” The Amish Project will be presented by FHSU’s Music and Theatre Department Nov. 15 through 17. Show times are Nov. 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 2:30 p.m.

The play centers on the radical acts of forgiveness of the Amish community following the Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting in 2006. Written by Jessica Dickey, the play uses ten fictional characters to tell the story of the shooting, exploring the ripple effect of the Amish community’s compassion toward the family of the shooter.

Directed by Catherine Trieschmann Miller, FHSU Theatre Program Specialist, the play incorporates four chorale pieces and has flexible casting. Chorale selections will be directed by Allie Straub, Hays sophomore with choreography by Brooke Raacke, Hays freshman. Cast members include: Grace Betts, Russell senior; Caleb Johnson, Hays sophomore; Allie Straub; Holly Trullinger, Jetmore freshman; Rebecca Cole, Hays MPS student; Hailey Maldonado, Hugoton sophomore; Lillyan Kimberlin, Holton junior; Kasheia Peterson, Salina freshman; Karter Smith, Great Bend junior; and Addyson Brown, Ottawa freshman. The stage manager is Jacob Wegner, Garden City senior; and the Assistant Director is Lauryn Gaddis, Smith Center senior.

Catherine said she is very excited about the talent level of the students she is working with for The Amish Project.

“Half the students have done plays at FHSU before and half have not, which is also very exciting,” she said. “It’s young and diverse and fresh – a good mix.”

Because of violence, the play is recommended for mature audiences, although Catherine said the violence is handled “very poetically and not explicitly.”

“It is really a beautiful play that is intended to provoke conversation and meditation when you leave the theatre. The play doesn’t politicize the issue at all. It is really a spiritual journey.

Although this is her first theatrical production at Fort Hays State, Catherine is no stranger to theatre or life in Western Kansas. She and her husband, Carl Miller, FHSU associate professor of philosophy, have been Hays residents for almost twenty years. Catherine joined FHSU’s faculty in August when “the timing was just right.”

Catherine and Carl were living in Washington, D.C. in 2006, when Carl was offered a faculty position at FHSU. Catherine had just lined up her first theatre agent and was preparing for her first professional play in London. After careful consideration, though, she decided that Western Kansas might be a quiet place for her to continue her writing career.

“I moved here and never looked back,” she said. The move proved to be a positive one. In her first decade here, she had three plays performed off-Broadway and wrote a movie script that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Her belief that geography influences artistic production has proven true over the years.

“When I moved out here, I started writing plays about this landscape, which I found so poetic and beautiful and strange,” Catherine said. “It has really infused my writing. You can create art anywhere.”

During the COVID pandemic, when she was unable to travel outside Hays, Catherine began to look for projects she could do locally.

“I just started to see the possibilities of the great art I could do right here in my own backyard,” she said. “That was such a blessing and so eye-opening. I thought of this position at FHSU as a good mirror to where I am in life right now.”

Catherine looks forward to collaborations with other departments and FHSU organizations as she undertakes her new role on campus.

For tickets to The Amish Project, go to https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2new/team.asp?SponsorID=18717

Additional news and information about Fort Hays State University can be found at https://www.fhsu.edu/university-communications/