The front entry of the Northlawn Center for Performing Arts Education is an addition to the existing building, providing a welcoming entrance and access to the lower level. The glass front lets natural light into the building and offers an expansive view of campus.
The front entry of the Northlawn Center for Performing Arts Education is an addition to the existing building, providing a welcoming entrance and access to the lower level. The glass front lets natural light into the building and offers an expansive view of campus.
Finishing Northlawn’s lower level doubled the usable space, and now houses the Campus Worship Center in honor of Marion Bontrager; Mininger Classroom in honor of former faculty members Jim Ac61 and Virginia Mininger; the Rodgers Piano Lab made possible through the generosity of Pearl (Hershberger) Ac44, ’45 Rodgers and music faculty member Ken Rodgers ’85; practice rooms; theatre green rooms and storage space; a kitchenette and lounge space for gathering and studying.
A view of the lower level from the Campus Worship Center in Honor of Marion Bontrager.
Practice rooms in the lower level contain sound and are individually temperature controlled.
Jeremy Delly ’16 (Port-Au-Prince, Haiti) performs a monologue for Homecoming guests in the Helmuth Studio Theatre named for donor Jon Helmuth ’91.
Men’s and women’s theatre dressing rooms give student performers adequate space to prepare for shows.
The Bel Canto Singers warm up on their first practice of the year in the Sauder Vocal Music Room named in honor of Partners Myrl and Freida Sauder and Maynard and Carolyn Sauder of Sauder Manufacturing Co., Archbold, Ohio.
The Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Rebecca Schloneger, rehearses in the Mabee Instrumental Music Room named in honor of the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., which provided a substantial grant to the project and has helped fund several Hesston College campaigns over the years.
Casey Perez ’16 (Kalona, Iowa) has a voice lesson with music faculty member Matt Schloneger ’92. Faculty offices all contain elements to improve acoustics.
Students lead and participate in weekly Campus Worship in the Campus Worship Center in honor of Marion Bontrager. Bontrager ’57 helped start Campus Worship in the early 1970s and taught Bible and ministry courses for 40 years before retiring in May 2014.
