Artist of the Week: Hope Nofziger

MISHAWAKA - This week, we shine the spot­light on Hope Nofziger, a se­nior the­atre arts and deaf stud­ies ma­jor. Nofziger is star­ring as Dorothy Gale in Bethel’s up­com­ing pro­duc­tion of the “Wiz­ard of Oz.” 

“I have thor­oughly en­joyed jump­ing into the iconic char­ac­ter and find­ing my own Dorothy,” Nofziger said. 

The ac­tress has re­ceived mul­ti­ple awards for her out­stand­ing per­for­mances, in­clud­ing win­ning the Earl Reimer Schol­ar­ship, “Best Ac­tress in a Mu­si­cal,” “Best Ac­tress in a Play” and, her per­sonal fa­vorite, “Best Kiss.” She has also re­ceived the Irene Ryan Nom­i­na­tion for three sep­a­rate roles while at Bethel.  

Nofziger be­gan act­ing 10 years ago, but started tak­ing it se­ri­ously in the past two years.  

“I was work­ing on a Ten­nessee Williams piece here at Bethel, ‘Glass Menagerie,’” Nofziger said. “It was dur­ing that show that I de­cided to change my ma­jor to the­atre.” 

Ac­cord­ing to Nofziger, what in­spires her most in the­atre is imag­i­na­tion.  

“I can cre­ate a whole world in my mind, one where I know all the an­swers… I have al­ways been in­trigued by hu­man in­ter­ac­tion,” Nofziger said.  

Af­ter grad­u­a­tion, Nofziger plans to au­di­tion for mul­ti­ple the­atres, in­clud­ing sum­mer stock the­atres (the­atres that only op­er­ate dur­ing the sum­mer) across East­ern and Mid­west Amer­ica and hopes to be work­ing in re­gional the­atres. 

“We'll see what doors God opens!”