Biography
Jennifer Ross Nostrala, professor of theatre arts has been directing and teaching theatre for over twenty-five years. She teaches the advanced acting and directing courses. She also teaches Script Analysis, Women and Theatre, Vocations and the Performing Arts, and Playwriting. A few years ago she created a new May Term course, Agents of Change: Creating Change in the Community Through Performance. This course is designed to help students investigate a contemporary issue and then develop a performance around that issue as a way to create change in the community. Recent offerings of this course have focused on raising awareness on campus on sexual harassment and assault. The students have put together a performance that is used as a part of the orientation for new students on campus. Jennifer also teaches in our Women’s and Gender Studies program.
Expertise
- Directing, Acting, and Playwrighting
- Extensive study in issues related to Women’s and Gender Studies
- Experience with Mentor in Violence Prevention
Awards
- 2013 Commendation for Directing & Choreography, Lysistrata Jones, KCACTF
- 2012 Commendation for Devised Work, Alice’s Trip, KCACTF
- 2010 Iowa Arts Council Grant for Fat Pig
- 2009 Commendation for Directing, Back Story, KCACTF
- 2008 Faculty Award for Campus Leadership, Simpson College
- 2006 Commendation for Directing, One Flea Spare, KCACTF
- 2003 Distinguished Teacher Award, Simpson College
- 2001 Iowa Arts Council Grant for travel to LaMama Umbria workshop, Italy
- 1998 Distinguished Junior Faculty Award, Simpson College
Credentials
- M.F.A in Directing from The University of Texas at Austin, 1988
- B.A. with majors in Theatre Arts and Art from Simpson College, 1985
Productions
- Simpson College:
Machinal (2021)
Prospera's Island: An Operatic Fantasia (2020)
The Magic Flute (2019)
Kiss Me, Kate (2019)
Tartuffe (2017)
The Comedy of Errors (2016)
Knowing Joan (2015)
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel (2014)
Lysistrata Jones (2013)
- Iowa Stage Theatre Company
The Cake (2021)
Bright Half Life (2021)
A Doll's House (2019)
- StageWest Theatre, Des Moines, Iowa:
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2015)
Venus and Fur (2014)
The Shape of Things (2011)
- Winterset Stage, Winterset, Iowa:
The Quiet Man (2012)
- Des Moines Social Club, Des Moines, Iowa:
Fat Pig (2010)
- The Vortex, Austin, Texas:
Hamlet (2007)