North Park has served five generations of students and continues to grow in diversity, academic relevance, and Christian commitment. Our Chicago location is a great asset that reflects the School’s global reach and outlook.
After 125 years, we’ve learned how to streamline the process of helping qualified applicants seek admission to North Park and find affordable ways to attend. If you don’t see what you’re looking for on our website, please contact us directly!
North Park offers more than 40 graduate and undergraduate programs in liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies. Classes average 17 students. 84% of our faculty have terminal degrees. Academics here are rigorous and results-oriented.
North Park Theological Seminary prepares you to answer the call to service through theological study, spiritual development, and the formative experiences of living in a community with others on a similar life path.
The Office of Alumni Engagement fosters lifelong connections by engaging alumni with the university and one another in activities, programs, and services that support the university’s mission and alumni needs.
North Park University Choir Tours, Performs in New England March 10–12
Ensembles to perform in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts
CHICAGO (February 20, 2012) – The 45-member North Park University Choir will tour and perform in New England locations March 10-12 with the theme "Towards a Peaceable Kingdom: Songs of Faith, Inspiration, and Community." The University Choir, including the University Chamber Singers, will perform in congregations of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), sing in worship at Boston's historic Trinity Church, and lead a workshop with area high school choirs during a stop in Massachusetts.
Four performances are planned during the tour, and each is free and open to the public:
Concerts will include traditional and lesser-known choral repertoire, and will highlight some contemporary Chicago-area composers and arrangers, said Dr. Julia Davids, the Stephen J. Hendrickson Endowed Chair of Choral Activities, North Park University School of Music. Concert-goers will hear music from Christian and other perspectives, sung in English, Latin, French, Spanish, and Hebrew, she said.
The tour's theme is derived from "The Peaceable Kingdom," a composition written by Randall Thompson, a professor of music who studied and taught at colleges and universities in the eastern United States. "Every student should sing Randall Thompson's music," Davids said. "It is great music. I love the whole concept behind his 'Peaceable Kingdom.' We're doing just a couple of the movements from it. I think it holds with the focus of North Park University — that we're part of a peaceful and knowledgeable co-existence with our urban location, with a diversity of students. We're a very outward-looking institution. That's what this program is hoping to showcase."
Dr. Julia Davids directs choral activities at North Park University.
A few students will share some of their North Park University experiences with audiences at each performance, Davids said. Among the students in the choir is Peter Palmatier, Quincy, Mass., a freshman majoring in creative writing. "I'm really excited to go back home and see my family and all my friends from my church again," he said. "It'll be nice for them to finally hear some of the music that we've been singing this year." Several members of Palmatier's family have attended the University, he said.
Each concert will conclude with the traditional Swedish hymn, "Children of the Heavenly Father." Alumni will be invited to sing with the choir, in both Swedish and in English, a tribute to the University's history, Davids said. The University is affiliated with the Chicago-based ECC, which was formed by Swedish immigrants.
During the tour, Davids and the University Choir and Chamber Singers will lead a workshop March 12 with two high school choirs at Braintree High School, Braintree, Mass. The high school students will learn singing techniques, and work on a specific choral repertoire, she said. North Park students will also share their student experiences with the high school students.
University Choir members will stay with host families throughout the tour. Staff with the University School of Music will accompany the choir and make recruiting visits. Staff with the Office of Alumni Relations will also be present at each concert and host a networking event in Boston March 9 for North Park University alumni.
North Park University Spring Theatre Production Set for Chicago Storefront Space
Mandy VanderMey and Jake Sanders portray the lead characters in the North Park University theatre production of To Damascus, to be staged at a Chicago storefront theatre.
Production is based on August Strindberg's To Damascus
CHICAGO (April 13, 2012) – North Park University theatre students will take their skills off campus in late April and early May to perform an original adaptation of Swedish playwright August Strindberg'sTo Damascus in a Chicago storefront space. It's the second time in two years that University theatre students have staged a production in the intimate setting provided by such a space, commonly used in Chicago theatre productions.
In addition, University theatre alumni working in the Chicago theatre circuit have been working with student designers the past few months, as the production takes shape, said Dr. Chad Eric Bergman, professor of communication arts, Theatre and Performance Studies. This year is also the 100th year of Strindberg's death. Strindberg was a significant and prolific writer who penned more than 60 plays, and is credited with writing more than 30 novels, autobiographies, poems, and other artistic works. Performances of Strindberg's works are being staged throughout the world this year.
Working in storefront settings is part of students' training in the University theatre program. In 2010, the North Park production of Legitimate Geniuses was staged at the Neo Futurarium, Chicago. "It was the most successful talking play, other than a musical, that we had done in a long time," Bergman said. "People wanted to go. It was 'an event' to be off campus." This year, the University spring theatre production is The Storefront Theatre Experience at Rivendell Theatre, Chicago.
Last fall, Bergman translated To Damascus from Swedish to English. Bergman, 13 theatre students, and several designers then rewrote the script into a 21st century story to which students can relate, keeping the main themes of Strindberg's original piece. To Damascus describes a spiritual pilgrimage in which the main character, The Stranger, experiences Christ, similar to Paul's conversion to Christ described in the Acts of the Apostles in New Testament.
"The source material these students came up was profound and topical, and really struck a chord. It's student-driven, and we're really excited about that," Bergman said.
Jake Sanders, a creative writing and theatre major from Worcester, Mass., plays the role of The Stranger. Many people had a role in reworking Strindberg's original story, he said. "It's been such a collaborative effort between not just Chad and the production team, but also the actors have had a hand in creating the world we want everyone to experience," he said in an interview.
Sanders, a junior, was in Legitimate Geniuses two years ago, and experienced first-hand the excitement of performing in a storefront setting just as Chicago professionals do. "We're actually getting off campus and doing something that's a little more radical than we normally do," he said. "It definitely jumps the energy level for everyone."
Particularly significant for Sanders and other students has been the opportunity to work on this production with alumni professionals who work in Chicago theatre. One of them is Sarah Nelson, actor, designer, and company manager for Akvavit Theatre Company, Chicago. She graduated from North Park University in 2011, where she was a student with a double major in communication arts theatre, and business and economics.
Nelson, along with other alumni and designers, has been working with the North Park students since February, helping them as they adapted Strindberg's original script, and to build sets and work on sound design. "Everyone is working as an ensemble to put this together. In Chicago you can find this sort of thing happening in many spaces," Nelson said. "I think this is a really fun, relatable piece because it's written by students and adapted from Strindberg's play."
Nelson recalled her own experiences when she was a North Park student, and how that has translated into her professional theatre career. "What I remember most is working as true collaborators," she said. "I don't think as far as I can tell from other friends at other universities that they had opportunities to work with professional directors and designers. That was a huge aid after college. I have a lot more outside connections."
Performances of the students' adaptation of To Damascus are April 27, 28 and 29, plus May 3, 4 and 5 at The Storefront Theatre Experience at Rivendell Theatre, Chicago. All performances are at 7:30 p.m., except April 29, which is at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are available by email at tickets@NPUtheatre.org or at the door. General admission is $10, students, $5 with a University identification card. Seating is limited, with about 50 seats available for each performance.
Dr. Julia Davids directs choral activities at North Park University.
Author tomgabrysiakPosted on Categories Stories
