Lights, Camera, Action 

How Honors Students Explore Their Passions in Theater 

By Jacob Wynkoop and Pepper Williams

For many University of Iowa honors students, college becomes a careful exercise in time management. Color-coded planners, late-night studies, and a constant awareness of deadlines. On the banks of the Iowa River, in the Theater Building, rehearsal rooms stay buzzing long after most students have packed their bags for the night. 

For Hayden Robertson, an actress and honors student, the Theater Building was like a second home during the department's production of Love Pentagram. 

The play, by MK Shultz, focuses on a college’s queer activism, resource, and community center and the drama within, including a sprinkle of attempted murder. 

Robertson was ready for general auditions in December of 2025. 

“I decided to audition, even knowing how demanding honors is, because being on stage makes me feel alive,” Robertson said. “I would not be me without theater.” 

While some students hesitate to add a commitment to an already stretched schedule, Robertson leaned in. Once she was cast as Mickey, she started to realize that these rehearsal times created more challenges. 

“Unfortunately, rehearsal fell into the time when I am most academically productive: nighttime,” she said. “It was pretty difficult coming back at 11 p.m. most nights and studying instead of going to bed.” 

Robertson describes herself as “a very Type A person when it comes to academics,” and she was determined not to let her courses come second.

She started completing assignments way in advance of their due date to stay on track. Even when stress built up, like having a major project due during the show weekend, she relied on perspective. 

“I often use the mindset of ‘problems are just temporary’ to ease my way out of a stressful mindset,” Robertson said. 

The stress, she insists, was worth it; being surrounded by amazing people brought on more joy, and it outweighed the challenges. 

Love Pentagram held deeper significance for Robertson beyond performance as well. 

This show, in particular, was about creating a family-like community for queer individuals and, for her, there was a message to be delivered through the lines. 

“I have never gotten to do a show that was making a statement like this one, and it has been one of my favorite plays I have done.” 

In fact, she doesn’t see herself slowing down anytime soon. 

“I love theater too much to even think about not auditioning,” said Robertson. “Even now, I believe that I will audition every semester until I graduate because theater truly does bring me that much joy.” 

Balancing honors coursework and a full production schedule isn’t easy. It requires discipline, sacrifice, and a willingness to embrace the late nights and the bright lights. For Robertson, the choice has never been about picking one path over the other. It’s about refusing to give up the thing that makes her feel most alive.

Down the hall from Love Pentagram, another show was deep into rehearsal. All That Glitters, written and directed by Ro Kivett, tells the story of Magenta, a drag queen who returns to her old haunt, the Moonlight Lounge, for the first time in years, only to confront the demons that caused her to leave in the first place.

The environment in the All That Glitters rehearsal space on one Friday in late February was immediately captivating. It was after nine o’clock, but the cast was still bubbling with energy– never mind that they’d been there since seven (and will be there until eleven), and never mind that they’ve been keeping up that routine for weeks. 

The cast was laughing, running around, sharing food, their shoes left outside the workshop room’s glossy wooden floor. There were big smiles, big voices, and overwhelming camaraderie– A picturesque definition of dedicated enjoyment. And somewhere amid the mass was Ava Henrie, a first-year honors student double-majoring in theater and English and creative writing on the publishing track.

Henrie has been part of two productions with the University of Iowa’s theater department as, before All That Glitters, she was in the cast of Earthus Terminus. Henrie’s schedule is, unsurprisingly, demanding. Hours of classes each providing hours of homework is an odyssey in and of itself, and that’s before the additional hours of theater rehearsal and prep are thrown into the mix. 

But Henrie, much like Robertson, serves as an excellent example of the work ethic instilled into honors students. 

“Not to toot my own horn but I think the fact that I’m double-majoring shows that I am driven and hard-working, and I’m willing to put in extra work to succeed,” Henrie said. “I’m not afraid of a challenge, and I won’t back down from it.”

But the demands of Henrie’s schedule did make themselves known. In fact, she believed the schedule’s difficulties would appear in due time. 

“I definitely planned my schedule out,” Henrie said. “I would be like, ‘ok, I have ten minutes between these two classes that I can sit down at a bench and work on my monologue… I would see in my schedule what breaks I had that I could put towards theater versus homework.”

Henrie and Robertson are people who do it all—students, artists, and honors members. That might be frightening or irritating to those outside who find their workload excessive. But Henrie finds this misunderstanding deeply bothersome. After all, who says doing it all is the worst thing in the world?

“I think people think that we’re try-hards,” said Henrie, “and maybe we are a little bit, but that’s why we’re successful. It’s because we’re not afraid to try and do hard work.”

For Robertson, theater is an identity, not an extracurricular activity. 

 “I feel like the arts as a whole make up who I am,” Robertson said. “Without the arts, my life would be so dull.” 

She’s aware that some might see students involved in so many things as “activity hoppers” or “resume obsessed,” but she disagrees: “In most cases, people do multiple activities because those are the things in life that make them the proudest to be alive.”