PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 15, 2021
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Celt sophomore debuts fi rst play
via Willamette virtual offerings
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
Since middle school, Mc-
Nary High sophomore Kiele
Jarnagin has developed a pas-
sion for theater and writing,
so when her English teacher,
Andrew Tennant, told her
about a free
playwr iting
course that
Willamette
U n ive r s i t y
was
offer-
ing for high
schoolers, she
knew she had
to sign up.
Ja r n a g i n ,
who aspires
to be a dra-
ma teacher
someday, was
one of 13
students from
around the state that partic-
ipated in the course, which
took place over Zoom,
where students would meet
virtually on Thursdays for
three hours over a 10-week
period.
“I was a little nervous at
fi rst, but I had so much fun. I
honestly wasn’t expecting to
have as much fun as I did,”
Jarnagin said. “I loved that
I was able to make friends
with people around the state
that shared the same interests
as me.”
Jarnagin had her doubts
about taking another class
over Zoom in her free time,
but was pleasantly surprised
with how the class was facil-
itated.
“I thought it was going
to be diffi cult to formulate
connections with people
virtually, but the class went
smoothly and was really in-
teractive and enjoyable,” Jar-
nagin said.
The class was taught by
Ellen Lewis, an award-win-
ning playwright from Sil-
verton who
is a member
of LineStorm
Playwr ights,
Opera Amer-
ica and the
Dramatists
Guild.
“ M r s .
Lewis
was
one of the
k i n d e s t
teachers
I
have
ever
had, but I felt
like she was
really good at
giving me constructive criti-
cism and helping me develop
a more transitional play,” Jar-
nagin said.
Over the course of the
class, each student crafted a
10-minute short play, which
will be performed by Willa-
mette actors for the students
who participated in the class
later this month — the plays
aren’t available for the public.
Jarnagin’s play revolves
around two female best
friends in their late 20s that
do everything together.
When one of the women
starts displaying some errat-
ic behavior, the other wom-
an does some investigating
to try and fi nd out why her
friend is acting out — she
discovers it’s because she is
afraid to fl y to her sister’s
OFFICER TIM HEIN
Submitted
Kiele Jarnagin honed her playwriting chops through an online
course at Willamette University.
wedding because her mom
died while on a plane.
Jarnagin was inspired to
write this story due to the
importance of the close
friendships in her life — as
well as her fear of fl ying.
“I am scared of fl ying
and turbulence, but I also
have really good friends that
I know would be there for
me,” Jarnagin said.
Even though Jarnagin
wrote scripts for assemblies
in middle school and is cur-
rently a part of the McNary
theater program, she didn’t
have much experience in
scriptwriting before this
class, which is why she felt
that this educational oppor-
tunity had a huge impact on
her.
“I really feel like the class
helped me involve myself in
all the different aspects of
theater and bringing them
all together to create a show,”
Jarnagin said. “I learned a lot
about character development
and going in depth with a
character’s personality. I can’t
wait to write more scripts in
the future.”
Email the reporter at news@
keizertimes.com
Road striping still an issue after two attempts
Lane stripes on River Road
North remain hard to see
during rainstorms even after
a second attempt at restriping
them last fall.
Keizer Public Works Direc-
tor Bill Lawyer has requested a
meeting with Marion County
offi cials to deterrmine what
could make the striping more
refl ective.
The city fi rst requested a
restriping in spring 2020, but
the equipment was offl ine for
repairs and action was further
delayed by the pandemic.
“We believe they are better
than last winter, however they
are still not as refl ective as we
would like them,” Lawyer said.
“We will be discussing this is-
sue with Marion County staff
to see if there is a change in
the process or materials that
can be done to improve the
visibility of the lane markings.”
Contrary to intuition, the
refl ective properties of lane
Hein was sworn into the
Keizer Police Department
(KPD) at a city council meet-
ing in late October. He came
from the Silverton Police De-
partment (SPD), where he
worked for 10 years.
He was hired on at the SPD
straight out of college and
worked on patrol and traffi c.
He was promoted to sergeant,
but he was drawn to Keiz-
er because it still has a small
town feel but is a slightly larg-
er agency the SPD.
“It wasn’t so big of an
agency where I thought that
I would feel like I’m just a
number or something like
that. Everybody knows every-
body here,” Hein said.
The most notable differ-
ence between the two depart-
ments is the call volume. Hein
said he gets more calls while
working on patrol in Keizer
then Silverton would get in
both shifts.
When he was with SPD
he was involved in a shooting
where the suspect hid under
two mattresses — which takes
the cake as the strangest thing
he’s seen on the job.
“It wasn’t like the mattress-
es were on a bed frame like we
would all think. It was literal-
ly a mattress on the fl oor that
he had cut a hole into the box
spring and was hiding down
in there,” Hein said.
One of the things that he
enjoys about the job is that he
does new things every day.
He shadowed a detective
for a senior project in high
school and fell in love with
the ever changing challenges
File
Offi cer Tim Hein was recent-
ly sworn into the police force,
but had 10 years of experi-
ence with the Silverton Police
Department.
of police work.
Keizertimes reporter Lauren
Murphy is casting a spotlight on
some of our local fi rst respond-
ers in a continuing series. If you
would like to suggest someone for
this series (EMT/paramedics,
fi refi ghters, police offi cers, nurses,
etc.), email reporter@keizertimes.
com.
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stripes do not come from the
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ally glass beads blown into the
paint in a two-step process.
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KEIZER COMMUNITY CHURCH
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503 -393 - 0222 • KeizerCommunityChurch.com
SUNDAY:
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