Mainstage Productions
Every year the department produces two mainstage plays under the direction of a member of the Theater Studies faculty or a guest professional. Students may participate in the production for course credit, during which time they analyze, research, rehearse, and present the play. Students may focus on acting, assistant directing, assisting in design, dramaturgy, stage management, or behind the scenes in technical production. The specific area of focus is determined through audition and/or arrangement with the instructor. All undergrads are welcome to audition.
In the course of four years of study, students can be involved in productions of plays both old and new, from all over the world. Participating in a mainstage production lends itself to a theater studies core value - development of artistic and intellectual skills through study and production experience, helping students prepare for careers in the professional theater OR in a any field where collaboration and communication skills are highly valued.
Production History
Citizen: An American Lyric
Written By: Claudia RankineDirected By: JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell
A stage adaptation of the internationally acclaimed and award-winning book of poetry/prose by Claudia Rankine about race in America.
Fefu and Her Friends
Written By: María Irene FornésDirected By: Jeff Storer
It's a lovely spring weekend in 1935. Eight young society women who support arts education gather at a New England country manor to prepare their yearly fundraising pitch: six are friends from college; two are recent additions to the group; two are former lovers; one now uses a wheelchair for an...
As You Like It
Written By: William ShakespeareDirected By: Jules Odendahl-James
Thou seest, we are not all alone unhappy:
This wide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.
— Act 2, Sc. 7.
Join us for a rendering of one of Shakespeare’s most well-known comedies, As You Like It. This...
Bad Roads
Written By: Natal'ya VorozhbitDirected By: Jody McAuliffe
For the spring mainstage production, Professor Jody McAuliffe directs Bad Roads, new documentary theater work from Ukranian playwright Natal’ya Vorozhbit. For dates and ticket information, please go here.
Dancing at Lughnasa
Written By: Brian FrielDirected By: Ellen Hemphill
The pagan hilltop rituals of Lughnasa, the ancient Gaelic harvest festival, were abandoned after the Christianization of Ireland. Or were they? In Brian Friel’s play, dancing and sacrifice continue to feature in the lives of five sisters, one ex-priest, and one illegitimate child, as they...