Past Theater Seasons
2023-2024
Broadway Bound with Faith Prince
Featuring: Brent Frederick & Faith Prince
The 51社区 Musical Theater Class of 2024
Baker Theater (Kantner Hall)
Friday, September 15 at 7PM
For the past four decades, FAITH PRINCE has dazzled audiences on both stage and screen in a variety of memorable comedic and dramatic roles. She quickly rose to Broadway fame after winning a Tony Award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls directed by Jerry Zaks and has remained one of the most prolific leading ladies working in the American musical theater.
For her Broadway debut in Jerome Robbins Broadway Ms. Prince was nominated for her first Tony Award and Drama Desk Award and has since starred in over a dozen Broadway shows: Nick & Nora (Outer Critics Circle nomination), Guys and Dolls, What鈥檚 Wrong with This Picture, The King and I, Little Me, James Joyce鈥檚 The Dead, Bells Are Ringing (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics nominations), Noises Off, Disney鈥檚 The Little Mermaid, A Catered Affair (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics nominations), Annie, and Disaster. Also in New York, she originated the role of Trina in William Finn and James Lapine鈥檚 Falsettoland and can be heard on the cast recording.
Equally present on screen, Ms. Prince made her television debut guest starring opposite Pierce Brosnan on the hit series Remington Steele, followed by playing Angela Virago in the 1985 film The Last Dragon.
Faith is perhaps more widely recognized for the many colorful characters she has created on television, including recently Nellie Cantrell on the 2022 Fox series Monarch and Judith Robertson in Emily in Paris as well as Kristy Swenson in Scream Queens, Elaine Bingum in Drop Dead Diva, Claudia in Spin City, Kelly Knippers in Huff, Modern Family, CSI, Ugly Betty, Grey鈥檚 Anatomy, Monk, House, Now and Again, and television movies, including most recently Dear Christmas for Lifetime.
Medea
By Euripides
Directed by Devin Ty Franklin
In this modern translation by Frederic Raphael and Kenneth McLeish, this classic Greek tragedy follows the journey of a woman fighting to be seen by a man (and a world) that has defined her as invisible and insignificant. What will it take for this force of a woman to ascend beyond her circumstances?
Virginia Hahne Theater
October 12th, 13th, 14th @ 8PM & 14th @ 2PM
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
By Francis Beaumont
Directed by Caitlin Lopez
A group of thespians present a romantic play about star-crossed lovers鈥 well鈥 they would if the audience would just shut up. A rowdy grocer and his wife demand a different play starring their apprentice. The company must now perform two plays: the romance, and an improvised chivalric adventure complete with knights, giants, and sick dance moves.
Virginia Hahne Theater
October 26th, 27th, & 28th @ 8PM & 28th @ 2PM
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
Twelfth Night
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Shelley Delaney
A shipwreck in perilous waters creates a sea of confusion on land in Shakespeare鈥檚 freewheeling romcom of loss, longing, mistaken identity, obsession, revenge and madness, Twelfth Night. Anything can happen in coastal Illyria, where characters leap in heart first: transcending gender, upending propriety and scoffing at noise ordinances. Or鈥 What You Will.
Forum Theater
November 9th (Preview), 10th (Opening), 11th (Talkback), 15th, 16th (ASL+Talkback), 17th, 18th @ 8PM & 18th @ 2PM
FREE Student Rush Tickets available with a valid 51社区 ID at the venue for each performance if there are tickets remaining.
ShiningGirls
Written Collectively By Millie Rose, Levi Shrader, joolz, Kaitlin Gilgenbach, Maggie C. Nolan, and Molly H. Donahue
Directed by Molly H. Donahue
Sometimes, the only thing we can do is survive.
When two podcasters go viral for catching a vivid paranormal experience on tape, they will do anything to keep that fame train runnin'! Even if that means bringing the innocent public into direct contact with the veil for clout. Kantner is filled with ghosts of one girl's past and once they are released, it is unclear if they will ever be contained again.
View and Creative
Kantner Hall
December 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th @ 7PM & 9PM
by Clinton Reno
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
9 to 5 the Musical
Book by Patricia Resnick
Music & Lyrics by Dolly Parton
Adapted from 9 to 5 (1980)
Directed/Choreographed By Shanna VanDerwerker
9 TO 5 The Musical is the story of three working women getting revenge on their sexist and egotistical boss. Based on the 1980 film and the real-life women of the 9 to 5 movement, over 40 years later, this sassy, fun, and fast-moving show with Dolly Parton music provokes us to examine how much progress we鈥檝e actually accomplished in equal rights for women, and all folx.
Forum Theater
February 29th (Preview) March 1st, 2nd, 7th, and 8th @ 8PM
March 9th @ 2PM
Talkbacks: March 2nd and 7th following evening performance.
An Inside Job
Written and directed by Rebecca VerNooy
Stage Manager Anna Grier
Lighting Designer Kharla Landrau
Assistant Director Sam Irwin
An Inside Job follows characters looking for love, peace, and validation in all the wrong places. Confronted with expectations, chaotic thinking and their own need to belong, they eventually realize that finding freedom is an inside job.
Virginia Hahne Theater, Kantner Hall
March 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th
John Proctor is the Villain
1st Year MFA Directors鈥 Project
A play by Kimberly Belflower
Directed by Sarah Curtis
First year MFA Directing students will each present a one-act play to introduce themselves as artists to our community. We are proud and excited to produce their work. Titles and production information are forthcoming.
PlaySpace - Putnam Hall
March 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German S眉dwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915
By Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed by Caitlin Lopez
A group of actors gather to tell the little-known story of the first genocide of the 20th century. We Are Proud to Present 鈥 follows a group of idealistic actors they test the limits of empathy as their own stories, subjectivities, assumptions and prejudices catalyze their theatrical process. Eventually the full force of a horrific past crashes into the good intentions of the present, and what seemed a faraway place and time comes all too close to home.
Baker Theater
April 11th (Preview)
April 12th, 13th (Talkback), 17th, 18th, 19th (Talkback), 20th @ 8PM & 20th @ 2PM
Fringe Festival 2024
The 2023/2024 season will present the first ever School of Theater Fringe Festival.
Admission is free and on a first-come basis. There will be someone in Kantner Hall 5-9PM nightly to help provide information to attendees.
Co-Producers:
Colette Alfonso, Mariah Berryman, Nathanial Maciag, Beatrice Feldbush, Lauren Janoschka, and Cam Smith
Producing Mentor:
Roberto Di Donato
Tech Advisory Producer:
Quentin Kurtz
April 23-27, 2024
Kantner Hall, Putnam Hall and Glidden Hall
2022-2023
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
Carrie
Book by Lawrence D. Cohen
Lyrics by Dean Pitchford
Music by Michael Gore
Adapted from Stephen King鈥檚 Carrie
Directed and Choreographed by Victoria Rae Sook
Adapted from Stephen King's 1974 novel Carrie, the musical focuses on an awkward teenage girl with telekinetic powers whose lonely life is dominated by an oppressive religious fanatic mother. When she is humiliated by her classmates at the high school prom, she unleashes chaos on everyone and everything in her path.
Elizabeth Baker Theater
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
1st Year MFA Directors鈥 Projects
macbitches
Directed by Devin Ty Franklin
When a freshman is unexpectedly given the coveted role of Lady Macbeth, a few upperclassmen actresses invite her over to 鈥渃elebrate鈥 her casting and reassert their positions at the top of the theatre department鈥檚 hierarchy. As the Fireball and Svedka flow, the girls interrogate their own sense of ambition as well as the power structures that have shaped their theatrical education.
PlaySpace, Putnam Hall RM 227
The Secretaries
Directed by Caitlin Lopez
Pretty Patty Johnson is thrilled to join the secretarial pool at the Cooney Lumber Mill under the iron-fisted leadership of sultry office manager Susan Curtis. But she soon begins to feel that all is not right鈥攖he enforced diet of Slim-Fast shakes, the strange clicking language between the girls, the monthly disappearance of a lumberjack鈥 By the time Patty discovers murder is part of these office killers' skill set, it's too late to turn back! In the guise of satiric exploitation-horror, The Secretaries takes an unflinching look at the warped cultural expectations of femininity.
PlaySpace, Putnam Hall, RM 227
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
Julius Caesar
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Shelley Delaney
Power and Ambition. Friendship and Betrayal. Anarchy and Justice. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: a fast and furious political tale for our time.
Virginia Hahne Theater
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
Doctor Voynich and Her Children
A Prediction by Leanna Keyes
Directed by Tyler Everett Adams
Doctor Rue Voynich and her apprentice Fade travel the American Heartland dispensing herbal medications. They also covertly perform abortions--long ago made illegal. When approached by a local young woman, Hannah, to perform an abortion, Fade must assist her before the sheriff can nail them for the 鈥渁ttempted murder of an unborn person.鈥 This post-Roe v. Wade play about mothers and daughters is poetic, sexy, vulgar, queer, and a little too real.
Virginia Hahne Theater
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
what the Gods gave me
By Eryn Elyse McVay
Directed by Molly H. Donahue
Moon magic, man eaters, and matrimony; the women of Nevermoore Inn are preparing for the first night of the rest of their lives, but their carefully crafted mythos is about to catch fire. Written by OU鈥檚 own Eryn Elyse McVay, what the Gods gave me is a story about the magic of the family and the power of the individual.
Baker Backstage
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
Hotel Berry
By Jacqueline Lawton
Directed by JaMeeka Holloway
By 1912 Athens鈥 only Black business owners, Edward and Mattie Berry, have established one of the finest hotels in Ohio, with visitors from all over the country. When former president and now presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt decides to stay at the hotel, a potential moment of pride and joy unleashes scandal and political upheaval.
Forum Theater
VIBRANCY THEATER PRESENTS
Yerma
By Federico Garc铆a Lorca
Directed by Ally Poole
A woman in a passionless marriage, who wants nothing more than to have a child. A community that measures a woman鈥檚 worth by their ability to bear children. Yerma, for anyone who has ever desperately wanted something and found that it was just beyond their reach.
Forum Theater
April 13-15, 18-22 @ 8:00pm
April 22 @ 2PM
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
29th Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights鈥 Festival
IMAGINARY AUDIENCES
by Eryn Elyse McVay
Directed by Molly Donahue
When Lola McIntyre, a twelve-year-old aspiring magician, uploads the home video of her latest act to YouTube and suddenly garners millions of views overnight, her distant dream of performing magic solo on a Las Vegas stage soon becomes a tangible potential reality. Fast-forward fifteen years, and Lola鈥檚 still reaching toward that dream, still just on the cusp on true greatness. From betraying a friend to making deals with a demon, Lola will do just about anything to get on that Vegas stage, she has to, because everything she鈥檚 done, everything she鈥檚 gone through, it has to be worth it, right?
SQUEAKERS
by Steven Strafford
Directed by Sam Nelson
Jane is a new mother of a young baby, who finds herself on an adventure she never wanted to take. She fights through grief, addiction, and what lies beyond this plane of existence, all in pursuit of saving a life. Squeakers asks us what the punchline is for a joke that begins, "A pair of new parents, a clown, an angel, a nurse, and a couple of alcoholics walk into a hospital..."
The annual 51社区 Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights鈥 Festival held each year at the end of the Spring Semester represents the culmination of the work of 51社区鈥檚 MFA Playwrights. Join us to celebrate and help in the creation of new work!
Baker Theater
April 19-22, 26-29
Mentors: and
2021-2022
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus, Directed by Shannon R. Davis
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 - Music and Lyrics by Dave Malloy, Adapted from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Directed by Alan Patrick Kenny, Music Direction by Brent Frederick
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
Summer and Smoke - by Tennessee Williams, Directed by Sarah Elizabeth Yorke
Everybody - by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Directed by Roberto Di Donato
VIBRANCY THEATER PRESENTS鈥
Absentia鈥- by Olivia Matthews, Directed by Tanisha Lynn Pyron
FIRST YEAR GRADUATE DIRECTORS鈥 ONE ACT PLAYS
Concord Floral - Written by Jordan Tannahill, Directed by Molly Donahue
The Motherf*** with the Hat - Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Directed by Adam Zarowski
28TH ANNUAL SEABURY QUINN, JR. PLAYWRIGHTS鈥 FESTIVAL
Various works include:鈥
The Brutal F**King Death of The Drunkard, The Immigrant, The Durable, The Juggernaut; 鈥淚ron鈥 Mike Malloy - by Klae Bainter, Directed By Sam Nelson
N/N - by Ivan Mosley, Directed by Lloyda Alicia Garrett
The Long Memoriam - by Eryn Mcvay, Directed by Molly H. Donahue
The Model Congressman by Steven Strafford, Directed By Tyler Everett Adams
2020-2021
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
This Is Not What I Expected When I Imagined a Republic by Daria Miyelo Marinelli, Directed by Ameenah Kaplan
Spring Awakening鈥 - Music by Duncan Sheik, Lyrics and Book by Steven Sater, Directed by Alan Patrick Kenney, Music Direction by Brent Frederick
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Directed by Dustin Brown
Blood at the Root by Dominique Morisseau, Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene
27th Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights鈥 Festival
Various works include:鈥
Be Head鈥痓y third-year playwright John Hendel
The Martha Mitchell Effect鈥痓y third-year playwright Skye Robinson Hillis
A Woog Among the Waves鈥痓y first-year playwright Steven Strafford
To Be a Starfish鈥痓y first-year playwright Wendy-Marie Martin
A Perfect Day Away鈥by second-year playwright Klae Bainter
what the Gods gave me鈥痓y first-year playwright Eryn Elyse McVay
All to Bear in Heaven鈥痓y second-year playwright Ivan Mosley
2019-2020
School of Theater presents
Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson鈥 Directed by Shelley Delaney
She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen (Alumnus, 2002) Directed by Brian Evans
Style Lab Projects
Big Love by Charles Mee鈥 Directed by Corey Ragan
Pluto by Steve Yockey 鈥―irected Dustin Brown
26th Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights鈥 Festival
2018-2019
The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe
,
365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks
, , 鈥
Cabaret by Masteroff, Kander and Ebb
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Holly Down in Heaven by Kara Lee Corthron
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Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
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25th Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights' Festival
2017鈥2018
In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play - by Sarah Ruhl, Directed by Shelley Delaney
Top Girls - by Caryl Churchill, Directed by Allison Epperson
Style Lab Projects
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot - by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Directed by Jonathan Hetler
Failure: A Love Story - by Philip Dawkins, Directed by Anne McAlexander
The Government Inspector - by Nikolai Gogol / Translated by Jeffrey Hatcher, Directed by Dennis Delaney
The Skin of Our Teeth - by Thornton Wilder, Directed by Ben Stockman
24th Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights鈥 Festival
2016鈥2017
The Library - by Scott Z. Burns, directed by Shelley Delaney
The Ladies Man - adapted by Charles Morey, originally by Georges Feydeau, directed by Dennis Delaney
Style Lab Projects
Machinal - by Sophie Treadwell, directed by Ben Stockman
Mrs. Packard - by Emily Mann, directed by Allison Epperson
Stupid F***Ing Bird - by Aaron Posner, directed by David Haugen
The Rover - by Aphra Behn, directed by Brian Evans
23rd Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights鈥 festival
2015鈥2016
Elbows Off the Table - directed by Rebecca VerNooy
The Penelopiad - by Margaret Atwood, directed by David Haugen
Much Ado About Nothing - by William Shakespeare, directed by Dennis Lee Delaney
Urinetown - directed by Dan Dennis
Intimate Apparel - by Lynn Nottage, directed by Shelley Delaney
22nd Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival
2014鈥2015
bobrauchenbergamerica by Charles Mee, directed by Daniel C. Dennis
Rashomon by Ivor Benjamin, from the stories of Ryonosuke Akutagawa, translated by Jane Guaschi, directed by Brian Evans and Rebecca VerNooy
Marathon 鈥33 by June Havoc, directed by Aurora Held
Noises Off by Michael Frayn, directed by Dennis Lee Delaney
21st Seabury Quinnn Jr. Playwrights鈥 Festival
Other Projects
Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin, directed by Dennis Lee Delaney
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov, directed by Kerry Glamsch
Bloodknot by Athol Fugard, directed by Shelley Delaney
Sizwe Bansi is Dead by Athol Fugard, directed by Michael Ofori
2013鈥2014
Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman, directed by Rebecca VerNooy
Swimming in the Shallows by Nick Bock directed, by David Haugen
As You Like It by William Shakespeare directed by Shelley Delaney
20th Seabury Quinn Jr., Playwrights' Festival
Rust on Bone by Chanel Glover
Poor Bob by Anthony Ellison
Directing Projects
Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill, directed by Ryan Holihan
Klauzal Square by Sarah Gauncher, directed by Aurora Held
Crooked by Catherine Trieschmann, directed by Kerry Glamsch
2012鈥2013
Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle
Assassins Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by John Weidman
Lysistrata by Aristophanes (adapt. by Ellen McLaughlin)
The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams
19th Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwright's Festival
2011鈥2012
War is F***ing Awesome by Qui Nguyen (Vampire Cowboys)
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Diana of Dobson's by Cicely Hamilton
Eurydice by Sara Ruhl
18th Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwright's Festival
2010鈥2011
Man Equals Man by Bertold Brecht
The Misanthrope by Moliere translated, by Richard Wilbur
Holiday by Phillip Barry
Well by Lisa Kron
17th Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwright's Festival
2009鈥2010
The Hostage by Brendan Behan
The Wonderful World of Dissocia by Anthony Neilson
Marisol by Jose Rivera
Loves Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
16th Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwright's Festival
2008鈥2009
Blue Surge by Rebecca Gilman
What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton
Trojan Woman by Euripides interpreted by Ellen McLaughlin
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
15th Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwright's Festival
2007鈥2008
Knock Me a Kiss by Charles Smith
Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind
Betty's Summer Vacation by Christopher Durang
Macbett by Eugene Ionesco
14th Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwright's Festival