Each year, the Department of Theatre offers a variety of production projects, covering a wide spectrum of genres and styles.
Our 2022 – 2023 Production Program has completed. W e are so proud of the thoughtful and exciting work from our students, faculty, guest artists, and staff this year and we are so grateful to the audiences who joined us.
We are busy planning our productions for next year. We will share information about our 23-34 program in August!
Participation in Department of Theatre Productions is open to all current Northeastern Students regardless of major. Please visit our Production Auditions Page for more information about auditioning or reach out to Production Coordinator Stephanie Hettrick about how to get involved.
Please visit our Tickets and Audience Information Page for more information about specific performances and to register for tickets.
COMPLETED PRODUCTIONS
POLAROID STORIES
Written by Naomi Iizuka
Directed by Greg Allen
See members of the cast discuss the production
Scenic Design by Janie Howland
Costume Design by Frances McSherry
Lighting Design by Abigail Wang
Sound Design by David Reiffel
Projections Design by Bella Ciaramitaro (Art & Design ’24)
Production Stage Manager: Nico Fernandez (’25)
Assistant Stage Manager: Lily McCollum (’25)
Rehearsals begin September 13
Performances October 13 – 23
CAST LIST
D | Donovan Holt |
Eurydice | Jada Saintlouis |
Persephone | Shira Lederman |
Orpheus | Winston Alcufrom |
Philomela | Gabriela Hernandez |
SKINHEADgirl | Marie Siopy |
Narcissus | Finnigan McCormack |
Echo | Erin Solomon |
SKINHEADboy | Lou Conrad |
G | Noah Braunstein |
A visceral blend of classical mythology and real-life stories told by street kids, Naomi lizuka’s Polaroid Stories journeys into a dangerous world where myth-making fulfills a fierce need for transcendence. Inspired in part by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Polaroid Stories takes place on the outermost edge of a city, a way stop for dreamers, dealers, and desperadoes, a no-man’s land where runaways seek camaraderie, refuge, and escape. Serpentine routes from the street to the heart characterize the interactions in this spellbinding tale of young people pushed to society’s fringe.
“Polaroid Stories is a well written dark drama which speaks about some of the heavy issues in the lives of street youth in the city. This not a heartwarming story, but a dark social commentary from a very up close and personal viewpoint.”-Chicago Critic
Content Warning:
This performance includes adult, suggestive, and offensive language, mentions and depictions of drug abuse and addiction as well as references to sexual harassment and violence.
Polaroid Stories is produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois.
PROBLEM PLAY
Written & Directed by Erica Terpening-Romeo
Dramaturgy by Emily Trantanella
Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord
Costume Design by Jessica Pribble
Lighting Design by Amanda Fallon
Sound Design by Anna Drummond
Production Stage Manager: Karen Gallagher (’25)
Rehearsals begin October 3
Performances November 10 – 20
Meet the Students of Thornbrooke Academy
CAST LIST:
Mr. Knapp | Zeke D’Ascoli |
Zo | Isabelle Bushkov |
Dri | Devon Whitney |
Megan | Rory O’Neill |
Courtney | Ivy Kee |
Lola | Mitra Sharif |
Ivy | Abby Kesselman |
Sloan | Trisha Barua |
Max | Eve Davidson |
Bobbi | Brenna Thornton |
At Thornbrooke Academy for Troubled Girls, a private reform school for teens in the New England countryside, students live a life of restriction and disempowerment. But things change one morning when nine students decide to take their punitive teacher hostage, and take control of their auxiliary classroom. In this tiny space they claim for themselves, the girls are able to throw off the strictures of Thornbrooke and exercise their own agency. But there’s one major problem: there’s no wifi, and nothing on the other side of that door but punishment for their crimes. So they make the strange and fateful choice to pass the time by rehearsing Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, the only book in the room with enough copies to go around. Over the course of the next week, they camp out in their strange, cramped little kingdom, and grapple with justice, sex, leadership, and power through the pages of a problem play.
Content Warning:
This production includes adult, suggestive, and offensive language, mentions and depictions of violence, as well as references to self-harm, suicide, rape, and pedophilia.
EVERYBODY
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Melinda Lopez
Assistant Director Donovan Holt (’24)
Movement Design by Ilya Vidrin
Scenic Design by Baron E. Pugh
Costume Design by Rachel Erwin (’23)
Lighting Design by Elmer Martinez
Sound Design by Aubrey Dube
Production Stage Manager Chloe (Ceci) May Yan Chin
Assistant Stage Manager Hongli (Susie) Jiao
Rehearsals begin January 24
Performances February 22 – 26
EVERYBODY is a witty, powerful and uplifting journey to… The End. This ancient play is reimagined in a contemporary setting. Love, Family, Kinship, Beauty, God and an ensemble of other fellow travelers escort Everybody, as they discover what matters most in life. This theatrically innovative adaptation will surprise you at every turn.
CAST List:
Erin Solomon | Usher/God/Understanding |
Jupiter Lê | Death |
Sydney Love | Everybody |
Tiana Mudzimurema | Love |
Pavithra Rajesh | Girl/Time |
Lily McCollum | Somebody/Friendship |
Halle Brockett | Somebody/Kinship |
Essence Brevard-Alouidor | Somebody/Cousinship |
Naomi Kim | Somebody/Stuff |
Ryan Martin | 1/Senses |
Rachel Oppong | 2/Mind |
Nicolas Fernandez | 3/Beauty |
Mitra Sharif | 4/Strength |
CAPSTONE PROJECTS FESTIVAL
The Department of Theatre is thrilled to present a festival of original works created by some of our graduating students for their Capstone Projects. Presentations of these original works will be in the Ryder Theatre Lab (334 Ryder Hall).
Performances
Thursday March 16 at 7pm
Remembrance of the Living
Solid Ground
Friday March 17 at 7pm
TRANNY FAGGOT
Joe’s Pizza
Choose & Celebrate: Inspired by Gay Community News
Changeling
Saturday March 18 at 2pm
Remembrance of the Living
Solid Ground
Saturday March 18 at 6pm
TRANNY FAGGOT
Joe’s Pizza
Choose & Celebrate: Inspired by Gay Community News
Changeling
The Department of Theatre will host a celebration reception on Saturday March 18th at 5pm, between the afternoon and evening presentations.
THE PROJECTS
TRANNY FAGGOT A short film written & directed by Lou Conrad (’23)
TRANNY FAGGOT is a coming-of-age horror flick set at a summer camp where a transgender teen and their friends must survive a zombie apocalypse.
Content Warning: This production includes offensive language with references to transphobia, homophobia, self-harm, and suicide as well as depictions of gore, weapons, self-harm, and death.
CHOOSE & CELEBRATE: INSPIRED BY GAY COMMUNITY NEWS A play written by Catherine Giorgetti (’23)
In 1973 Boston, Teresa grapples with the realities of gay life: how to support her best friends Eric and Christopher in their union ceremony, how to deal with a homophobic straight friend who doesn’t get her, and what to do when violence permeates her community. Inspired by stories from Gay Community News and the real queer people who lived in 1973 Boston, this is a 60 – 75 minute stage reading.
Content Warning: This production includes offensive language and explicit homophobia as well as a description of a historic hate crime.
CHANGELING A play written by Julia Lee (’23)
Inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Changeling gives voice to the unheard and unseen Boy at the center of Titania and Oberon’s most recent martial spat. Boy explores his words and identity alongside the woods of Faerie in a coming-of-age story about defining humanity among the fantastical.
SOLID GROUND A play written by Sydney Love (’23)
When a family emergency strikes a small town café, the baristas, kitchen staff, and regulars worry about the future of the shop and what it’s closure would mean for the community.
Content Warning: This production includes references to death of animals and suicide.
REMEMBRANCE OF THE LIVING A play written by Dan Lutz (’23)
Dan, death, and more Dan. It’s not Everyman, it’s EveryDan.
Content Warning: This production includes explicit language with references to death, suicide, trauma, relationships with food, financial insecurity, self-concept issues, Chekhov, and parallels to Everyman.
JOE’S PIZZA A TV pilot directed by Marie Siopy (’22)
Pilot is the first episode in a hypothetical mini-series created by Hannah Wong, directed by Marie Siopy, and produced by Sydney Schechter and Paige Stern. The episode follows Naomi as she goes through the worst day of her life and, quite unexpectedly, ends in a pizza restaurant outside the confines of time and space.
Content Warning: This production includes depictions of mild PTSD flashbacks.
PHAEDRA’S LOVE
Written by Sarah Kane
Directed by Antonio Ocampo-Guzman
Scenic, Lighting, & Projection Design by Oliver Wason
Associate Lighting Designer Makenna Harnden (’24)
Costume Design by Cassandra Queen
Sound Design by Emily Krane
Rehearsals begin February 14
Performances March 30 – April 9
Learn about the Lighting & Projection Design Process
Cast List:
Antonio Weissinger | King Theseus |
Madeleine Elsea | Queen Phaedra |
Jacob Barrett | Prince Hippolytus |
Josie Ojakli | Strophe |
Erin Fitzpatrick | Royal Doctor |
Antonio Weissinger | A Priest |
Astrid Wuttke | Citizen |
Erin Fitzpatrick | Citizen |
Maerose Pepe | Citizen |
Nazira Cisse | Citizen |
Olivia Alberta | Citizen |
Sarah Kane’s radical reworking of Seneca’s classical tragedy of incest and unrequited lust is a bold and provocative revisioning set amidst some of the nastiest moments of the current British monarchy. One of the exponents of “in-yer-face” theatre, Kane was only 24 when she wrote this brief play as a commission for the Gate Theatre in London, but she already understood despair acutely. She was a tormented soul who wrote simply and bluntly about the world she saw around her, a world where violence and love were intertwined. She did what no one in her time managed to do: she spoke the unspeakable, delivering a brutal black comedy, a savage farce that challenges us to consider what is truly meaningful in our lives.