2022 – 2023 Productions

POLAROID STORIES

Written by Naomi Iizuka 

Directed by Greg Allen

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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

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

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CAST LIST:

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

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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:

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).

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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

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Learn about the Lighting & Projection Design Process

Cast List:

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.