Student Productions
The Lab Shows
In addition to our Main Stage Season (five major productions), student directors produce between two and four experimental productions a year on minimal budgets.
Student Lab Show Proposal Guidelines
Proposals must include the following:
- Three copies of the script.
- An itemized budget including exact costs of royalaties and script purchase, as well as estimated expenses in costuming, setting, properties, and publicity. The current budget for each production is $350.
- A listing of student designers formally approved by appropriate design faculty (before the proposal is turned in). Beyond approved student-designers, proposals must also include a listing of 3-5 students committed to work on the project in some capacity. (These students planning to audition, but we hope will also include students willing to assist in set constructions and/or light hang, or costuming).
- If the steering committee chooses a student who has not yet had Play Direction, the proposal must include the name of a faculty advisor who has agreed to serve as a mentor for the project (before the proposal is turned in).
Student Directed laboratory productions in previous years have included: The Visit, Blue Kettle, Nasty Rumors and Final Remarks, Asia (an original student work), Cabaret, The Dentist: (student written Italian Commedia del'Arte), The Dispute, Endgame, An Evening of Absurdist Comedies, The Fantastiks, God, Godspell, The Museum, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, "Schoolhouse Rock" (student written), Spike Heels, Standing on My Knees, Still Life, Weights & Measures (student written), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Shoreline Home (student written), Beautiful Bodies, Eastern Standard, Talley's Folly
Other Performance/Production Opportunities
At the end of each semester, student directors from the directing course produce as many as ten one-acts during the final week of classes. Student playwriting, solo performance, and lyric performance classes also perform public showcases (including our annual outdoor celebration of Shakespeare's birthday). Student productions/special projects in the past have included: Master Harold, and the boys..., One Bright Sunday Afternooon (student work), Searching for Mr. Cheeto (student work), Standardized bunny (student work), Talking Through Oblivion (student work), You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Winnie the Pooh, 24 Hour Theatre (student work), History's Mysteries.
Student Organizations
Two student-groups help to support and sustain our program: the Theatre fraternity Alpha Psi Omega (membership is based on earning credits through sustained commitment to production work offstage and on); and the student-elected Theatre Steering Committee (representatives/liaisons with the faculty and is responsible for the student-directed laboratory season and the end of the year banquet).
The Summer Season
Our summers usually include a faculty-directed production. Summer productions in recent years include: Adaptations, All in the Timing, Arsenic and Old Lace, Barefoot in the Park, Crimes of the Heart, A Delicate Balance, The Fifth of July, The Foreigner, The Good Doctor, Harvey, The Heidi Chronicles, Lloyd's Prayer, The Miss Firecracker Contest, The Nerd, Night Watch, No Sex Please, We're British, Of Mice and Men, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Ten Little Indians, Veronica's Room, The Wake of Jamey Foster, Kindly Leave the Stage, and Curious Savage.