Our 2022-23 Season
The School of Theatre Arts at Illinois Wesleyan proudly presents a professional-grade public production series each year. Performances take place on our campus in two venues: the Jerome Mirza Theatre at McPherson Hall and the E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre in the theatre wing of Presser Hall.
Each of our productions are created, designed and performed by School of Theatre Arts students with support from faculty, staff and prestigious guest artists.
Tickets for fall productions will be available beginning Labor Day weekend. Contact the Box Office at (309) 556-3232 for more information or to be added to our mailing list.
Search all available ticketsDirections and ParkingBox Office Information
Appropriate | October 5-9, 2022
Oct. 5 - 9, 2022 | Jerome Mirza Theatre
Appropriate
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Guest director Ashley H. White directs Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “gut-puchingly honest work” (Time Out Chicago) about three adult siblings sorting through their late father’s mementos at the family's run-down Arkansas homestead. After an unsettling discovery among their father's possessions, the gathering erupts into an explosive turn of events. Winner of the 2014-15 Obie Award for Best New American Play, Appropriate delves into the fractured dynamics of a dysfunctional white family coming to terms with the patriarch's disturbing past.
Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
Jerome Mirza Theatre
Appropriate is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.
Content disclosure: This play involves loaded language including topics of racism; emotional, physical and substance abuse; as well as sexual assault. This production includes choreographed physical intimacy and physical violence.
Men on Boats | October 28 - 30, 2022
Oct. 28 - 30, 2022 | E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre
Men on Boats
By Jaclyn Backhaus
This “off-the-canyon-walls funny” (Variety) voyage takes audiences on a rollicking ride through the Grand Canyon. Men on Boats hilariously retells the (mostly) true story of an 1869 expedition down the Colorado River. Between belly laughs lies a satirical interrogation of masculinity, colonialism and rugged individualism. “The tone is comic, but never cute or camp. And ultimately, you feel, the play respects its bold if fallible pioneers, in all their natural bravery and fearfulness.” (New York Times). Directed by Dr. Michelle Gibbs.
Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
EMJK Laboratory Theatre
Curtain Talks Lecture Series:
Beyond the Boat: The life and work of John Wesley Powell in Bloomington-Normal
Friday 5:30-7:00 p.m., Beckman Auditorium at Ames Library
Men on Boats is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.
Content disclosure: This play contains adult language, the use of simulated and recorded gunshots, and fast-paced, heightened action scenarios.
Sunday in The Park with George | November 16 - 20, 2022
Nov. 16 - 20, 2022 | Jerome Mirza Theatre
Sunday in The Park With George
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine
“Destined to be forever spoken of with misty-eyed bragging rights by anyone who sees it” (The New York Times), Sunday in The Park With George is Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musing on pointillist George Seurat’s most-famous work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Scott Susong directs this two-time Olivier Award-winning, timeless painting-brought-to-life. The reverie centers on a fictional version of Seurat—a wistful, obsessive artist engrossed in creating his masterpiece—and his great-grandson, a modern-day heir to Seurat’s unconventional genius.
Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
Jerome Mirza Theatre
Curtain Talks Lecture Series:
Seurat and Sondheim: How a French artist’s singular approach inspired the intrepid American composer
Thursday 6:30-7:15 p.m., Westbrook Auditorium at Presser Hall
Sunday in the Park with George is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
Content disclosure: Intended for mature audiences
Much Ado About Nothing | February 22-26, 2023
Feb. 22 - 26, 2023 | Jerome Mirza Theatre
Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
Are gossip and trickery senseless vices? Perhaps not when they provide fodder for Shakespeare’s enduring romantic comedy about two couples’ forays into matters of the heart. Tom Quinn directs one of the Bard’s most beloved and timeless classics.
Curtain Talks Lecture Series:
Much ado about 'Much Ado'
Please join the production's director, SoTA Professor Tom Quinn, and Dr. Joanne Diaz, Professor of English Literature, for a discussion of this challenging and enduringly popular play.
Thursday 6:30-7:15 p.m. in room 218, Ames School of Art
Post-Show Discussion
Join the 'Much Ado' designers, production team and cast for Q&A after Saturday's performance
Saturday, Feb. 25 in the Jerome Mirza Theatre
Tintypes | March 24 - 26, 2023
Mar. 24 - 26, 2023 | E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre
Tintypes
Conceived by Mary Kyte with Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle, musical and vocal arrangements by Mel Marvin, orchestration and vocal arrangements by John McKinney
Set amid a wave of immigration and innovation at the turn of the 20th century, Tintypes is a pastiche of Americana set in the shadow of World War I. Guest director Andy Kreiss (BFA Music Theatre ‘86) directs this heart-warming, Tony Award-winning musical revue featuring toe-tapping tunes from the era by John Philip Sousa, Scott Joplin and Victor Herbert, to name a few.
Presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
Curtain Talks Lecture Series:
Post-Show Discussion
Join the 'Tintypes' designers, production team and cast for Q&A after Saturday's performance
Saturday, March 25 in the EMJK Laboratory Theatre
Faculty Choreographed Dance Concert | April 12- 16, 2023
April 12 - 16, 2023 | Jerome Mirza Theatre
Faculty Choreographed Dance Concert
Celebrate spring with our biennial repertory dance concert, featuring SoTA students performing choreography by our talented faculty!
Search all available ticketsDirections and ParkingBox Office Information