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Theatre
Engage the world through expression in a collaborative art form.
Major or Minor in Theatre
Where we work
Housed in the Ford Center for Fine Arts, our facilities are a labyrinth of spaces. In addition to our theatres and shops, it's not uncommon to find students making and performing art in stairwells, lobbies, lawns, and just about anywhere else.
Harbach Theatre seats up to 500 people in a modified apron thrust or proscenium stage. Exceptional acoustics and sight lines highlight performances on the 72 foot stage with full white and black cycloramas. The three faculty productions each year are drawn from a wide range of styles and genres.
Studio Theatre, a 40' x 60' black-box venue, is a laboratory for the experimental work of Knox students. With an overhead suspension grid, fully equipped sound and lighting systems, moveable audience risers, and five entrance/exit locations, Studio allows students to create in a space with endless possibilities.
The Costume Shop boasts a collection of more than 40,000 hanging pieces spanning numerous styles and historical periods. Producing nearly 250 complete costumes each year, this shop is equipped with 10 sewing units, draping mannequins, cutting tables, laundry and pressing facilities, and an exclusive area for textile manipulation.
The Scene Shop is a fully functional carpentry and painting studio that covers more than 1200 square feet. Equipped with a full range of hand, power, and pneumatic tools, it is located adjacent to both the Harbach and Studio Theatres. With a 24 foot high ceiling, large items are transferred with ease into either venue.
Recent Productions
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare spins this comic tale of a midsummer night of mischief, magic, and mayhem as lovers, fairy folk, and a hapless troupe of actors bumble about in the woods. Puck, the master mischief maker, casts spells of enchantment to tease the run-away lovers and mock his lord and lady, and impishly show us how “the course of true love never did run smooth.”
Shakespeare spins this comic tale of a midsummer night of mischief, magic, and mayhem as lovers, fairy folk, and a hapless troupe of actors bumble about in the woods. Puck, the master mischief maker, casts spells of enchantment to tease the run-away lovers and mock his lord and lady, and impishly show us how “the course of true love never did run smooth.”
The Moors
Two sisters and a dog live out their lives on the bleak English moors, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility.
Two sisters and a dog live out their lives on the bleak English moors, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility.
All Nighter
All Nighter by Natalie Margolin is a play about finals week—a tight-knit group of roommates pull an all-nighter to complete their last college assignments before graduation. Holed up in the 24-hour study hall, the hours pass, the pressure mounts, secrets are revealed, and the alliances that have always bound this group together are put to the test. What will be left when the sun rises?
All Nighter by Natalie Margolin is a play about finals week—a tight-knit group of roommates pull an all-nighter to complete their last college assignments before graduation. Holed up in the 24-hour study hall, the hours pass, the pressure mounts, secrets are revealed, and the alliances that have always bound this group together are put to the test. What will be left when the sun rises?
Birthday Candles
Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her significance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 50th. Her 70th, and so on. Weaving together themes of family, friendship, growth and mortality, this poignant play follows the highlights and heartbreaks of the Ashworth family through five generations, an infinity of dreams, and one cake baked over a century.
Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her significance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 50th. Her 70th, and so on. Weaving together themes of family, friendship, growth and mortality, this poignant play follows the highlights and heartbreaks of the Ashworth family through five generations, an infinity of dreams, and one cake baked over a century.
Men on Boats
Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men on Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River.
Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men on Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River.
Our Town
“Oh, earth! You’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you! Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it–every, every minute?”
“Oh, earth! You’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you! Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it–every, every minute?”
Thornton Wilder’s timeless Our Town recounts the simple, momentous moments that make up the mundane miracles that are our lives. This Pulitzer Prize winning play invites us to put down our screens, sit still for a few hours, feel what it is to be a community, and, most of all, to cherish “every, every minute.”
Repertory Term XX
Antigone
Adapted from Sophocles’ Ancient Greek play, Jean Anouilh’s Antigone could scarcely be more relevant to our contemporary situation. Idealism and pragmatism face off in this witty and harrowing play that premiered during World War II in Nazi-occupied France.
Adapted from Sophocles’ Ancient Greek play, Jean Anouilh’s Antigone could scarcely be more relevant to our contemporary situation. Idealism and pragmatism face off in this witty and harrowing play that premiered during World War II in Nazi-occupied France.
She Kills Monsters
Delving into the dynamic world of Dungeons and Dragons, She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen is a drama/comedy that takes a timid young woman on a startling adventure of discovery.
Delving into the dynamic world of Dungeons and Dragons, She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen is a drama/comedy that takes a timid young woman on a startling adventure of discovery.
Twilight Bowl
Six young women. One small town. Different lanes. After graduating from a small Wisconsin high school, Sam is headed to college on a bowling scholarship—but her cousin Jaycee’s future isn’t looking as bright. In the bar of their local bowling alley, a group of friends celebrate Jaycee’s last night in town before she goes to prison the next morning. In a stirring portrayal of rural America, a group of young women struggle with the pressure to “make something” of themselves while navigating their own and one another’s evolutions. As they face adulthood, the bowling alley becomes a place to celebrate triumphs, confront challenges, and forge new identities. This new play by Rebecca Gilman questions the blueprint for a successful life and embraces the unknown of the road ahead.
Six young women. One small town. Different lanes. After graduating from a small Wisconsin high school, Sam is headed to college on a bowling scholarship—but her cousin Jaycee’s future isn’t looking as bright. In the bar of their local bowling alley, a group of friends celebrate Jaycee’s last night in town before she goes to prison the next morning. In a stirring portrayal of rural America, a group of young women struggle with the pressure to “make something” of themselves while navigating their own and one another’s evolutions. As they face adulthood, the bowling alley becomes a place to celebrate triumphs, confront challenges, and forge new identities. This new play by Rebecca Gilman questions the blueprint for a successful life and embraces the unknown of the road ahead.
The Coast Starlight
One morning, a young man boards the Coast Starlight, a long-distance train that runs from Los Angeles to Seattle. He’s got a secret that can land him in terrible trouble, and he has roughly one thousand miles to enlist the help of his fellow travelers—all of whom are reckoning with their own choices in search of a way forward. Keith Bunin’s new play is a smart, funny, and compassionate story about our capacity for invention and reinvention when life goes off the rails.
One morning, a young man boards the Coast Starlight, a long-distance train that runs from Los Angeles to Seattle. He’s got a secret that can land him in terrible trouble, and he has roughly one thousand miles to enlist the help of his fellow travelers—all of whom are reckoning with their own choices in search of a way forward. Keith Bunin’s new play is a smart, funny, and compassionate story about our capacity for invention and reinvention when life goes off the rails.
Clyde’s
A play about power. And hope. And sandwiches. In Clyde’s, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries to keep them down, the staff members learn to reclaim their lives, find purpose, and become inspired to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.
A play about power. And hope. And sandwiches. In Clyde’s, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries to keep them down, the staff members learn to reclaim their lives, find purpose, and become inspired to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.
Silent Sky
Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson conveys the true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt as she contends with a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific and heart-bound discoveries. With music and math bursting forth onstage, Henrietta and her female peers change the way we understand both the heavens and the earth.
Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson conveys the true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt as she contends with a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific and heart-bound discoveries. With music and math bursting forth onstage, Henrietta and her female peers change the way we understand both the heavens and the earth.
The Wolves
Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves is a ferocious exploration of youth, ambition, and self-discovery. This coming-of-age play follows the lives of nine girls on an indoor soccer team as they warm-up for a series of weekly matches. The strength of the team is tested as the young women, like a pack of warriors preparing for battle, kick around questions about culture, community, politics, power, and friendship.
Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves is a ferocious exploration of youth, ambition, and self-discovery. This coming-of-age play follows the lives of nine girls on an indoor soccer team as they warm-up for a series of weekly matches. The strength of the team is tested as the young women, like a pack of warriors preparing for battle, kick around questions about culture, community, politics, power, and friendship.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Adapted by Simon Stephens from the novel by Mark Haddon,15-year-old Christopher Boone, who is a mathematical genius—but finds people very, very confusing—discovers his neighbor’s dog has been murdered so he sets out on an incredible journey to solve the mystery. Along the way, this neuroatypical young man figures out how to navigate the world beyond his own street, makes some friends, discovers the secret of his mother’s disappearance, and comes to terms with his relationship with his dad.
Adapted by Simon Stephens from the novel by Mark Haddon,15-year-old Christopher Boone, who is a mathematical genius—but finds people very, very confusing—discovers his neighbor’s dog has been murdered so he sets out on an incredible journey to solve the mystery. Along the way, this neuroatypical young man figures out how to navigate the world beyond his own street, makes some friends, discovers the secret of his mother’s disappearance, and comes to terms with his relationship with his dad.
The Language Archive
George is a man consumed with preserving and documenting the dying languages of far-flung cultures. Closer to home, though, language is failing him. He doesn’t know what to say to his wife, Mary, to keep her from leaving him, and he doesn’t recognize the deep feelings that his lab assistant, Emma, has for him. “However whimsical—even fantastic—it becomes, it affirms life no matter how melancholy,” writes Bloomberg News.
George is a man consumed with preserving and documenting the dying languages of far-flung cultures. Closer to home, though, language is failing him. He doesn’t know what to say to his wife, Mary, to keep her from leaving him, and he doesn’t recognize the deep feelings that his lab assistant, Emma, has for him. “However whimsical—even fantastic—it becomes, it affirms life no matter how melancholy,” writes Bloomberg News.
Repertory Term XIX
Dear Elizabeth
From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred personal letters. This thirty-year correspondence includes descriptions of their friendship, their travels, their mental and physical health, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, their views on writing, and much more. Playwright Sarah Ruhl used these letters to create a stage play that brings to life the profound affection they had for each other. Dear Elizabeth gives voice to a conversation that lived mostly in writing, illuminating some of the finest poems of the twentieth century and the minds that produced them. This haunting play is rendered poignantly by multiple actors playing the famous literary duo.
From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred personal letters. This thirty-year correspondence includes descriptions of their friendship, their travels, their mental and physical health, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, their views on writing, and much more. Playwright Sarah Ruhl used these letters to create a stage play that brings to life the profound affection they had for each other. Dear Elizabeth gives voice to a conversation that lived mostly in writing, illuminating some of the finest poems of the twentieth century and the minds that produced them. This haunting play is rendered poignantly by multiple actors playing the famous literary duo.
Pussy Riot: Or P.R. Is Everything
In February 2012, the Russian feminist performance art collective Pussy Riot uploaded their activist punk prayer, “Virgin Mary, Chase Putin Away!” to the internet as an act of political protest. They recorded the video at the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral—an altar place where women are still forbidden. The world took notice—and so did the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church—and eventually the group’s members were arrested and tried for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Pussy Riot rapidly became the focal point for activist artists around the world fighting for equality and justice for all people—and some Pussy Riot members continue their risky anti-Putin regime activism to this day.
In February 2012, the Russian feminist performance art collective Pussy Riot uploaded their activist punk prayer, “Virgin Mary, Chase Putin Away!” to the internet as an act of political protest. They recorded the video at the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral—an altar place where women are still forbidden. The world took notice—and so did the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church—and eventually the group’s members were arrested and tried for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Pussy Riot rapidly became the focal point for activist artists around the world fighting for equality and justice for all people—and some Pussy Riot members continue their risky anti-Putin regime activism to this day.
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