Theatre

How We Work

We give you the freedom to choose your own path. We want you to explore your interests and hone your skills inside and outside the classroom. When Maddie Mondeaux '15 decided to adapt Samuel Richardson's Pamela for the stage, she was able to pursue an honors project to write and direct her own version of the 18th century novel. We celebrate your independence, but we're always nearby to offer guidance and support.

We value practical experience. In our black box space, Studio Theatre, several plays each term are directed, designed, and brought to life by students. One example is Dakota Stipp '17, who has not only designed sound and created original effects for mainstage shows, but also composed the score for a student directed full-length production.

We don't make you wait. Get involved right away. You'll have plenty of shows to choose from with one faculty directed mainstage, two student directed productions, and a few bare-stages every term. You won't find many places with the number of opportunities our students have to do hands-on work in the theatre, where they're the ones making the creative decisions.

We work hard. We're the only undergraduate program in the country to offer Repertory Theatre Term, an intensive immersion experience during which a company of students devote all three credits to studying theatre by collaborating with faculty to produce two full-length plays.

We develop new plays. Student playwrights workshop their scripts once a term through Playground. Every three years, the New Plays Festival presents staged readings and workshops of new plays by the Knox community. In Studio Theatre, several student-written one acts and full-length plays are produced each year, and Harbach Theatre was home to recent world premieres of At Night's End by Motti Lerner and Mosque Alert by Jamil Khoury.

We think beyond the stage. Through the liberal arts study of theatre, our students cultivate valuable skills such as communication, aesthetic understanding, intuitive and analytical thinking, and creative problem solving. We use theatre as a way to investigate the world and our place in it. For example, Alyssa Gill '14 used theatre to examine the nature of evil in her honors project, "Performing Evil: A Look at Meaning and Creation through Devising the Play The Devil is Bored."

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

Learning Plays—In the late 1920s, the influential German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote several Lehrstücke, short "learning plays." In this production - scheduled to coincide with a seminar on Brecht - an ensemble of eight actors presented "He Who Says Yes"/"He Who Says No" and "The Exception and the Rule."

The Drowning Girls—Three women have three things in common: they are married to the same man, they are dead, and at his hands. Surfacing from the bathtubs in which they were drowned, the women share their stories indicting their serial murderer husband. In a contemporary play which illustrates women's vulnerability in Victorian times and today, a cast of only three actresses played multiple roles.

The Importance of Being Earnest—Gwendolen and Cecily would happily marry the two young men who propose to them, if only they were both called Ernest. Such is the situation that must be untangled in the play Wilde subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People." First produced in London in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest is widely recognized as one of the finest comedies ever written for the stage, combining hilarious plotting drawing on farce with dazzlingly witty repartee.

Richard III—1485 marks the end of The War of the Roses. The death of Richard III on the field at Bosworth is the culmination of 30 years of gruesome murder, intrigue, and civil war. Thousands of ordinary people and soldiers died and though there were numerous, vicious players in this saga, history offers up no one more deadly than Richard, Duke of Gloucester. His ruthless craving for power was driven by a prodigious intellect corrupted by rapacious amorality. He stopped at nothing because he understood what it takes to get and wield power. Not much has changed in 550 years...

The Nether—Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Nether explores the psychological and ethical consequences of virtual simulations as they collide with real life. Set in the not-so-distant future, this mind-numbing detective drama alternates between interrogation room reality and the darker side of the internet in order to raise questions about identity, technology, illicit fantasies, second life morality, and personal privacy.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere—A stage adaptation by Rob Kauzlaric of the much loved fantasy novel. Produced by the company of Rep Term XVII, and featuring the largest set we've ever constructed in Harbach Theatre.

The Secret in the Wings—Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of several fairy tales was the first ever Rep Term production in our blackbox Studio Theatre, performed by an ensemble of thirteen actors each playing multiple roles.