-
Mainstage
Of Government
November 7-9, 2024
CFA TheaterDirection by Katie Pearl
Scenic Design by Emmie Finckel '14
Lighting/Projections Design by Courtney Gaston
Sound Design by Negar Soleymanifar '25
Costume Design by April Hickman
Stage Management by Lisa Buxbaum
Production Managment & Technical Direction by Mary Paul
Costume Shop Management by Robin Mazzola
Featuring a Senior Capstone performance by Lincoln Turner '25, advised by Asst. Professor Maria-Christina OliverasDoes government have a gender? What if we gendered it differently?
—Agnes Borinsky, playwrightKatie Pearl, Assistant Professor of Theater, directs Agnes Borinsky’s Of Government (2017)—a queer and hopeful play about making theater and making society. Our piano-playing host Ms. Marjorie Blaine and a cast of loveable oddballs—including Barb the Teacher, Deb the Seeker, Heidi the Helper, Tawny the Addict, and Heather the Capitalist—lead us through a handmade civic pageant featuring a mermaid musicale alongside scenes and songs of breakdown and possibility. If the question is “what is government?” then we’re just gonna figure it out together. With sequins.
Click here for program.
Above: Illustration by Sida Chu '26
The Moors
May 1-3, 2025
CFA TheaterDirection by Alex Keegan
Set Design by Marcela Oteiza
Lighting Design by Henry Owens '25*
Sound Design by Mo Andres '24
Costume Design by April Hickman
Stage Management by Lisa Buxbaum
Production Management & Technical Direction by Mary Paul
Costume Shop Management by Robin Mazzola
*featuring a Senior Capstone in lighting design by Henry Owens '25, advised by Asst. Professor Courtney GastonThe Moors (2017) by Jen Silverman is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility. Two step-sisters and a dog live out their lives in the bleak English countryside, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen (water bird) set all three on a strange and dangerous path. Directed by Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Alex Keegan.
This production also features a Senior Capstone in acting by Josh Ehrlich '25, advised by Asst. Professor Lauren Yeoman.
Click here for tickets.
-
Senior Capstones
The Game of Love and Chance
December 5-7, 2024
Patricelli ’92 TheaterDirection by Sophia Flynn '25
Scenic Design by Jordan Schwarz '26
Lighting Design by Alexander White '26
Sound Design by Aden Sheingold '26
Costume Design by Greta Armbrust '25
Stage Management by Sasha Estime '27
Production Management & Technical Directment by Mary Paul
Costume Shop Managment by Robin MazzolaIn the play, Silvia has been engaged against her will to Dorante, a man she's never met. When he is due to visit her for the first time, she convinces her father to let her take her maid Lisette’s place to observe Dorante and decide if she actually wants to marry him. Little does she know, Dorante has the same doubts about this arranged marriage—and the same plan. With Silvia and Dorante playing servants and Lisette and Harlequin stepping into the roles of their masters, hijinks are bound to ensue.
The Game of Love and Chance was written by Pierre de Marivaux in 1730 for an Italian commedia dell’arte troupe, combining their characteristic stock character comedy with his own intellectual French sensibility. The English translation by Stephen Wadsworth beautifully captures the witty, flirtatious banter Marivaux was famous for. Though the play was written almost 300 years ago, the Wesleyan production will use music, movement, and casting against gender to explore what parts of it still resonate with audiences. This Theater Department production is in partial fulfillment for honors in Theater.Click here for program.
When There is No Love to Give
February 6-8, 2025
Theater StudiosConception and Direction by Noah King '25
Sound Design by Clara Medina '26
Prop Design by Sage Saling '26
Lighting Design by Sophia Flynn '25
Stage Management by Nina Kibria '27
Production Management & Technical Direction by Mary Paul
Costume Shop Management by Robin MazzolaConceived by Noah King ’25 in partial fulfillment for Honors in Theater, the project When There is No Love to Give will explore concepts of grief and how it materializes in performance. From the physical manifestation of grief in the body, to large T displays of loss, the work will try to understand the power that grief has on society, and explain it on the stage. This project will foster an interdisciplinary community, both as rehearsals for the production, class time to discuss and explore grief, performance studies, and elements of anthropology, psychology, and media studies. Advised by Assistant Professor of Theater Katie Pearl and Associate Professor and Chair of the Theater Department Marcela Oteíza.
Dance Monkey, Dance
February 27-March 1, 2025
Patricelli ’92 TheaterDirection by Jerry Persaud '26
Sound Supervision by Aden Sheingold '26
Props Management by Cory Garcia '26
Lighting Design by Avivi Li '26
Stage Management by Mik Hallward Driemeier '25
Assistant Stage Management by Lilly Hochhauser '25
Production Management & Technical Direction by Mary Paul
Costume Shop Management by Robin MazzolaConceived and performed by CJ Joseph ’25 in partial fulfillment for Honors in Theater, Dance Monkey, Dance is a performative lecture connecting fetish-like-fear political visibility to Black female performativity in modern media. The lecture is semi-immersive in the intellectual context and aims to make the audience contemplate the voyeuristic dynamics and repetitive nature between white eyes and Black female bodies. Advised by Associate Professor of Theater and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Katie Brewer Ball and Assistant Professor of Theater Katie Pearl.
Tabitha Davidson ’25 will direct a new translation and adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector (1836) in partial fulfillment for Honors in Theater. The classic satire on human vanity tells the story of a penniless nobody from Moscow who is mistaken for a government inspector by the corrupt and self-seeking officials of a small town in Tsarist Russia. Advised by Assistant Professor of Theater Katie Pearl and Professor of Theater Ron Jenkins.