Theatre & Film

Theatre & Film produces 4 theatrical shows a year representing a variety of forms and eras with at least one production each season being a major musical. The primary mission of Theatre & Film is to bring quality experiences to departmental students, the University community and the area at large through the production of culturally relevant works. Join our mailing list.

We are grateful for the support of our patrons and donors. You can support Theatre & Film and the work of our student actors, designers, filmmakers, and technicians by becoming a season ticket holder (UM Box Office) or by donating directly to the department.

Theatre & Film auditions are open to the university and local community. There are two auditions, one for the Fall Semester shows and one for the Spring Semester shows. Additional auditions will be announced as necessary.

Theatre & Film 2024-2025 Season

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Written By: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Dan Stearns

September 27; October 1-5; October 7-12 – Performance at 7:30pm
September 29; October 5-6; October 12-13 – Performance at 2:00pm 
Meek Auditorium

This modern riff on the fifteenth-century morality play Everyman follows Everybody (chosen from amongst the cast by lottery at each performance) as they journey through life’s greatest mystery—the meaning of living.

The story is kept largely the same as Everyman with a few exceptions. Fellowship, Kindred, Goods, Discretion, Five Wits, and Knowledge are renamed Friendship, Kinship, Stuff, Mind, Five Senses, and Understanding respectively. Additionally the scene where Everyman must whip himself for Confession is changed to a scene where they are instructed by the drill sergeant-esque character of Love to strip naked and scream "I have no control". Also instead of Good Deeds following Everyman/Everybody to the grave, in this play that role is filled by Love. The story is also interspersed with pre-recorded voiceover scenes done fully in the dark, depicting four of Everybody's friends comforting them at their deathbed and through a misunderstanding eventually turns into a discussion on racism.

Finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

“This is theatre rather unlike anything you might have seen…unusual, unconventional and eye-opening…Everyman is no barrel of laughs, being a morality play about death. EVERYBODY tells the same tale, with equal emotional heft; but it is not only provocative and involving, it is also funny. Wildly funny, in fact.” —Huffington Post. 

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Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
New Book by Douglas Carter Beane
Original Book by Oscar Hammerstein II 
Directed by John Carden
Choreography by Joe Jackson

November 15-16 – Performance at 7:30pm
November 16-17 – Performance at 2:00pm 
Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella is the new Broadway adaptation of the classic musical. This contemporary take on the classic tale features Rodgers & Hammerstein's most beloved songs, including “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible/It's Possible” and “Ten Minutes Ago,” alongside an up-to-date, hilarious and romantic libretto by Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane.

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Book, Music, & Lyrics by Jacob Richmond & Brooke Maxwell
Directed by Joe Jackson

February 21-22; February 25-28; March 1 – Performance at 7:30pm
February 22-23; March 1-2 – Performance at 2:00pm 
Meek Auditorium

In Ride the Cyclone, the lives of six teenagers from a Canadian chamber choir are tragically cut short in a freak roller coaster accident aboard The Cyclone. They find themselves stuck in the afterlife, where a mechanical fortuneteller gives the teens a chance to play one last carnival game. The prize? The chance to return to life. This quirky, edgy, cult musical is part comedy, part tragedy, hauntingly enchanting, and will make you feel great about being alive!

“Ingeniously dark and funny." Washington Post

"A wonderful, touching and memorable roller coaster ride of a theatrical experience, for teen and adult audiences alike. With the show’s supernatural atmosphere... this is, quite simply, a beautiful “Dream of Life” come true." Chicago Theatre Review

"Both eerie and funny, as well as subversive, serious, touching, and great." Vulture

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Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Lauren Bone Noble                                          

April 11-12 – Performance at 7:30pm
April 12-13 – Performance at 2:00pm
Fulton Chapel

William Shakespear’s examination of ambition, manipulation, and the murderous power of rhetoric is reimagined in this fast-paced production of Julius Caesar. Jealousy and betrayal lead to violence and chaos on the grounds of an elite, all-girls boarding school. Julius Caesar, the most popular girl at Rome Preparatory Academy, is set to be elected Homecoming Queen, but jealousies grow quickly among the students and violence erupts across the campus. A modern take on a classic tale.

Join us for this classic political drama that explores the challenges, conflicts, and depths of loyalty and friendship.   

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