Welcome to the DePauw Theatre archives, where we invite you to explore the rich history of our past seasons. From thought-provoking dramas to vibrant musical productions, you can browse through years of student performances and creative milestones below.
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The Good Person of Szechwan
Fall 2016
Can one be good in a corrupt world? This is the central question in Bertolt Brecht’s timeless parable about Shen Te, the good prostitute, who must ultimately employ bad practices to have even the most basic of life’s necessities. While the title of the play suggests a Chinese setting, it is no stretch to imagine – as we do – that the story happens in a modern U.S. city, in one of those places, according to Brecht “where man is exploited by man.” When Shen Te alone satisfies the need of visiting “gods” to prove success with their governing policies, she is rewarded with money. Not unsurprisingly, Shen Te uses her windfall to better herself and the lives of her impoverished friends and neighbors. But her good deeds are exploited and impossible to sustain, and Shen Te is forced to resort to deceit and oppression nearly killing off her much desired and admired goodness. As with most of his work, Brecht is critiquing societal politics that make it so difficult to adhere to moral principles. And he hopes – as do we – that his work will inspire play-goers to question why and work towards change. -
Antigone
Spring 2015
Antigone is a high-stakes, driven, dense drama between the rule-followers and rebels. Antigone’s choices require her to obey divine law and defy authority in order to bury her dead brother. She chooses family over the state and through her civil disobedience, she risks everything. In the ancient Greek tradition, Sophocles’ play explores loyalty – loyalty to family and loyalty to the state. Antigone is an underdog fighting against the establishment, which speaks to us today just as much as it spoke to Athenian audiences over 2,000 years ago. -
Arcadia
Fall 2015
Tom Stoppard's absorbing play takes us back and forth between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life; "the attraction which Newton left out." "Stoppard's warmest and most affecting play.... A prodigiously smart piece of theatre that touches on fractal geometry, gossipy speculation about Lord Byron, contemporary academic backbiting and the physics of uncertainty." -San Francisco Chronicle -
Living Dead in Denmark
Spring 2015
What if Shakespeare’s characters lived on … no, I mean really lived on as in becoming the undead? That fantasy is the premise of this lively contemporary mash-up of characters from Shakespeare’s plays. What would happen if Ophelia and others were raised from the dead to help the humans fight a Zombie Lord? Spectacular fights and irreverent modern language frame this exploration of familiar characters in a whole new light. May the strongest characters win! -
Spamalot: A New Musical Lovingly Ripped Off from the Motion Picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Fall 2015
Why do those knights say “Ni”? Can rabbits really kill? Can cows fly? See this and more when King Arthur and his entourage travel far and wide in search of the Holy Grail. SPAMALOT is Monty Python’s loving stage tribute to their classic 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This show is much more than a bland Disney-like adaptation. The razor-wit and dry English humor of one of the word’s most famous comedy troupes is turned on the theatre and the conventions of the modern American musical. Come see a fresh take on your favorite moments from the film and a few comic surprises. -
Spring Spectacle of Shakespeare
Spring 2015
The Spring Spectacle is a twelve-week collaboration between DePauw University and six Putnam County middle and high schools. Directed by teams of DePauw University students, the Spectacle culminates in four fully staged 90-minute Shakespeare plays. In part, the Spring Spectacle is inspired by and created in collaboration with our friends and colleagues at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. -
Achilles/Achilles' Son
Winter 2014
Achilles/Achilles’ Son is Sean Graney's bold, new take on seven ancient Greek tragedies focused on the Trojan War. (Aeschylus’ The Persians, Sophocles’ Philoktetes and Ajax, Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, Rhesus, Hecuba and The Trojan Woman.) It offers a forum for exploring our current universal problems, addressing the need for citizens to be active, helpful parts of their society. The project mirrors Greek communal festivals, mixing theater, music, food and debate. Achilles/Achilles’ Son seeks to create a micro-society, where we can discuss ethical issues raised in the play. These issues include, but are not limited to: the role of leadership, the value of life, respect for the dead, the nature of war and responsibility to family. Free food included. -
Parade
Fall 2014
The lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 by the Knights of Mary Phagan, sent shock waves through the nation, and marked the rebirth of the modern Ku Klux Klan. The musical Parade challenges the problems of anti-Semitism, racism, provincialism and blind hate, by asking us to get to know these characters as real people. The music and lyrics by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown (The Bridges of Madison County, Songs for a New World), take you on an emotional and personal journey inside the relationships and problems of the people caught in this turmoil. Parade transcends the surface of the case, and asks us to consider whether the real evil doesn’t live inside each of us. Presented by DePauw Theatre and the School of Music with support from the Prindle Institute for Ethics and funding from the Anne Prindle Johnson and David S. Johnson Speaker Fund.