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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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. -
The Comedy of Errors
Spring 2014
What happens when not one, but two sets of identical twins that were separated shortly after birth suddenly find themselves in the same city? Come and see. Shakespeare’s first play tells the comic tale of these two sets of twins whom fate separated then reunited. In our Wild West version, the twins find themselves in the American West of the 1870’s. When Antipholus and Dromio of Omaha find themselves in Monterey, California, wives mistake husbands, masters mistake servants and general mayhem ensues. -
X ← Steve Here 2.0
Fall 2014
A follow-up to Timm’s 2007 Steve Here → X, this new installment of monologues and vignettes creates portraits of individuals urgently seeking solace and meaning in the vanishing wilderness. Inspired by encounters during his sabbatical travels to the Everglades, wild rivers of Montana, isolated waterways of northern Florida and boreal forests of the north country, Timm’s characters confront a variety of nightmares, fears, shortcomings and creatures – both human and non-human – on the path to discovery, strength and purpose. Some of the pieces contain adult language and situations. -
Battle, Baby, Bird: New Works by DePauw Playwrights
Spring 2013
DePauw Theatre's long tradition of encouraging and developing student written plays goes mainstage with these original student works. During Fall 2012 plays were conceived, written and rewritten, and finally selected for production. A collaboration with faculty playwright and director Steve Timm, this evening of exciting new works celebrates the process of creating art from the germinal idea to a fully staged production.