playbill vip

Welcome!

The Theatre Department’s Showcase productions provide opportunities as well as production support for our students to conceive, write, direct, and design plays that are important to them. This semester’s offerings, as always, are varied and ambitious.

The department has a long history of presenting student work as part of our pedagogy; we’ve produced scores of student-directed and/or written plays since 1999 and encourage students not only to write and act, but to direct, stage manage, and design productions, as well.

While our academic courses are rigorous, our student-generated productions are at the core of the theatre department’s program. By creating numerous actual productions—from conception to the final bows—students learn process, teamwork, collaboration, and the practical and performative nature of theatre through a true experiential process. They see an idea move from imagination to script, from script to casting, from casting to rehearsals; rehearsals then combine with technical and design elements to create a fully realized performance that is shared with an audience. This process can only be fully realized outside the classroom - a production immerses the students in the fullness of the theatrical experience in a way that the classroom alone cannot. Productions teach students that, whatever it is they aspire to do, they “can”.

To all of the Theatre Department faculty and staff who encourage our students and help to make these productions possible; to the imagination, resourcefulness, and leadership of our students; and to you, our audience, who have come to witness our work, we thank you so very much.

Richard W. Chambers
Chair, The Suffolk University Theatre Department