From hilarious to poignant and anywhere in between, the theater productions of this season touch upon topics that anyone can relate to.
Touring shows presented by performers from Broadway and abroad along with productions presented by IUP students and faculty members combine to offer theater-goers a season with humor, honesty, music, and heart.
View the Events Calendar for Lively Arts
I and You
September 24-26, 30 and October 1-3, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.; September 27 at 2:00 p.m.; Waller Hall Mainstage, IUP Performing Arts Center
A class project brings together two awkward and isolated teens to find the poetry and mystery of life that connects them to each other in I and You, a play written by Lauren Gunderson.
Dracula: L.A. Theatre Works
Thursday, October 8, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.; Fisher Auditorium, IUP Performing Arts Center
Bram Stoker's Dracula is recognized as one of the greatest horror stories ever told. Performed in unique radio-play format by the renowned L.A. Theatre Works, Count Dracula slips quietly into Victorian London to seek out victims so that he may maintain eternal life. Only one man, the smart and resourceful Dr. Van Helsing, can stop the carnage.
She Kills Monsters
November 5-7 and 11-14, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.; November 8, 2015, at 2:00 p.m.; Waller Hall Mainstage, IUP Performing Arts Center
Agnes, an uptight college grad, returns home when her family is killed in a car crash. She regrets never being closer with her younger sister Tilly, an adventurous but nerdy girl. But when Agnes makes a discovery, it's like she's opened her sister's diary.
Ragtime: The Musical
Thursday, November 19, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.; Fisher Auditorium, IUP Performing Arts Center
Direct from Broadway, the national tour of this powerhouse musical comes to Indiana. At the turn into the 20th century, three families from three different worlds are joined in New York: an upper class Protestant family from New Rochelle, a young African-American musician in Harlem, and a newly immigrated artist living in a lower-east-side tenement.
The Hairy Ape
February 18-20 and 24-27, 2016, at 8:00 p.m.; February 21, 2016, at 2:00 p.m.; Waller Hall Mainstage, IUP Performing Arts Center
The Hairy Ape is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill about a brutish, unthinking laborer known as Yank as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. At first, Yank feels secure as he stokes the engines of an ocean liner. However, the tables turn, and Yank undergoes a crisis of identity.
Mamma Mia!
Wednesday, March 2, 2016, at 8:00 p.m.; Fisher Auditorium, IUP Performing Arts Center
It was on March 23, 1999, that the musical Mamma Mia! met its first and most crucial test when it was put in front of its first-ever paying audience in London. It was given the kind of welcome it has been getting ever since, every night, at every one of the many productions that have since followed.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
April 14-16 and 20-23, 2016, at 8:00 p.m.; April 17, 2016, at 2:00 p.m.; Waller Hall Mainstage, IUP Performing Arts Center
This Tony Award-winning musical comedy introduces us to six awkward, quirky, and thoroughly endearing students on the quest of a lifetime—becoming champion of the annual spelling bee. This production is not recommended for younger children.
