WIU Theatre and Dance 2022-2023 Season:
NEW FRIENDS: SHOWCASE
Directed by Adam Lewis & Courtney Crouse*
September 30 & October 1 at 7:30pm
Simpkins Theatre
About the play: TBA
LUCKY STIFF
Book by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty & Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Directed by Lysa Fox
October 5 – 8 at 7:30pm & October 9 at 2:00pm
Hainline Theatre
About the play: This murder mystery farce of mistaken identities, millions in diamonds and a wheelchair-
bound corpse will leave you dying of laughter.
COLLECTIVE RAGE:
A PLAY IN FIVE BETTIES
By Jen Silverman
Directed by Hadley Kamminga-Peck
Assistant Director Monica Bowker*
October 21 & 22 at 7:30pm
Simpkins Theatre
About the play: In COLLECTIVE RAGE, the lives of five very different New York women named Betty collide
at the intersection of anger, sex and “theat-ah.” As they meet, fall in love, rehearse, revel and rage, they
realize that they've been stuck reading the same scripts for far too long.
SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS
By Bess Wohl
Directed by Meagan Morrow*
October 26 - 29 at 7:30pm & October 30 at 2:00pm
Horrabin Theatre
About the play: In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, six runaways from city life embark on a silent
retreat. As these strangers confront internal demons both profound and absurd, their vows of silence collide
with the achingly human need to connect. Filled with awkward and insightful humor, this unique and
compassionate new play asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Taylor Dahlberg*
November 9 – 12 at 7:30pm & November 13 at 2:00pm
Hainline Theatre
About the play: Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers
entanglements still delights theatre goers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere
performance. The rapid-fire wit and eccentric characters of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST have made
it a mainstay of the theatre for decades.
BFA Showcase
Directed by Lysa Fox, Donald Laney & Sharon Nott
December 2 & 3 at 7:30pm
Simpkins Theatre
About the play: Join the BFA Musical Theatre class of 2022 -2023 as they highlight their training from
over the past four years.
WINTER DanceWorks Concert
Directed by Donald Laney
December 8 – 10 at 7:30pm & December 11 at 2:00pm
Hainline Theatre
About the performance: WIU's annual Winter DanceWorks Concert will offer an evening of dance,
choreographed by students and instructors in University Dance Company (UDC). These performances will
incorporate a variety of dance styles, including modern/contemporary, jazz, Afro-modern, and ballet.
Underground Cabaret
Directed by Lisa Wipperling
February 3 & 4 at 7:30pm
Simpkins Theatre
About the show: The performance will feature musical theatre/theatre majors from the University. The
Underground Cabaret is a performance to honor the career of Professor Emeritus Maughan McMurdie. As
a former operatic baritone and bass, McMurdie taught at Western Illinois and performed throughout the
region from 1969 until his retirement in 1992. Maughan passed away in 2007.
WOMAN IN MIND
By Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by DC Wright
February 17 & 18 at 7:30pm
Simpkins Theatre
About the play: Told from the first person perspective of Susan, a woman going through a breakdown. Her
vivid fantasy life, created as a means to cope with the banalities of her real life, gradually merge with her real
life with devastating consequences.
Blithe Spirit
By Noël Coward
Directed by Carolyn Blackinton
March 1 – 4 at 7:30pm & March 5 at 2:00pm
Horrabin Theatre
About the play: The smash comedy hit of the London and Broadway stages, this much-revived classic from
the playwright of PRIVATE LIVES offers up fussy, cantankerous novelist Charles Condomine, re-married but
haunted (literally) by the ghost of his late first wife, the clever and insistent Elvira who is called up by a visiting
“happy medium,” one Madame Arcati. As the (worldly and un-) personalities clash, Charles’ current wife, Ruth,
is accidentally killed, “passes over,” joins Elvira, and the two “blithe spirits” haunt the hapless Charles into
perpetuity.
CABARET
Book by Joe Masteroff
Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood
Music by John Kander & Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Courtney Crouse*
April 5 – 8 at 7:30pm & April 9 at 2:00pm
Hainline Theatre
About the play: In a Berlin nightclub, as the 1920's draw to a close, a garish Master of Ceremonies welcomes
the audience and assures them they will forget all their troubles at the Cabaret. With the Emcee's bawdy
songs as wry commentary, Cabaret explores the dark, heady, and tumultuous life of Berlin's natives and
expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived
in Berlin, is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of
Cliff and Sally's boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller
who happens to be Jewish.
THE GULF
By Audrey Cefaly
Directed by Hadley Kamminga-Peck
April 21 & 22 at 7:30pm
Simpkins Theatre
About the play: The divide between Kendra and Betty mimics the very world that devours them: a vast and
polarizing abyss. On a quiet summer evening, somewhere down in the Alabama Delta, Kendra and Betty troll
the flats looking for redfish. After Betty begins diagnosing Kendra’s dead-end life with career picks from What
Color is Your Parachute, their routine fishing excursion takes a violent turn. This is the full-length version of
the 40th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival winner, THE GULF.
NEXT WAVE
Dance Concert
Directed by Donald Laney
April 27 – 29 at 7:30pm & April 30 at 2:00pm
Hainline Theatre
About the performance: Western Illinois University's annual Spring Dance Concert will offer an evening
of dance, choreographed by students and instructors in University Dance Company (UDC). Each
performance will incorporate a variety of dance styles, including modern/contemporary, jazz, Afro-
modern, and ballet.
BYOP (Bring Your Own Play)
Directed by Adam Lewis & Courtney Crouse*
May 5 & 6 at 7:30pm
Simpkins Theatre
About the play: New Plays, written by students, designed by students, performed by students, for students!
Enjoy an evening of completely student-created new works.
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