Waiting for Lefty

by Clifford Odetes

October 14-17 at 8pm
The Playhouse
at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center

In 1935 Waiting for Lefty was the most widely performed play in America— and the most widely banned. The story begins and ends in a raucous union meeting, but the real event of the Group Theatre’s famous production took place in the theatre itself. Lefty changed people’s idea of what theatre was and could be. More than entertainment or even a serious examination of contemporary issues, theatre at its best can be a living embodiment of shared values and aspirations. In 1935 the Group Theatre proved that in a fragmented society of wounded individuals, theatre can bring people together and make them whole. Marshall Theatre Alliance takes up the Group’s timeless challenge to make theatre that breathes energy, life, and new hope into us all. Study Guide available online

MU students admitted with valid ID.

Please note that actors will be seated within the audience.

Almost Maine

by John Cariani

November 18 - 21 at 8pm

In the Francis-Booth Experimental Theatre
at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center

On a clear, moonless Friday night in deepest winter, the northern lights hover over the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine. All is not quite what it seems as Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected, unusual ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. And ache is all around as love is—literally— lost, found, and realized.

Almost, Maine will showcase the talents of student directors and designers in the Francis-Booth Experimental Theatre.

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

December 10 - 11

The Playhouse at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center

Born Yesterday

by Garson Kanin

February 24- 27, 2010 at 8pm

The Playhouse at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center

Harry Brock, a junkyard baron with the vocabulary of a gangster and the moral fiber of a fascist, decides that if he’s going to hobnob with corrupt politicians and bigwigs in post-WWII D.C., he needs to get his live-in show business girlfriend, Billie, some refinement. But Harry gets more than he bargains for when Billie’s newfound literacy brings out unexpected qualities in her not-so-dumb-blonde character. Garson Kanin gives an American twist to the Pygmalion story in this classic 1946 comedy.

Jeslyn Dance Gallery
Presents an Evening of Modern Dance

March 27th, 2010 at 7:30pm

tickets: $12 general, $10 student/senior
MU students admitted with valid ID

Our Country's Good

by Timberlake Wertenbaker

April 21- 24, 2010 at 8pm

The Playhouse at Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center

Between 1788 and the mid 19th Century, approximately 160,000 men, women and children were transported in bondage from England to Australia. Our Country’s Good is based on the historic record of the first unwilling settlers to arrive from England at Botany Bay. The marines, the prisoners, and their guards all sense that they have been condemned to starvation and worse in an alien and brutal land. In the hope of raising morale, and in order to seek promotion in the makeshift penal colony, 2nd Lieutenant Ralph Clark decides to stage a production of George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer with a cast of illiterate and misbegotten prisoners. As opening night nears, the unlikely players struggle to ready the play amidst a storm of opposition.

Our Country’s Good won the Lawrence Olivier Award (1988) and the Tony and Drama Desk Awards (1991) for Best Play.

Study Guide available online.

This play contains strong language and adult themes.