2024-2025 Season
All events are subject to change.
Building Community
This season our productions will follow the theme of "building community". We encourage you to join us as we explore this important topic and what it means.
- Spring Awakening: February 21th - 23rd
- Bela Kiralyfalvi National Student Playwriting Competition Winner, The Angel of Death: March 6th - 8th
- The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals as produced by StarKid Productions: April 10th - 12th
- In Fraud We Trust & The Quasidream Antimachine (double feature): April 19th
- Spring Dance Concert: April 24th - 27th
- She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen: May 1st - 3rd
- Dance Informal Showing: May 8th
Fall 2024
Express by Arri Simon (composer) & Janine McGuire (lyricist)
Date: September 28, 2024 @ 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM
Director: Kyle Pleasant
Description: The Jo Zakas Musical Theatre Incubator Program presents, Express, an immersive musical by Arri Simon (composer) & Janine McGuire (lyricist). Express is a transportive new musical that unfolds entirely within the bustling confines of the New York City subway on a real-time subway ride. Set against the backdrop of pivotal moments from World War II through the turn of the 21st century, the show traces the journeys of three generations of an American family navigating personal and cultural change.
Originally conceived as a triptych of site-specific musicals staged inside historic subway cars at the New York Transit Museum, the piece has been re-imaged as a unified 75-minute one-act which can be staged in any non-proscenium space. The original score, inspired by the eras spanned in the show, takes the audience on a musical journey from Golden-Era Broadway to '60s folk and gospel to early hip-hop and millennial pop.
This ensemble-driven piece explores themes of family, identity, and the transformative power of everyday moments. With a big heart at its core, Express invites audiences to immerse themselves in the heart of New York City's subway system and reflect on resilience, connection, and the shared experiences that shape our lives.
Note: Please be aware that Express contains references to 9/11, depictions of anti-black racism and Islamophobia
Tickets: $15 general admission; 1 free WSU student ticket with ID
Student Choreography Showcase
Date: October 24-25, 2024 @ 7:30 PM
Presented by: Mid-America Dance Theatre (Faculty Mentor: Mina Estrada)
Description: A student-led and produced evening of new dance works by student choreographers in collaboration with student dancers.
Rated: Not rated
Tickets: TBD
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Date: November 7-9, 2024 @ 7:30 PM; November 10, 2024 @ 2:00 PM
Director: Joe Urick
Description: Historically dubbed "the perfect comedy," "Twelfth Night" tells the story of Viola, a young maiden shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria. She believes she has lost her twin brother, Sebastian, to the sea. She disguises herself as a man named Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino, who is smitten with the Countess Olivia, who herself is mourning the death of her brother. Duke Orsino sends 'Cesario' as an intermediary to profess his love to Olivia, but Olivia, however, falls hopelessly in love with 'Cesario,' setting her at odds with her "mourning." If that wasn't enough, Viola falls in love with Orsino, creating a seemingly impossible love triangle. Add a hilarious subplot about servants and drunken lords, add in some original music, and this is a romantic night of laughs to remember!
Rated: PG-13
Tickets: $20/$18/$12; 1 free WSU student ticket with ID
Dance at Ulrich
Date: November 15, 2024
Time: 5:30 PM
Directors: Mina Estrada
Description: In celebration of Ulrich’s 50th Anniversary, Mina Estrada, Assistant Professor and Program Director of the School of Performing Art’s Dance Program at Wichita State University, has created a new dance piece inspired by the fall exhibition Dream Machine: Fantasy, Surreality, and Play. This performance, featuring WSU dance majors, will play on the intricate layers of reality and surrealism, drawing inspiration from the exhibition's rich tapestry of fantastical and interactive works. This new work entitled Inside the Dream Machine, will also include live music performed by ICTus, directed by Chase Hampton. Inside the Dream Machine will continue to evolve as it is transformed into a film produced in collaboration with WSU School of Digital Arts. The dance film will premiere at the School of Performing Arts Film Showing at Welsbacher Black Box Theatre on April 19, 2025.
Rated: Not rated
Tickets: Free event
Senior Capstone Celebration
Date: November 23, 2024
Schedule:
- 1:30-3:00 p.m. - BFA Design & Tech Presentations + BFA Dance group works
- 3:00-3:30 p.m. - Break
- 3:30-5:15 p.m. - BA Dance Presentations + BFA Dance solos + BFA Theatre Performance
- 5:15-6:15 p.m. - Break
- 6:15-8:15 p.m. - BA Theatre Presentations + BFA Musical Theatre
Description: A full day of celebrating senior capstone projects by students in dance performance & choreography, dance general studies, design & technical theatre, musical theatre, theatre general studies, and theatre performance.
Tickets: FREE - donations accepted
Dance Informal Showing
Date: December 5, 2024 @ 5:00 PM
Director: Dance Faculty
Description: End of semester celebration of all dance classes
Rated: TBD
Tickets: FREE Event
Spring 2025
Spring Awakening
Book & lyrics by Steven Sater
Music by Duncan Sheik
Based on the play by Frank Wedekind
Date: February 21-22, 2025 @ 7:30 PM; February 23, 2025 @ 2:00 PM Due to inclement weather the Thursday, February 20 performance has been canceled
Directors: Jacob McGlaun
Description: Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s brilliant rock score and searingly emotional book take the story of sexual awakening, youth revolt, and self-discovery into a new century. Headstrong Melchior and naive Wendla stumble into each other’s arms, passionate and curious, while anxious Moritz struggles to live up to the stringent expectations of society. With only each other for guidance, this group of young men and women travel the fraught and rocky path of adolescence, discovering their bodies, their minds, and themselves along the way. An electric, vibrant celebration of youth and rebellion that packs an emotional punch.
Rated: R
Note: Spring Awakening contains depictions of sex, partial nudity, explicit language, and scenes depicting physical violence/abuse, and attempted self-harm to discussions of sexual abuse. Suicide and abortion are implied. Audience members under the age of 16 are strongly recommended to attend with a trusted adult. *updated as of 2/17/25
Tickets: $20/$18/$12; 1 free WSU student ticket with ID
Bela Kiralyfalvi National Student Playwriting Competition Winner Staged Reading of The Angel of Death
Date: March 6-8, 2025 @ 7:30 PM
Description: Staged reading of a new play selected from undergraduate and graduate student submissions across the United States. The Angel of Death, written by Amanda Schmalzried, is a provocative and disturbing play about Alicia, a tormented social worker. She is grappling with her powerlessness to help the children in her files when she encounters Damien, a demonic tempter. Seduced by his charm, she decides to continue her mother’s legacy as a serial killer.
Guest Director: Jane Gabbert
Rated: R
Tickets: $15 general admission
The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals as produced by StarKid Productions
Music & Lyrics by Jeff Blim
Book by Nick & Matt Lang
Date: April 10-12 @ 7:30 PM
Description: Everything in Hatchetfield seemed normal until people began singing... Then, they began dancing... And now, a musical pandemic is sweeping the entire city. It’s up to Paul (an average guy who doesn’t like musicals) and his friends to stop this musical apocalypse and fight for humanity’s future.
Director: Zoe Phillips
Presented by: Wichita State Music Theatre Company (Faculty Mentor: Amy Baker Schwiethale)
Rated: R
Note: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals as produced by StarKid Productions contains adult content, language, flashing lights, blood, and gun violence.
Tickets: $15
Film Double Feature!
In Fraud We Trust & The Quasidream Antimachine
Date: April 19, 2025 @ 7:30 P.M.
Description: The School of Performing Arts proudly presents a double film premiere, showcasing its latest productions in theatre and dance. The acting and theatre studies film, In Fraud We Trust, was directed by Bret Jones, while the dance film, The Quasidream Antimachine, which highlights the artistry of dance on screen, was created in collaboration with the School of Digital Arts.
Director for In Fraud We Trust: Bret Jones
Director for The Quasidream Antimachine: Mina Estrada & Robert Thomas
Tickets: $15 general admission
Note: The film's double premiere is in the Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Complex, room 132, entrance C.
Spring Dance Concert
Date: April 24-26, 2025 @ 7:30 PM; April 27, 2025 @ 2:00 PM
Director(s): Dance Faculty
Description: A celebration of new and restaged dance including works by WSU faculty and guest
artists.
Rated: Not rated
Tickets: $20/$18/$12; 1 free WSU student ticket with ID
She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen
She Kills Monsters is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
Date: May 1-3, 2025 @ 7:30 P.M.
Director(s): Trevor Andreasen and Amanda Schmalzried
Presented by: Empty Space Theatre (Faculty Mentor: Sheldon Mba)
Description: A student-led and produced play.
Rated: R
Note: She Kills Monsters, by Qui Nguyen, contains adult language, violence, gun violence and sexual themes.
Tickets: $15
Dance Informal Showing
Date: May 8, 2025 @ 5:00 P.M.
Director: Mina Estrada
Description: End of semester celebration of all dance classes.
Rated: PG
Tickets: FREE EVENT