UIS Theatre Announces the '25-'26 Season
Celebrating 23 Years of Theatre that Matters
For Our '25-'26 Audition and Crew Interview Information, Click on "Auditions"
UIS Theatre and SIU School of Medicine Present A Reading of COVID Stories
A Reading of COVID Stories is a collaborative project between UIS Theatre and the SIU School of Medicine. Performances will be held September 26 at UIS School of Medicine, and October 9 at UIS Theatre's Acting/Directing Studio (VPA 170)
Fall 2025 - THE LARAMIE PROJECT by Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project
- Directed by Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson
- Scenic Design and Technical Direction by Dathan Powell
Friday, November 7; Saturday, November 8; Sunday, November 9 & Thursday, November 13; Friday, November 14; Saturday, November 15. (All performances at 7:30pm, except for the Sunday, Nov 9 Matinee at 2:00pm)
“In October 1998, a twenty-one-year-old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten, and left tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. He died several days later in an area hospital. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay. Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie in the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard. The breadth of the reactions to the crime is fascinating. Kaufman and Tectonic Theater members have constructed a deeply moving theatrical experience from these interviews and their own experiences in Laramie. THE LARAMIE PROJECT is a breathtaking collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable.” --Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
"The award-winning 2000 script by Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic Theatre Project chronicles the shocking, reverberant murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard...
But “Laramie Project” is a biography of a community, not one individual. The town, mirrored in interviews with citizens conducted soon after Shepard’s 1998 slaying, is the main character...
The play tells a gripping crime story, while giving a diverse circle of Americans their say — even flaming bigots, like the railing anti-gay minister who disrupted Shepard’s funeral...
A portrait of Laramie coalesces as a place where Americans of different classes, cultures, religions and sexual orientations coexist under a deceptive ethos of social tolerance — until a horrific episode of violence reveals how little genuine acceptance and understanding of difference really exists. And how, when people face such truths, and bear witness, real change may be possible."--From Misha Berson's July 16, 2010 Review of the Play for The Seattle Times
Performances will take place in the UIS Theatre Acting/Directing Studio, in the Visual & Performing Arts Building (VPA 170) on the UIS Campus.
Park in Lot B and walk to VPA 170.
Spring 2026 - CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION by Annie Baker
- Directed by Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson
- Scenic Design and Technical Direction by Dathan Powell
Friday, April 10; Saturday, April 11; Sunday, April 12 & Thursday, April 16; Friday, April 17; Saturday, April 18. (All performances at 7:30pm, except for the Sunday, April 12 Matinee at 2:00pm)
"When four lost New Englanders who enroll in Marty's six-week-long community-center drama class begin to experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart, and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. A beautifully crafted diorama, a petri dish in which we see, with hilarious detail and clarity, the antic sadness of a motley quintet."--Dramatist Play Service, Inc.
"Annie Baker's play is an absolute feast. CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSORMATION is the kind of unheralded gem that sends people into the streets babbling and bright-eyed with the desire to spread the word. The play traces the lives of a handful of small-town Vermont residents who gather each week for an acting class taught at the local community center. By the play's end we seem to see to the very bottom of these souls, and feel how the artificial intimacy of the acting class has shaped their lives in substantial ways."
The New York Times
"...orchestrated with a subtlety and unfailing naturalness that make the play's small revelations disarming and unexpected. The characterizations display a miniaturist attention to detail that goes down to the bone... Baker is never blind to their weaknesses and faults, yet regards them all with a warm, empathetic eye."
Variety
"Smartly, sneakily, Baker gives us the rare theater centric play that's not self-obsessed. [CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION] is about real people exploring their lives through tiny leaps of faith and creativity."
Backstage
"Baker develops her characters slowly through their interactions each week in class, which is the only place we see them. Naturally, their real, offstage lives gradually infiltrate the classroom, revealing insights and transformations both humorous and heartbreaking."
Associated Press
"Reverberates with seduction and sorrow...the play's final scene is devastatingly gentle."
The Village Voice
Performances will take place in the UIS Theatre Acting/Directing Studio, in the Visual & Performing Arts Building (VPA 170) on the UIS Campus.
Park in Lot B and walk to VPA 170.