2026-2027 UIS Theatre Season
Fall 2026 - RABBIT HOLE by David Lindsay-Abaire
- Directed by Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson
- Scenic Design and Technical Direction by Dathan Powell
- Winner! 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- Winner! 2006 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Cynthia Nixon)
- Nominee: Five 2006 Tony Awards, including Best Play
The Corbetts are a happy suburban couple whose lives are changed forever when their young son Danny is killed in an accident. Eight months on, Becca wants to start afresh in a new home and give away their son’s possessions, but Howie wants to keep the memory of Danny alive. Can they ever find their way back to each other? David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, filled with distinctive wit and grace, charts the path from grief to its antidotes – love and hope. --From Concord Theatricals online
HISTORY
Rabbit Hole premiered on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on January 12, 2006. It was produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the production featured Cynthia Nixon, Mary Catherine Garrison, John Slattery, Tyne Daly and John Gallagher, Jr.
A transcendent and deeply affecting new play, which shifts perfectly from hilarity to grief. --Entertainment Weekly
David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted a drama that’s not just a departure but a revelation – an intensely emotional examination of grief, laced with wit, insightfulness, compassion and searing honesty.--Variety
Rabbit Hole presents a tragedy and its consequences with utter candor, and without sentimentality. The dialogue is most impressive for capturing the awkwardness and pain of thinking people faced with an unthinkable situation – and eventually, their capacity for survival, and even hope.--USA Today
With Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted the most serious, simply told work of his career – a painstakingly beautiful, dramatically resourceful, exquisitely human new play.--Backstage
The highest praise to playwright David Lindsay-Abaire! Rabbit Hole is an entertaining and satisfying play – it might just be the year’s best.--Show Business Weekly
Spring 2027 - THE TEMPEST by William Shakespeare
- Directed by Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson
- Scenic Design and Technical Direction by Dathan Powell
Lose yourself in Shakespeare's final masterpiece filled with magic, revenge, and redemption
PLOT SUMMARY
A ship carrying Alonso King of Naples, his son Ferdinand, Antonio, and other nobles, is wrecked in a storm created by the spirit Ariel, under the magic art of Prospero. Prospero’s daughter Miranda, afraid for the voyagers, is told they are safe. He explains to her that he is the rightful Duke of Milan, usurped by Antonio, and that they had arrived on their island many years before after being sent out to sea by some of those whom he now has in his power.
As Miranda sleeps, Ariel reports that the lords are on the island as he had commanded, with Ferdinand separated from the others. Caliban, a savage inhabitant of the island who is also controlled by Prospero, expresses his hostility to Prospero, but is forced to do his bidding. Prospero gets Ariel to lead Ferdinand across the island so that he meets Miranda, and they fall in love. To test his worth, Prospero makes Ferdinand carry out menial tasks.
Alonso and the lords begin their search for Ferdinand, though they fear him drowned. Antonio persuades Alonso’s brother Sebastian to kill the king and claim his throne, but Ariel intervenes and stops them. Caliban encounters Alonso’s jester Trinculo and butler Stephano, whom he decides to serve with the aim of persuading them to kill Prospero. They get drunk, and Prospero sends Ariel to confuse and play tricks on them.
A magical banquet is placed before the lords. As they prepare to eat, Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio are fiercely reprimanded for their past deeds by Ariel. Alonso runs off, followed by the others. Prospero brings Iris, Juno, and Ceres into a ceremony celebrating Ferdinand and Miranda’s betrothal. He has Ariel and other spirits chase Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo away through the marshes, to foil their plot against him. He then vows to give up his magical powers once he has achieved his ends, and to free Ariel, who has been begging for liberty.
Ariel leads the lords to Prospero, and they stand in a trance before him. He rouses them, and they beg forgiveness, which Prospero grants, and he is restored to his dukedom. Ferdinand and Miranda are revealed to them. Ariel leads in the sailors from their ship, and then Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano. Caliban regrets his service to Stephano and Trinculo, and promises to behave. Prospero sets Ariel free, and finally asks the audience for his own release, through their applause. --Taken from Play Shakespeare online
SOME HISTORY
The Tempest was most likely written around 1610-1611, during the reign of King James I, and is often considered the last play Shakespeare wrote as the sole playwright.
Its first recorded performance was on Hallowmas (1st of November) in 1611, at Whitehall. It was probably also performed at the Globe Theatre and may be the only one of Shakespeare’s works written specifically for the Blackfriars, an indoor theatre used by Shakespeare’s company from 1608. A court performance was also recorded in 1613, as part of the wedding celebrations of King James’ daughter Elizabeth. The only authoritative version of the text is that of the First Folio, published in 1623, in which it is famously the first play printed in the book. --Taken from Bell Shakespeare online
