NIU Today

On Oct. 6, the NIU School of Theatre and Dance will open its 2016-2017 Studio Series season with Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief, playwright Paula Vogel’s version of the Shakespearian tragedy, Othello. The play follows three women, Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca, which Vogel has reimagined from minor character status in the Shakespeare play into...

The next Studio Series production of the NIU School of Theatre and Dance presents one playwright’s vision of the final chapter of Christianity’s most infamous story of betrayal. Opening Thursday, Feb. 18, “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” by Stephen Adly Guirgis, is a courtroom drama where title character Judas is on trial. The matter...

The NIU School of Theatre and Dance will present “Women In To Light,” in conjunction with the annual Freshman BFA Showcase from Wednesday, Dec. 2, through Sunday, Dec. 6. “Women In To Light” is directed by NIU faculty member Kay Martinovich, who describes the work as “devised” because she and the all-female cast created it...

The Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance upcoming Studio Series play, “Measure for Measure,” by William Shakespeare, is a dark comedy written by the most important playwright of the English Renaissance, according to its director, Alex Gelman. “It’s one of the greatest,” Gelman says, “written by one of the greatest ever.” Opening Thursday,...

Edward Albee, Tom Stoppard, Noel Coward and Anton Chekov are a just a few of the world’s best-known playwrights featured in the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance’s upcoming 2015-2016 Mainstage and Studio Series season schedules. The Mainstage Series begins Thursday, Sept. 24, with “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Albee’s hilarious yet disturbing...

“At the time, it must have been the best situation comedy ever written,” director David Frank says about the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance upcoming Studio Series play, “The Comedy of Errors,” by William Shakespeare. Opening Thursday, March 19, “The Comedy of Errors” is a timeless story of two sets of identical...

Love and relationships in the tumultuous late 1960s is the focus of the next NIU theater production, opening Thursday, Feb. 12, and running through Sunday, Feb. 15. The School of Theatre and Dance will present “Lovers and Other Strangers” by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna and guest directed by NIU alumna Kerry Perrella. “Both playwrights...

The NIU School of Theatre and Dance will perform playwright Jean Anouilh’s “Antigone” as the first production of its 2014-2015 Studio Series of plays. Directed by Patricia Skarbinski, “Antigone” is an adaption of the classic Sophocles play that shares its name. It opens Thursday, Oct. 16, on the NIU DeKalb campus. Sophocles’ “Antigone” is a...

“One would think that Shakespeare had the college audience in mind when developing ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost,’ a play about young adults torn between a life of the mind and a life of pleasure,” says Lara Crowley, an NIU assistant professor of English. Opening Thursday, April 10, in the Holmes Student Center Diversions Lounge, the School...

With a sardonic viewpoint on everything from religion and politics to art and education, the comedic play, “Burning Times,” opens Thursday, Feb. 28, at the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance. The play is the fifth production in the school’s 2012-2013 Studio Series. Written by playwright and NIU faculty member Luke Krueger and...

With its fifth production of the 2012-2013 Studio Series season of plays, the NIU School of Theatre and Dance will present a new take on a classic tale with “Hamlet Redux,” a story of political intrigue and one man’s battle with personal demons. Written by William Shakespeare, the adapted play will run from Wednesday, Feb....

An adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” will be presented as the next Studio Series production of the NIU School of Theatre and Dance. “The Canterbury Tales” originally consisted of 24 stories written by Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. Eight of these stories have been adapted for the stage by visiting...