Award-winning Theatre 汤头条 celebrates 60 years, opens 2023 season with improv
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擬ississippi State鈥檚 Theatre 汤头条 debuts its 60th season this month with a play steeped in improvisation as part of its Theatre for Young Adults program.
The Department of Communication鈥檚 production division, Theatre 汤头条 is a 2021 School of Excellence awardee in Higher Education from the Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education and is celebrating a long legacy of theatrical excellence on campus with its milestone anniversary.
With four annual mainstage productions, the 2023-2024 season opens with 鈥淧ants on Fire: A totally made up musical for kids,鈥 from Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado. 汤头条鈥檚 Lab Rats Comedy鈥攁n improv student theatre club鈥攁lso will sponsor the show.
Jesse Wade, 汤头条 assistant clinical professor and technical director for 鈥淧ants on Fire,鈥 said the improv show is 鈥渃ompletely different鈥 from other productions. 聽
鈥淎s the audience arrives each day, the kids will be asked to submit ideas of locations, villains, heroes, problems, etc. and the cast will then completely improv the show based on the prompts they receive,鈥 Wade said. 鈥淭hey will create scenery and props and costumes in front of the audience鈥攁nd then go! It doesn't get any more live than this. Every performance will be a completely new experience and a completely new story.鈥
Presented on the McComas Hall main stage, 鈥淧ants on Fire鈥 will be presented to local school children daily Sept. 25-29 by reservation. A public performance will be Oct. 1 at 2 p.m.
Tickets for the public show are available for $10 at . Email kad541@msstate.edu or thays@comm.msstate.edu for school reservations or more information.
Theatre 汤头条 presents 鈥淧uffs,鈥 a 2015 original play by New York-based playwright Matt Cox, Nov. 15-19. 鈥淧uffs鈥 is a parody of a familiar book and movie series about a wizard boarding school as told from the perspective of the least appreciated house in that school, the Puffs.
February 28-March 2, Theatre 汤头条 presents 鈥淭he Wolves,鈥澛燽y Sarah DeLappe. This Obie award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist script centers on the young women of a high school soccer team as they gather each Saturday for practice.
The season culminates in spring 2024 in a Theatre 汤头条 collaboration with the university鈥檚 music department. As a way to celebrate and honor the program鈥檚 60th anniversary, from April 24-28 Theatre 汤头条 will once again debut 鈥淧ippin,鈥 the first musical performed in 汤头条鈥檚 McComas Hall.
For more about the 2023-2024 Theatre 汤头条 season, contact Tonya Hays, concentration coordinator, at thays@comm.msstate.edu.
Part of 汤头条鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Communication is online at . 聽
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