Join the TH264 Lighting Design 1 class and professor Price Johnston as they showcase a unique approach to teaching lighting, sound, and projection design by utilizing Harmonix’s video game, Rock Band. See how the article “How I Did That: Rock and Load with Rock Band” — Live Design Magazine, has spawned scores of universities across […]

Richard Cowden, Guest Director A sidesplitting sendup of greed, love, revolution (and musicals!), in a time when water is worth its weight in gold. From New York City’s Fringe Festival to Broadway hit, Urinetown is a hilarious musical satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, municipal politics and musical theatre […]

Directed by Garrett Ayers For mature audiences only Every estranged member of the Lafayette clan has descended upon the crumbling Arkansas homestead to settle the accounts of the newly-dead patriarch. As his three adult children sort through a lifetime of hoarded mementos and junk, they collide over clutter, debt, and a contentious family history. But […]

Performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Presenting the fifth annual Freshman Theatre Project. As a way for first-year theatre students to solidify themselves in the program, the students from the Freshman Seminar create and perform a derived production of their own.

Directed by Walt Jones; new translation by Walt Jones The premiere production of a new acting edition of Anton Chekhov’s turn of the last century play, this comedy depicts the life of the three Prozorov sisters and their brother in provincial Russia. Chekhov insisted that he wrote comedies and was so angry at his director/collaborator […]

On Thursday, Sept. 21 at 6:30 p.m., Eric Prince, director, and Wes Kenney, conductor, will give a pre-show discussion as part of a College of Liberal Arts-wide initiative to expand awareness of issues of diversity, inclusion, and free speech. We hope you’ll join us! CSU Theatre and the University Symphony Orchestra present Every Good Boy […]

Join the TH264 Lighting Design 1 class and professor Price Johnston as they showcase a unique approach to teaching lighting, sound, and projection design by utilizing Harmonix’s video game, Rock Band. See how the article “How I Did That: Rock and Load with Rock Band” — Live Design Magazine, May 2011, has spawned scores of […]

Directed by Laura Jones Business blooms at Mushnik’s Flower Shop when nerdy assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names “Audrey II,” after his ditzy coworker crush. This jive-talking, R&B-singing carnivore, who promises unending fame and fortune as long as Seymour keeps feeding it BLOOD, has devoured the hearts of theatre […]

Directed by Walt Jones Don’t yet rejoice in his defeat, you men! Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard, The bitch that bore him is in heat again. ~The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, epilogue Brecht’s shudderingly accurate parallel between Hitler and his henchmen on the one hand, and the old crime lords […]

CSU Theatre presents the fourth annual Freshman Theatre Project. As a way for first year theatre students to solidify themselves in the program, the students from Professor Walt Jones’ Freshman Seminar create and perform a derived production of their own.

Directed by Eric Prince Join us for Michael Frayn’s ingenious, multi-award-winning comedy Noises Off and take a trip behind the scenes as everything that could possibly go wrong, goes wrong. A 1980s English theatrical touring troupe desperately tries to hold its middling sex comedy ‘Nothing On’ together. With less than a few hours to go […]

Often cited as the seminal work of the Avant-garde movement, Ubu Roi is part play, part performance art, and part art instillation. Originally written and staged – with puppets – to mock a school teacher, Ubu Roi is a French allegory about the abuses of the wealthy that includes references to many classical texts…and the rest is poo jokes. In this translation, King Ubu’s flatulent tale displays his over-indulgent rise to the top and Pa Ubu’s plot to usurp the throne from the King of Poland. Filled with scatological humor, physical inanity, a couple of gorillas, and the entire Polish and Russian armies, Ubu Roi is a messy good time perfumed with a 15 second intermission.

A musical send-up of the cult favorite 1936 propaganda film (also released as Tell Your Children, Doped Youth, and Love Madness), this over-the-top cautionary tale shows how innocent teenagers will turn from cocoa-sipping sweethearts into demons instantly with one puff of the green stuff, following the devil’s path through robbery, manslaughter, suicide, madness, hallucinations, murder, and (yes) zombies to the electric chair. Not appropriate for uptight squares, pompous narcs, priggish flat-earthers, and, quite possibly, your children.

Good Kids by Naomi Iizuka, Directed by Laura Jones Something happened to Chloe after that party last Saturday night. Something she says she can’t remember. With everyone at school talking and tweeting, who’s telling the truth? Whose version of the story do you believe? And what does that say about you? Inspired by the Steubenville […]

In this workshoped production of Diana Son’s Boy, a bright cartoon of her newest play, an “everyman” couple conspires at the birth of their fourth daughter to announce they finally have a son, and they raise the baby as a boy. They call her Boy. This seems to work, until Boy begins to develop characteristics of Girl. Son, the Korean-American playwright of Stop Kiss and Satellites, writes with a striking, storybook tone, which runs like a backbone through the play. The play, now in a draft that, until now has been unproduced, is funny, touching, and explores gender like it has never been explored before.

Directed by Eric Prince This simple but astonishing play of great beauty and humanity has long been one of Shakespeare’s more neglected works, but in recent years has captured the imagination of leading theatre directors with more bold and insightful productions than ever before. This “tale” of marital love and blind implacable jealousy has terrible, […]

Directed by Laura Jones Family Friendly Theatre: Ellie Murphy has been living happily with her widowed father, Max, bowling, eating TV dinners, and playing with junk. But suddenly, life is different. Max has remarried, and Ellie has a stepmother. Ellie and her imaginary friends, Lana and Frisbee, launch into a fantasy world as Ellie seeks […]

You’ve read the book, you’ve seen the movies…but be prepared to be transported “there and back again” in Patrica Gray’s stage adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s beloved epic tale of magic, treasure, and dragons. The Hobbit deftly transports you from Bag-End through the goblin-riddled Misty Mountains and the dark forest of Mirkwood, up the Lonely Mountain where Smaug sits atop his treasures. A motley band of thirteen dwarves and a mysterious wizard are joined by a reluctant burglar to deliver action-packed battles, raucous songs, and along the way find something Precious.

Based on the Frog and Toad children’s stories written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel, this three-time Tony nominated Broadway musical by Robert and Willie Reale follows two great friends – the cheerful, popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad – through four, fun-filled seasons. Waking from hibernation in the spring, Frog and Toad plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding, and learn life lessons along the way. Set to a jazzy, upbeat score, the two best friends celebrate and rejoice in their differences that make them unique and special. Part vaudeville, part make-believe, all charm, A Year with Frog and Toad tells the story of a friendship that endures, weathering all seasons.

The Glass Menagerie is the Pulitzer Prize winning play that catapulted playwright Tennessee Williams to international fame. Drawn from Williams’ life, this memory play is a dream-like exploration of the universal themes of the elusiveness of truth, the necessity of forgiveness, and the power of memory. A bold, new interpretation of an American classic, this production is not to be missed.

All 37 of Shakespeare’s Plays in 90 Minutes! An irreverent, messy, fast-paced romp, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was London’s longest-running comedy, running nine years in the West End at the Criterion Theatre! CSU’s production boasts two different casts (one all-female, one all-male), both of which will leave you shaking with laughter. How does the show change with the different casts? You’ll have to come to BOTH to find out! Join us this summer as a trio of madcap men (and women) in tights plows their way through all of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. It’s going to be a wild ride you don’t want to miss!

Lewis Carroll’s wondrous tale of a young girl, Alice, falling down a rabbit hole and into an underground world peopled by strange, comical, absurd creatures and happenings continues to weave its magic spell to this day, captivating children and grown-ups alike.

The classic stories of the March girls growing up in Civil War New England are told with humor, fierce tenderness, and pride. In Alcott’s lasting tribute to feminine strength and independence, all four face dilemmas and decisions driven by their conflicting desires to be dutiful daughters and sisters while pursuing their artistic passions and freedoms.

Colorado State University presents Charles Mee’s jaw-dropping twist on classic characters in Orestes 2.0, an edgy and dark re-visioning of the original works of Greek playwright Euripides. This fever-dream of a play weaves snippets from Vogue Magazine, Soap Opera Digest, interviews with porn star Mai Lin, and works by William Burroughs and Apollinaire, with plays of Euripides as it tells the story of Orestes and Electra, who murdered their mother to avenge the murder of their father at her hands.

Directed by Walt Jones Evil Dead: The Musical is a Canadian pop rock musical stage play based on the cult classic horror Evil Dead film series that launched the directing career of then 20-year old Sam Raimi. This outrageous campy satire first was first performed on stage in 2003 as a cabaret at the Tranzac […]

Directed by Eric Prince. A hit in London and New York and one of the funniest and most inventive plays by Britain’s grand master of comedy, the Olivier & Moliere award-winning writer Sir Alan Ayckbourn,  whose 72 plays have achieved astonishing  audience success throughout the world. Comic Potential is a seriously funny love story, a romantic […]

Directed by Laura Jones Nightly: Nov. 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, 29, 30, Dec. 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 7:30 p.m. Matinees: November 18, 25, December 2, 9, 16, 2 p.m. Reception following the Dec. 9 matinee performance A play in two acts by Philip Grecian, A Christmas Story is based upon the […]

A “tragedy of childhood,” Spring Awakening is about the springtime of life, and it is clear that being a teenager a century ago was no easier than being a teenager nowadays.

Directed by Eric Prince Opening night followed by a Meet the Artist Reception First performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest is a timeless classic loved by many as one of the funniest plays ever written, with dazzling, dizzying dialogue. Oscar Wilde (pictured left) treats “all trivial things very seriously and all the serious […]

Directed by Walt Jones World premiere by Walt Jones and the COMPANY One of the most acclaimed and influential twentieth-century writers, Franz Kafka is renowned for prophetic and profoundly complex stories. His works are characterized by a grotesque vision of the world in which an individual undergoes a transformation in ways that society often finds […]

Directed by Laura Jones Before it was an Oscar-winning movie in 1992, Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men was the playwright’s first Broadway play.  Sorkin is knowns for characters facing personal or ethical ambiguity… people doing the “wrong” thing for the “right” reason.  Set in the summer of 1986 in Washington D.C., and on the […]

Written by William Shakespeare, Directed by Walt Jones Turnabout is fair play, especially in a Shakespeare comedy. So what if the original cast of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare,  rich tapestry of illusion, was male.  In a play that hinges on disguise, androgyny seems to fit like a costume.  Set on the night of Epiphany, […]

Directed by Eric Prince Waiting for Godot may be Beckett’s best known play, but Endgame is the work critics, and admirers claim as his greatest, most profound play. Hamm, a crippled master in some apocalyptic future, and Clov, his servant, play out a comic farce of tragic stature, brilliantly subverted by dark comic values, and […]

Directed by Walt Jones bash: February 1, 3, 7, 8 p.m., and February 5, 4 p.m. Some Girl(s): February 2, 4, 8 p.m., and February 5, 1 p.m., and 9 p.m. bash: A collection of three stunning, scathing on-act plays forms a trio of unforgettable personal accounts: in Iphigenia in Orem, a businessman confides a […]

Directed by Morris Burns Based on reports of a young woman who reported her father to the FBI for having manufactured and sold faulty aircraft parts during WWII, the plot gripped a post-war American audience when it opened on Broadway in 1947. The chilling drama explores the complex relationships between fathers and sons, and the […]

Directed by Eric Prince Those who walk into the University Center for the Arts’ Studio Theatre this weekend will be treated to an hour of paranoid monologues, spooky revelations and plot twists befitting an M. Night Shyamalan movie. “Three Short Plays/Three Short Shocks” is the brainchild of director and CSU theater professor Eric Prince. As […]

Directed by Laura Jones October 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 8 p.m., and October 10, 17, 2 p.m. Dog Sees God has not been authorized or approved in any manner by the Charles M. Schulz Estate or United Features Syndicate, which have no responsibility for its content. In other words, Dog Sees God: […]

Directed by Eric Prince August 25, 27, 29 7 p.m. With its eternal theme of young love, Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most appealing and enduring plays.  Shakespeare’s play remains globally influential, crossing cultural boundaries, as the mater poet confronts our essential and unchanging human nature. “He deals with out best and most […]

Directed by Laura Jones August 26, 28, 7 p.m., and August 29, 2 p.m. The Two Gentlemen of Verona is Shakespearean farce at its finest, filled with incredible coincidences, disguises and mistake identities, complete with pratfalls, clowning and slapstick.  The classic lovers experience the triumphs and the hilarious hypocrisy. Don’t miss the thrilling antics of […]

Directed by Walt Jones April 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 8 p.m., April 18, 2 p.m. A visceral blend of classical mythology and real life stories told by street kids, Naomi Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories journeys into a dangerous world where myth-making fulfills a fierce need for transcendence, where storytelling has the power to transform […]

Directed by Laura Jones February 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 8 p.m., and February 7, 2 p.m. Unable to cope with the insurmountable pressure of the modern world, the patients on Nurse Ratched’s ward at the State Mental Institution are kept tranquilized and docile. Into their sanctuary from society, a strong, high-spirited stranger […]

Directed by Eric Prince December 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 8 p.m., and December 6, 2 p.m. Oh What A Lovely War chronicles the First World War, told through the songs and documents of the time – a musical like no other, reminding us of history that should never be forgotten.  First performed by […]

Directed by Walt Jones September 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 8 p.m., and September 27, 2 p.m. At any one moment, Hollywood writers are trying to write the next perfect plot; The Grifters, The Sting, and Oceans 11 are basically The Alchemist by Ben Johnson, as it dramatizes the “long con.” The great English poet, […]

Directed by Walt Jones August 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 7 p.m., August 30, 2 p.m. Enjoy a six-performance reprise of CSU’s Shakespeare at Sunset Summer Theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  The production sold out earlier in the summer is back by popular demand! Be enchanted by Shakespeare’s beloved tale of shenanigans and […]

Directed by Laura Jones April 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 8 p.m., April 26, 2 p.m. In its millennium retrospective of the major literary influences contributing to our modern sensibilities. TIME Magazine named Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author the most significant play of the 20th Century! As a stage director […]

Directed by Kaily Anderson March 27, 28, 8 p.m., March 29, 2 p.m. Eurydice is a modern reworking of the Greek myth by the same name by playwright Sarah Ruhl. In the original myth, while mourning the death of his wife Eurydice, Orpheus plays such beautiful music that he receives permission from the Gods to […]

Directed by Walt Jones February 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8 p.m., February 8, 2 p.m. Much Ado About Nothing is one of the Bard’s best loved and wittiest plays, loaded with mismatched lovers, squabbling brothers, comic constables and bawdy humor. Young lovers Hero and Claudio are to be married within a week. To pass […]

Directed by Eric Prince December 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 8 p.m., December 7, 2 p.m. Bertolt Brecht (1898 – 1956) is acknowledged as one of the truly great dramatists of the twentieth century, and the Caucasian Chalk Circle has been called a morality masterpiece. Richly theatrical, comic, and full of vitality and energy, […]

Presented by the Center for Studies in Beckett and Contemporary Theatre Practice in collaboration with the Bas Bleu Theatre Company. Directed by Laura Jones Happy Days – October 22, 23, 24, 25, 7:30 p.m., October 26, 2:30 p.m. Location: Bas Bleu Theatre Company, 401 Pine Street Rough for Theatre II and Play – October 29, […]

Directed by Walt Jones September 24, 25, 26, 27, 8 p.m., September 28, 2 p.m. No American playwright has written more compellingly about the subtle ways in which people inflict pain on each other than Neil LaBute. His films, In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, both gained critical renown for their […]