Loyola Department of Fine and Performing Arts

For some, the war ended decades ago. For Nut and his father Julius, it still rages on. Nut wrestles with the contradictory faces of wartime: the aggressive patriotism from the movies against his father’s brutal souvenirs from the Vietnam War. In towering memorials and quiet burials, Orange Julius searches for answers amidst generations of questions, showing that no matter how far in place or time a conflict can seem, its repercussions still ring. This abstract and poignant drama invades the Underground Theatre to demonstrate the fallacies of war and possibilities of peace.

Crime. Corruption. Cauliflower. Bertolt Brecht’s cutthroat satire chronicles gangster Arturo Ui’s bloody ascension to power. Set in Chicago amidst a city-wide scandal, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui gets to the heart of hometown corruption and global fascism. Boundaries are blurred between high and low art, rich and poor crime, broken and fixed systems. In responding to the rise of tyranny in 1940s Germany, Brecht conducts a disturbingly timeless takedown of who runs systems and who lets them.

In the new play, In AOC We Trust, the first entirely non-male student government bill in Nettleton High School’s history comes face to face with the corruption, complexity, and brokenness of the American education system. As their world becomes increasingly absurd, the six students have to decide how much responsibility they have as student leaders, both over their own education, and to their peers, faculty, and school district at large. This project will be co-lead by a playwright-director team working to stage the new work drawing from the styles and practices of Pina Bush, Viola Spolin, and Joyce Piven.

Poseidon’s Priestess is an original musical about a fictional seaside village that worships the Greek gods, it is home to two women trying to strike a balance between falling in love, finding happiness, and most importantly, not getting smited. In previewing a shortened version of the show, this project aims to provide students with a large variety of potential musical theatre opportunities including student choreographers, composers, musicians, singers, and actors.

Encounters with Light features Martha Graham’s 1931 masterpiece, Primitive Mysteries as well as a world premier by guest artist, Vershawn Sanders Ward. Original choreography by dance faculty members Sarah Fuller and Raul Diaz Maroto Casasola from the Joffrey Ballet create a program that celebrates the depth of unity and the call towards belonging.

Shakespeare’s stories serve as invaluable tools for helping us navigate the challenges in our life through his universal and timeless canon of plays—and nothing is more universal than death: the unknown story which we must all confront. Memento Mori aims to explore the one thing that unites us by exploring compiled scenes and moments of death in Shakespeare’s repertoire.

Through exploring and applying the work of the Chicago Neo-Futurists, Loyola students will embark on a journey of imperfection that emphasizes ‘process’ over ‘the product’ and ignites a search for inspiration and creativity in the mundane.

When fiction isn’t enough, stories must be told as they actually happened. Using verbatim transcripts of real-life interviews, Notes from the Field tackles incarceration, police brutality, and systemic educational issues with heart and hope. Anna Deavere Smith’s striking piece of documentary theatre shows the school-to-prison nexus not in allegorical critique, but in grotesquely real detail. Shattering notions of punishment and the justification of violent force, Notes from the Field interrogates what is activism, what is performance, and what you can do about it.

In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a group of run of the mill craftsmen (and amateur actors), called the Mechanicals, put on the play Pyramus and Thisbe. And although Shakespeare makes them side characters, they get to be the stars of their own story in this project. They have a week of rehearsals to go from page to stage. The process is full of drama, lions, hijinks, death, and tomfoolery.

Elle Woods has it all figured out- great friends, great car, great dog. When it all starts falling apart, Elle leaves behind her sunny sorority for the stuffy Harvard Law School, tackling this exclusive environment with optimism and ambition. The verdict? An inspiring and wildly entertaining take on identity and power. Based on the hit movie and filled with show-stopping songs, Legally Blonde celebrates the trials and victories of being yourself.

The relationship between the development of human culture and religion is inextricable. As far back as society reaches so does religion, why? How has religion benefited humanity at times and at others seemed to have done more harm than good? The history of society and religion is so long and vast that having an accurate perspective seems impossible, but perhaps through showcasing this relationship in story we may come to develop our understanding of it. I want to tell the ultra-condensed story of humanity’s relationship with religion from as unbiased a perspective as possible. This project will begin with a research project on the history and anthropology of religion and then that research will be formatted into a play. Staging approaches will be inspired by Grotowski’s “poor theatre”.