Theatre Program announced schedule for 2009-2010 season

The University of Illinois at Springfield’s Theatre Program has announced the schedule for the 2009-2010 season with productions that tell the stories of conflicted relationships.

The fall production is The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute. Set in a liberal arts college, in a conservative Midwestern town, four characters struggle to find their voice in matters of love and art. After a chance meeting in a museum, Evelyn and Adam become embroiled in an intense affair. Before long, Evelyn steers Adam toward a new appearance and character. The final, shocking exhibition reveals Evelyn’s true intentions and challenges our most deeply entrenched ideas about art and love.

UIS Assistant Professor of Theatre Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson will direct. Production dates are November 13-15 and 19-21. Open auditions will be held September 8-10, from 7 to 10 p.m. each day, in the Studio Theatre at UIS.

The spring production is The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt. The setting is in a remote northern Michigan parish in 1911, where a young nun, Sister Rita, mysteriously dies. Her superior, Father Rivard, is charged with the crime.

As the trial unfolds four years later, the story alternates between the past and the present, revealing a conflicted relationship between the young nun and the priest. Sister Rita tries to inject color and life into the rural, drab town, bringing more tension to the surface. Part-courtroom drama, part-memory play and part-romance, the play explores conflicts between duty to the church and duty to self, forbidden passions, and divisions between strict traditional morality and complex human emotions.

UIS Assistant Professor of Theatre Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson will direct. Productions dates are April 23-25 and April 29-May 1. Open auditions will be held on January 31-February 2.

Beginning with the fall 2009 production, evening curtain times will be changed to 7:30 p.m., instead of 8 p.m. as in the past. Sunday performances remain at 2 p.m.

For more information about auditions, the plays, or the Theatre Program at UIS, go to www.uis.edu/theatre .