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We imagine it. We create it.
Production is what we create and where we create it; a single reading of a new play, a 2-week run of a mainstage production, or our artistic home, since 1935 – the Theatre Building.
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Visit our Virtual Lobby to learn more about current and past productions' cast, creative team, crew, director's and dramaturg's notes, designer renderings, and more!
Arts Iowa
Visit the Arts Iowa calendar to view all upcoming performing arts events happening across our vibrant and creative campus.
Upcoming Department of Theatre Arts events
Welcome Reception and Guest Panel
Monday, April 29, 2024 10:30am to 12:00pm
Join us for the kick-off of Iowa New Play Festival 2024! The Welcome Reception begins at 10:30 a.m. and the Guest Panel begins at 11 a.m.
Forgottonia
Monday, April 29, 2024 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Iowa New Play Festival – Reading Series
Forgottonia
By Eli Campbell
Directed by Sarah Gazdowicz
In 1987, the people of Forgottonia, Illinois are on the edge of poverty. In a last-ditch effort to save their town, they enter the Prison Sweepstakes, which would win them a government-funded prison (and all the jobs that come with it). But competing for a prison drags out more than they were bargaining for.
Guest Roundtable to follow.
Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Swifties
Monday, April 29, 2024 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Iowa New Play Festival – Production Series
Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Swifties
By Derick Edgren Otero
Directed by Meredith Healy
Fourteen-year-old Cora harasses a prominent music critic and his family into changing his scathing review of a country-turned-pop star's most divisive record. When he ignores her demands, an entire fandom works to save their queen's #reputation.
Please be advised this production includes hate speech, implied child abuse, loud noises, and the use of haze.
Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Swifties
Monday, April 29, 2024 9:00pm to 11:00pm
Iowa New Play Festival – Production Series
Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Swifties
By Derick Edgren Otero
Directed by Meredith Healy
Fourteen-year-old Cora harasses a prominent music critic and his family into changing his scathing review of a country-turned-pop star's most divisive record. When he ignores her demands, an entire fandom works to save their queen's #reputation.
Please be advised this production includes hate speech, implied child abuse, loud noises, and the use of haze.
Guest Roundtable | Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Swifties
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 10:30am to 11:30am
A roundtable discussion of Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Swifties by Derick Edgren Otero.
Leeches
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Iowa New Play Festival – Reading Series
Leeches
By Adrian Enzastiga
Directed by Natalie Villamonte Zito
Leeches is a full-length play that takes place at an eviction court in an ambiguously Midwest post-pandemic U.S. city. The play explores the process of an eviction, the cycle of poverty, and the corrupt oppression of the American capitalist system:
Eviction court is a no man’s land;
tenants’ rights are crushed under landlord’s command,
and social workers (can) do little to offer a hand...
Spells for Going Forth by Daylight
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Iowa New Play Festival – Production Series
Spells for Going Forth by Daylight
By Leigh M. Marshall
Directed by Josh Turner
In a world where the Roman Empire meets the 24-hour news cycle, Cleo wakes up in the Egyptian Realm of the Dead without a Book of Life to guide her to Paradise. As she tries to navigate her way through a treacherous afterlife filled with traps and predators, she finds she's able to tap into broadcasts from the living world that indicate her empire is on the brink of...
Spells for Going Forth by Daylight
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 9:00pm to 11:00pm
Iowa New Play Festival – Production Series
Spells for Going Forth by Daylight
By Leigh M. Marshall
Directed by Josh Turner
In a world where the Roman Empire meets the 24-hour news cycle, Cleo wakes up in the Egyptian Realm of the Dead without a Book of Life to guide her to Paradise. As she tries to navigate her way through a treacherous afterlife filled with traps and predators, she finds she's able to tap into broadcasts from the living world that indicate her empire is on the brink of...
Guest Roundtable | Spells for Going Forth by Daylight
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 10:30am to 11:30am
A roundtable discussion of Spells for Going Forth by Daylight by Leigh M. Marshall.
And the Past Remains
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 2:30pm to 4:30pm
Iowa New Play Festival – Reading Series
And the Past Remains
By Poonam Dhir
Directed by Johanna Kasimow
An exploration of kinship, commitment and recollection. Using non-linear etches in time and a series of shared moments, the story of a family and a childhood unfolds. A dramatic event grounds this vulnerable account. Through memory, witnessing and intimate encounters, And the Past Remains explores ideas of duty, devotion and belief.
Please be advised this reading includes mentions of...
Pagination