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Current Season

The Department of Theatre & Dance continues to offer an array of productions each year featuring both students and professionals.

Our program hosts performances almost every weekend of the semester. Your support is greatly appreciated as we provide students with successful theatre and dance experiences.

2008-2009 Season

d A Shayna Maidel
by Barbara Lebow
Dates:Oct. 1-4 at 7pm
Oct. 5 at 2pm

Venue: ASU's Valborg Theatre
Links: Box Office
Synopsis:A Shayna Maidel tells the story of two sisters separated since childhood and reunited twenty years later, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. As the play opens, we are introduced to the younger sister, Rose, who has spent nearly all her life in New York and remembers little about her sister or her family's native Poland. Rose wears makeup, jewelry, and attractive clothes, has her own apartment, dates, and is in all respects "Americanized." Her conservative father, Mordechai Weiss, visits her one morning with the surprise news that he has finally found her long-lost sister Lusia, and that she will be coming to New York City by boat fairly soon.
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d North Carolina Dance Festival
Directors: Marianne Adams, Susan Lutz, Emily Daughtridge
Dates: Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at 7pm
Venue: ASU's Valborg Theatre
Links: Box Office
Synopsis: Professional dance companies from across the state perform alongside Appalachian State Dance faculty and students in new and innovative works.



The fall concert is produced in conjunction with the North Carolina Dance Festival (NCDF), which has toured to ASU every fall for the last 8 years. NCDF is produced by the North Carolina Dance Project under the direction of Jan Van Dyke.
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Freshman Showcase
Murder at Greystone Manor
By Patricia Harris Smith
Director: Gordon Hensley
Dates: Nov. 5-8 at 7pm
Venue: Edwin Duncan 03
Links: Box Office
Synopsis: C.D. Weasel, a Hollywood film producer/director, invites you to his mansion for a private screening of his motion picture masterpiece, "Love's Foolish Parade." Meet and have fun with a cast of outlandishly silly characters who entertain you but beware-- one or more of them is a killer! Listen closely for clues, interrogate the movie stars, interact as part of the show, and have a great time during this "killer" three-course meal.


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v The Servant of Two Masters
BY Carlo Goldoni
Director: Joel Williams
Dates:Nov. 19-22 at 7pm
Nov 23 at 2pm

Venue: ASU's Valborg Theatre

Links: Box Office
Synopsis: This classic Italian comedy features the madcap misunderstandings that arise when a clever but not-so-faithful servant, Truffaldino, secretly seizes an opportunity to double his salary by offering simultaneous service to different masters. Further complicating the plot, his masters are engaged in deceptions of their own.  Master number one, Beatrice, is masquerading as her recently deceased brother, Fedrigo.  Fredrigo is owed a sizeable debt by a wealthy merchant and is engaged to the merchant’s daughter. Beatrice hopes to secure the debt without having to go through with the marriage. Master number two, Signor Florinda, is Beatrice’s lover.  In trouble with the law, he has assumed a false identity and is attempting to reunite with Beatrice but is unaware of her masquerade. This comic knot eventually unwinds itself to a happy resolution, however the zany twists and turns of the unraveling should provide a delightful night of fun in the theatre.
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v Playcrafters New Play Festival
By Various Authors
Director: Various
Dates: Dec. 3-6 at 7pm
Venue: IG Greer Studio Theatre

Links: Box Office
Synopsis: A weekend of new plays written, directed, and performed by students. Sponsored by the Department's student club, Playcrafters.



Playcrafters is a student organization that is open to all students on campus who are interested in theatre. Social activities include the Homecoming Parade, parties, the end-of-the-year banquet, and other activities. The Club sponsors the New Play Festival of original one act plays written by students.
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v The Trial from Inherit the Wind
BY Jerome Lawrence
Dates:February 12-14 and 19-21 at 7pm
Venue: IG Greer Studio Theatre

Links: Box Office
Synopsis: Jerome Lawrence wrote Inherit the Wind nearly thirty years after the Scopes Monkey trial. Although the basis of the play is the Scopes trial, the play itself is not a historical retelling of the events. Instead, the play is fiction. Each of the two main characters, Matthew Harrison Brady and Henry Drummond, represents one side of the central conflict: Brady represents the fundamentalist viewpoint, and Drummond is the advocate for science and freedom of thought. The courtroom battle that ensues between these famous attorneys is the focus of the play.
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v An Ideal Husband
By Oscar Wilde
Dates:February 25-28 at 7pm, March 1 at 2pm
Venue: ASU's Valborg Theatre

Links: Box Office
Synopsis: An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedy by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honor. The action is set in London, in "the present", and takes place within a single day. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely judged by their past."
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v The Heidi Chronicles
By Wendy Wasserstein
Dates:April 1-4 at 7pm, April 5 at 2pm
Venue: ASU's Valborg Theatre

Links: Box Office
Synopsis: The plot follows Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian over 20 years later. The play's main themes deal with the changing role of women during this time period, describing both Heidi's ardent feminism during the 1970s and her eventual sense of betrayal during the 1980s.
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TITLE TBA

Director: Teresa Lee
Dates: Apr. 17 at 7pm
Apr. 18-19 at 2pm

Venue: IG Greer Studio Theatre

Links: Box Office
Synopsis: TBA



The Appalachian Young People's Theatre is a dynamic component of the Department of Theatre & Dance. Founded in 1972, AYPT works in partnership with communities and public schools of Northwestern North Carolina to bring high-quality, affordable live theatre experiences to young audiences who otherwise see little or no theatre.
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f Appalachian Dance Ensemble
Directors: Marianne Adams, Susan Lutz, Emily Daughtridge
Dates: Apr. 22-25 at 7pm
Venue: ASU's Valborg Theatre

Links: Box Office
Synopsis: Appalachian Dance Ensemble's yearly production offers a diverse evening of dance, from classical ballet to modern dance and jazz.



The Appalachian Dance Ensemble (ADE) is the student-performing group associated with the dance program in the Department of Theatre & Dance. It is directed by faculty members Marianne Adams, Emily Daughtridge, and Susan Lutz and offers one fully produced concert each semester.