Theatre and Dance Performance History
Explore Muhlenberg’s long history of excellence in the performing arts.
Highlights from the Most Recent Season (2024-2025)
Other Recent Production Photos
Theatre and Dance 2024-2025 Season
The Penelopiad
by Margaret Atwood • Directed by Jessica Bostock • Scenic Designer: Naomi Haus-Roth • Costume Designer: Lex Gurst • Lighting Designer: Greg Wilson • Sound Designer: Jared A. Williams • Composer: Bryson Tate Brunson • Propsmaster & Scenic Artist: Katrina Miller • Production Stage Manager: Amy O’Halloran
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
by Dave Malloy • Director: James Peck • Musical Director / Conductor: Vincent Trovato • Choreographer: Samuel Antonio Reyes • Scenic Designer: You-Shin Chen • Costume Designer: Rebecca Lustig • Lighting Designer: Haley Brown • Sound Designer: Angela Baughman • Propsmaster & Scenic Artist: Katrina Miller • Production Stage Manager: Danny Logue
Reset: New Dances 2024
Innovations in Dance by Emerging Choreographers
Artistic Director: Robyn Watson • Associate Artistic Directors: Desiree Oliver, Sophia Wentz • Costume Designer: Jasmine Canjura • Lighting Designer & Technical Coordinator: Paul E. Theisen Jr. • Associate Costume Designer: Jason Goodwin • Production Stage Manager: Dominick Borges
Studio Sessions — Fall ’24
Collaborative Incubator for Contemporary Student-Choreographed Dance Works
Artistic Director: Lisa Busfield • Associate Artistic Director • Lindsay Sherrick • Production Stage Manager: Ellie Roberts
In Motion 2025
Choreographic Tour-de-Force Featuring Works by Faculty & Guest Artists
Artistic Director: Karen Dearborn • Lighting Designer: Susan Hamburger • Costume Designers: Lex Gurst, Rebecca Lustig • Production Stage Manager: Amy O’Halloran • Choreographers: Kyle Clark, Heidi Cruz-Austin, Karen Dearborn, David Dorfman, Noel Price-Bracey, Robyn Watson
Blue Stockings
by Jessica Swale • Directed by Dana A. Iannuzzi • Scenic Designer: Rodrigo Escalante • Costume Designer: Ella Plum Rolin • Lighting Designer: Amina Alexander • Sound Designer: Germán Martínez • Intimacy Coordinator: Alessandra Fanelli • Dialect Coach: Casey McGinty • Production Stage Manager: Hannah Cohen
The Desire Project
World Premiere
Adapted from The Convent of Pleasure, by Margaret Cavendish. Written by Nerissa Deschambeau and Beth Schachter, and Devised by the Company • Original Music & Lyrics by Vincent Trovato • Director: Beth Schachter • Musical Director: Vincent Trovato • Scenic Designer: You-Shin Chen • Costume Designer: Siena Zoë Allen • Lighting Designer: Kat C. Zhou • Sound Designer: Paul E. Theisen Jr. • Choreographer: Amélie Parczany • Production Stage Manager: Chanler Sharpe
FUSE 2025
Interdisciplinary, Collaborative Student Dance Experience
Artistic Director: Heidi Cruz-Austin • Associate Artistic Director: Lucy Rudnick • Lighting Design Coordinator: Haley Brown • Sound Designer & Technical Coordinator: Paul E. Theisen, Jr. • Production Stage Manager: Almarah Urman
Theatre and Dance 2023-2024 Season
- The Labyrinth of Desire
- …And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi
- Reset: New Dances #
- Sing Happy! A Kander and Ebb Project
- Fall Studio Sessions #
- In Motion
- ‘Berg New Works: Student Written Plays
- Head Over Heels
- Spring Studio Sessions #
Looking for something specific? Contact theatredance@muhlenberg.edu. More photos will be available soon!
Production History
The 2020s
2022-2023
We Are Proud to Present A Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Südwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915
The Threepenny Opera
Reset: New Dances
Oedipus: A Staged Reading
In Motion
(& Medea): A Staged Reading
Love + Information
Freedom to Fly: The Story of Harriet Quimby — World Premiere
Local Girls
Dance Emerge
2021-2022
En El Tiempo de Las Mariposas
Call Me by Any Other Name… Just as Sweet — World Premiere
Reset: New Dances
The Saint Plays
Assembly Festival:
You Are Cordially Invited — World Premiere, student directed
A Feeling Of, Feeling For — World Premiere, student-directed
Rosy-Crimson — World Premiere
Firebringer: The Musical — student-directed
In Motion
Miss You Like Hell
2020-2021
MAGIC * — World Premiere
Far Away * — student-directed
Run Glue Tree Pour Drive * — World Premiere
Unstable Connections * _ World Premiere
A List *
Ephemerality: Dances in Time
10×10, or The Decameron * — World Premiere
Memento: Mori: Triptych — World Premiere
En Route
* Many of the theatre and dance productions were virtual due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
The 2010s
2019-2020
The Importance of Being Earnest
Into the Woods
Moving Stories 2019
New Voices / New Visions — Directors’ Festival & World Premiere Plays
Beauty Runs on Light Feet — student-directed
Family Values — WP
Holy Sh*t — WP
Lessons for an Unaccustomed Bride — student-directed
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind — student-directed
Master Choreographers 2020
A Raisin in the Sun
The Bacchae
2020’s Berg Fringe and Dance Emerge started production but were canceled prior to their performances due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
2018-2019
Machinal
Brigadoon
Moving Stories 2018
New Voices / New Visions — Directors’ Festival & World Premiere Plays — student-directed
The Repair Man — WP
Still Growing Up — WP
Am I Blue
Master Choreographers 2019
Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play
O War
Love & The Law: An Evening of Opera & Musical Theatre — student-directed
21 Chump Street
Trial By Jury
The Telephone
Dance Emerge 2019
2017-2018
New Voices / New Visions, Part 1 — student-directed
How I Wonder
In Finite Potential
Shadow Day
187
Sunday in the Park with George
Moving Stories 2017
New Voices / New Visions, Part 2 — student-directed
Conform
The Bald Soprano
Master Choreographers 2018
Ubu Roi
Glory
for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf
Dance Emerge 2018
2016-2017
Attention: New Visions Directors’ Festival — student-directed
The Imaginary Audience
Oh, The Humanity, and Other Good Intentions
The Pirates of Penzance
Moving Stories 2016
Falling: New Visions Directors’ Festival — student-directed
Salome
Icarus’s Mother
Master Choreographers 2017
Listen To Me
Wig Out!
The Cherry Orchard
Dance Emerge 2017
Circus Workshop: Welkin — student-directed World Premiere
2015-2016
New Voices – World Premiere Plays
Three Bedroom
My Short Shitty Life
Death of a Sun
Chicago
Moving Stories 2015
Servant of Two Masters
Master Choreographers 2016
New Visions – Directors’ Festival — student-directed
Terrible Beautiful Bodies
Hello Out There
The Exception and the Rule
Passion Play
Ulysses in Nighttown
Dance Emerge 2016
Circus Workshop: VOD — student-directed World Premiere
2014-2015
New Visions – Director’s Festival — student-directed
The Love of Don Perlimplín for Belisa in the Garden
Hrosvitha
Out Loud (Three Short Plays)
This Is a Chair
Anyone Can Whistle
Moving Stories 2014
Agamemnon
Master Choreographers 2015
The Miss Firecracker Contest
Street Scene
Romeo and Juliet
Dance Emerge 2015
Circus Workshop: Atlas — student-directed World Premiere
2013-2014
New Voices 2013
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Moving Stories 2013
Master Choreographers 2014
The Winter’s Tale
The Learned Ladies
New Visions – Director’s Festival
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
butyou’reaman — World Premiere
Still Life with Iris
Mad Forest
Dance Emerge 2014
2012-2013
44 Plays for 44 Presidents — student-directed
On the Town
Moving Stories 2012
The Bourgeois Pig: A New Play — World Premiere
Master Choreographers 2013
Bartholomew Fair
New Visions – Director’s Festival
Iphigenia and Other Daughters
Mental Landscapes
The Marriage of Figaro
Dance Emerge 2013
2011-2012
New Voices 2011— New Plays by Muhlenberg Playwrights
New Myths— Original Works by Emerging Alumni
Merrily We Roll Along
Moving Stories 2011
Curse of the Starving Class
Master Choreographers 2012
Stop Kiss — student-directed
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Three Sisters
Dance Emerge 2012
2010-2011
Polaroid Stories — student-directed
The Pajama Game
Moving Stories 2010
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Master Choreographers 2011
La Dispute
The Tempest
Orlando
Dance Emerge 2011
The 2000s
2009-2010
New Voices 2009 — New Plays by Muhlenberg Playwrights
Bat Boy: The Musical
Moving Stories 2009
New Visions – Director’s Festival
The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
Uncommon Women and Others
Master Choreographers 2010
The Other Shore
An American Tragedy — World Premiere
Blood Wedding
Dance Emerge 2010
2008-2009
Miss Julie
Oklahoma!
Moving Stories 2008
Twelfth Night
Master Choreographers 2009
The Possibilities
Caw — World Premiere
A Flea in Her Ear
Dance Emerge 2009
2007-2008
Three More Sleepless Nights
Al Takes a Bride
Ruddigore
Moving Stories 2007
New Voices 2007
Master Choreographers 2008
Venus
Zanna, Don’t!
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Dance Emerge 2008
2006-2007
Weldon Rising
Urinetown the Musical
Moving Stories 2006
Life’s a Dream
Master Choreographers 2007
Orpheus Descending
Corps
Monkey in the Middle
Dance Emerge 2007
2005-2006
Lebensraum
Cabaret
Dance On
New Voices 2005
Master Choreographers 2006
A Bird of Prey
Big Love
The Pillow of Kantan
Figurentheater: Emigré and Exit: A Hamlet Fantasy
Dance Emerge 2006
2004-2005
Tartuffe
Pippin
Student Choreographer Showcase — Fall 2004
Christmas on Mars
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert 2005
How I Learned to Drive
Catholic School Girls
Pirates of Penzance
Lures and Snares
Summerfolk
Student Choreographer Showcase — Spring 2005
2003-2004
Dancing at Lughnasa
On the Town
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Fall 2003
Alumni Dance Concert — a celebration of 10 years of the Dance Major
Scenes from an Execution
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert 2004
Measure for Measure
New Voices 2004 — New Plays by Muhlenberg Playwrights
The Seagull
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Spring 2004
2002-2003
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Into the Woods
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Fall 2002
Anything’s Dream
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert 2003
Electra
Private Eyes
The Beggar’s Opera
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Spring 2003
2001-2002
New Voices 2001 — New Plays by Muhlenberg Playwrights
Wonderful Town
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Fall 2001
The Game of Love and Chance
The Muhlenberg Dancers Concert 2002
Juliet and Her Romeo: The Sixth Quarto
The Vagina Monologues
Pentecost
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Spring 2002
2000-2001
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Mother Hicks
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Fall 2000
Little Shop of Horrors
The Muhlenberg Dancers Concert 2001
The Crucible
Hot Ice
Dido and Aeneas
Student-Choreographed Dance Concert — Spring 2001
The 1990s
1999-2000
Aunt Dan and Lemon
Our Town
Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert
The Country Wife
Student-Choreographed Concert I
Cave Theory
West Side Story
The World of Anton Chekhov: Four One-Act Vaudevilles
Student-Choreographed Concert II
1998-1999
Getting Out
The Mikado — Please see note below.
The Winter’s Tale
Blood Brothers
Ophelia’s Tattoo
Junior/Senior Choreography Showcase
Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert
Student Choreographed Concert
1997-1998
Food and Shelter
Brigadoon
Top Girls
Galileo
Student Choreographed Concert
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert
1996-1997
Fefu and Her Friends
Cabaret
Peer Gynt
The Kafka Project — World Premiere
Student Choreographed Concert
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert
1995-1996
Medea
Oklahoma!
Oleanna
SubUrbia
Cloud Nine
Student Choreographed Concert
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert
1994-1995
Crimes of the Heart
Hamlet
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
A Chorus Line
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert
1993-1994
Lydie Breeze
Carnival
The Three Sisters
Allen Tales — World Premiere
The Muhlenberg Dancers in Concert
1992-1993
Bed Time Story
The Apple Tree
Preggin and Liss
The Good Woman of Setzuan
Prelude to a Kiss
The Pajama Game
1991-1992
Voice of the Turtle
Ruddigore
The Miracle Worker
Phaedra
1990-1991
Man of La Mancha
Vinegar Tom
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The 1970s and ’80s
1989-1990
Life Under Water
The Author’s Voice
The Skin of Our Teeth
Asian Shade
Street Scene
1988-1989
The Lesson
The Bald Soprano
The School for Scandal
The Baby with the Bathwater
Candide
1987-1988
The Dining Room
The Vengeance
Anything Goes
South Pacific Snow
1986-1987
Ernest in Love
Twelfth Night
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground
Oklahoma!
1985-1986
Androscoggin Fugue
Bye Bye Birdie
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
The Suicide
1984-1985
What I Did Last Summer
Good News
The Play of Daniel
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
1983-1984
The Doctor in Spite of Himself
Mother Courage and Her Children
Miss Julie
Of Thee I Sing
1982-1983
Album
Measure for Measure
Once Upon a Mattress
1981-1982
The Water Engine
Tartuffe
Antigone
Last Gasps
Oh What a Lovely War…
Riders to the Sea
Trial by Jury
1980-1981
Spring Awakening
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
The Woods
Guys and Dolls
1979-1980
The Pirates of Penzance
Before Christmas
Much Ado About Nothing
1978-1979
Our Town
Anything Goes
A Note About Racial Stereotypes
Some past theatre performances at Muhlenberg contained insensitive racial stereotypes, among them “The Mikado” and “Annie Get Your Gun.” We apologize for the harm that the stereotypes depicted in these performances and associated photos have caused our community. These productions do not reflect our current philosophy of theatre production, casting, or production design.
Practices within Summer Music Theatre and the Department of Theatre and Dance concerning casting and the canon of shows and plays considered for production have evolved significantly and purposefully in recent years to more thoughtfully consider the experience of communities of color, both as performers and audience.
We appreciate the work that students and alumni have done to hold our college community accountable for past and present harms. Each of us plays an important role in ensuring our college community is welcoming and inclusive.