Current Season
ANNOUNCING OUR 2024/2025 SEASON: “OLD STORIES, NEW VOICES”
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte theatre program is proud to announce its 2024/2025 theatre production lineup, titled, “Old Stories, New Voices.” Each show in the 2024/2025 season is a contemporary adaptation, a spinoff, or a modern reimagining of a world classic—a play that has stood the test of time and brilliantly articulates universal themes that offer revelations, insights, and clarity to readers and theatregoers of any era. Each of the shows in the season will give a fresh take on these classic stories, and each of the four plays will be accompanied by a secondary event that explores the original source material and asks the question: What makes a story a classic? Details and dates of these secondary events will be announced prior to the season beginning in September. Stand by.
New this year, the 2024/25 theatre season will also feature FREE final dress rehearsal preview performances for high school students and teachers, as well as a free high school matinee performance of Clybourne Park. If you are a high school teacher or student and interested in attending one or more of these events, please reach out to Chair of Theatre, David Janowiak at djanowi1@charlotte.edu.
We hope to see you at the theatre!
David Janowiak, Chair of Theatre, UNC Charlotte
This season, closed captioning will be available for our performances, powered by CCTheater, from AccessTech, LLC.
ANTIGONE NOW
by Melissa Cooper
September 26-29, 2024
Black Box Theater, Robinson Hall
In the midst of a bombed-out city still feeling the aftershocks of war, the rebellious and intense Antigone defies her uncle to bury her disgraced brother and starts a revolution of her own. This contemporary response to the myth of Antigone brings powerful, modern prose to an ancient and universal story.
CLYBOURNE PARK
by Bruce Norris
November 14-17, 2024
Anne R. Belk Theater, Robinson Hall
Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and London’s Olivier Award for Best Play, Clybourne Park is a bold play about race, real estate, and the volatile values of each. Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play, A Raisin in the Sun, this acclaimed work explodes in two outrageous acts set 50 years apart. Act One takes place in 1959, as nervous community leaders anxiously try to stop the sale of a home in a white community to a Black family. Act Two is set in the same house in 2009, as the now predominantly African American neighborhood battles to hold its ground in the face of gentrification.
THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle
February 13-16, 2025
Black Box Theater, Robinson Hall
J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World was first staged in the Abbey Theatre in 1907. A hundred years later the story is retold by Nigerian-Irish playwright, Bisi Adigun and one of Ireland’s best-known writers, Roddy Doyle. The original western farmers and villagers are now tough Dublin gangsters. The runaway playboy of the story, Christy Mahon, is re-imagined as a Nigerian refugee, Christopher Malomo. This adaptation highlights the changes that have occurred in Ireland, including the issues of immigration and inequality. The script was first commissioned by Adigun’s theatre company, Arambe Productions, Ireland’s first and only African Theatre Company.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
by William Shakespeare
March 20-23, 2025
Anne R. Belk Theater, Robinson Hall
This contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic production will meditate on the tragically timeless dimension of this comedy – on corruption of state from the top down, of dangerous desire, of violence, but also of determined faithfulness – and on Shakespeare as prophetic time-traveler.
Companion Programs
The Department of Theatre at UNC Charlotte is hosting a secondary event for each of its main stage shows this season. The secondary events reflect upon and celebrate the original stories on which each of this season’s plays was inspired or based, as well as exploring the art of adaptation. For questions about these companion programs, please contact Department of Theatre Chair David Janowiak.
“ANTIGONE” FILM SCREENING AND LECTURE/DISCUSSION
September 14 at 3 p.m.
Independent Picture House
In conjunction with the department’s production of Antigone Now, a modern adaptation of Antigone by Melissa Cooper, we are collaborating with the Independent Picture House to screen the 1961 black and white classic Greek film “Antigone,” directed by Yorgos Tzavellas, followed by a discussion led by noted professor, author, and scholar Mark Pizzato.
Tickets are FREE and can be secured at the door or in advance using this link.
STAGED READING OF “A RAISIN IN THE SUN”
November 2 at 2 p.m.
Independent Picture House
In conjunction with the Department of Theatre’s production of “Clybourne Park” (a “spin off” of Lorraine Hansberry’s world classic A Raisin in the Sun), the department will be collaborating with The Independent Picture House of Charlotte to produce a staged reading of “A Raisin in the Sun,” featuring guest director and UNC Charlotte alumna Tina Kelly and a cast of alumni and local community actors.
Tickets are FREE and can be acquired at the door.
STAGE COMBAT WEEKEND INTENSIVE WITH CELEBRATED FIGHT DIRECTOR/TEACHER TED DECHATELET
February 1 and 2
The University of North Carolina—Charlotte Theatre Department will be hosting a two-day, Stage Combat weekend intensive workshop on Saturday and Sunday, February 1 and 2 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Up to 24 UNC Charlotte theatre majors, minors, and community members (if space allows) will participate in 16 hours of hand-to-hand combat and rapier/small sword training over the span of the two-day workshop.
The teacher, Ted deChatelet, is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors who began studying stage combat with SAFD in the summer of 1987. Ted has directed fights for over 75 productions in professional and educational theatres all around the country. He studied with and assisted Dr. Robin McFarquhar (Fight Director and Certified Teacher with the SAFD) for 3 years while pursuing his MFA in Acting from the University of Illinois.
His extensive fight training includes the SAFD’s Teacher Training Workshop, the Fight Director’s Workshop and the Advanced Actor/Combatant Workshop. Ted is an award-winning Actor, Director, Fight Choreographer, and Teacher, who currently teaches at Florida Atlantic University.
Registration for this event will be handled within the department and opened to the public in January if space allows. More details to follow.
SPECIAL GUEST BISI ADIGUN, CO-ADAPTOR OF “PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, A NEW ADAPTATION”
February 14 at 1 p.m.
Black Box Theater
In conjunction with the theatre department’s production of Playboy of the Western World, A Modern Adaptation (by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle of J.M. Synge’s 1907 world classic of the same title), the department will host a live discussion with one of the primary adaptors, Bisi Adigun, who is a Nigerian born playwright and theatre maker.
Mr. Adigun will be joining the discussion virtually via Zoom. The discussion will focus on the process of updating and adapting a world classic for modern audiences.
The live discussion, led by Theatre Chair David Janowiak, will take place on the set of the production on Friday, February 14 from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Black Box Theater in Robinson Hall on the campus of UNC Charlotte.
The event is free and can seat up to 75 people on a first-come-first-served basis.
A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE’S MEASURE FOR MEASURE
March 16 at 2 p.m.
Location TBD
In conjunction with the theatre department’s March 2025 production of “Measure for Measure,” the department will be collaborating with a local establishment TBD to host a live presentation/discussion led by the director, Rob Conkie (also the theatre department’s Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare Studies). The presentation will focus on a visual history of notable productions of one of Shakespeare’s most passionately discussed plays.
The presentation will (take place on Sunday, March 16 from 2-3 p.m. at a location to be determined. This site will be updated soon with those details.