Department of Theatre and Dance

Main Stage Show Times*:
Wed - Fri: 8pm | Saturday: 7pm | Sunday: 3pm
Plus 1/2-price Late Night Show at 11pm on the second Saturday!
*unless otherwise noted

Ticket Prices: $10 for students | $14 for University Faculty/Staff, Military and Seniors 60+ |
$16 General Public

Box Office: 777-2551
Box office opens 1 week prior to each production run.
The Box Office is located in Longstreet Theatre, 1300 Greene St. Enter from the breezeway off of Sumter St.

Theatre Locations
Longstreet Theatre -- 1300 Greene St., corner of Greene and Sumter
Drayton Hall Theatre -- 1214 College St., corner of College and Sumter

Tennessee Williams Festival:
A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Chris Clavelli
Drayton Hall Theatre
September 30-October 8, 2011

Theatre South Carolina celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the birth of the American master playwright Tennessee Williams with a production of perhaps his most famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1948, Williams’ searing drama introduces us to one of his most iconic characters, the fading southern belle, Blanche DuBois, a woman desperately striving to hold on to her illusion of high-class nobility while clashing with the harsh reality of life that is symbolized by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Considered among the finest plays of the American stage, Streetcar explores the mental and moral ruin, the haunting loneliness and the violence of outcast Americans struggling in a relentlessly materialistic society. Williams’ American classic is an exhilarating tale of secrets discovered and innocence lost that will leave you breathless!

Tennessee Williams Festival:
Evening of One-Act Plays
by Tennessee Williams
Including:
27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Dir. Amy Holtcamp
The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, Dir. Amy Holtcamp
This Property is Condemned, Dir. David Britt
The Pretty Trap, Dir. Amy Holtcamp
Longstreet Theatre
October 5-8, 2011

Journey deeper into the southern gothic world of Tennessee Williams with an inspiring evening of four of the author’s most treasured one-act plays. A sure highlight for Williams’ aficionados will be The Pretty Trap, a recently-discovered early version of The Glass Menagerie. Theatre South Carolina is one of the few theatre companies in the nation to produce this seminal piece from Williams’ canon, which is making its South Carolina premiere. Also included are: This Property is Condemned, a moving portrait of life in depression-era Mississippi told through the eyes of two teens; The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, centered on the travails of the delusional title character, a “proto” Blanche DuBois; and, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, about a woman caught helplessly amid the rivalry between two domineering men. A dramaturgical presentation on the playwright will also be included.

Polaroid Stories
by Naomi Iizuka
Directed by Steve Pearson
Longstreet Theatre
November 11-19, 2011

Exploding from the gutters of American street life, playwright Naomi Iizuka uses Ovid’s two-thousand-year-old poem Metamorphoses as the fabric for her startling contemporary work, Polaroid Stories. Mixing mythic drama with hard-hitting reality, Polaroid Stories introduces us to a world of homeless kids, drug dealers, and prostitutes who are the gods and goddesses of the streets. Their epic tales of transcendence over a lawless world of addiction and prostitution paint an uncompromising portrait of real life in a modern-day urban underworld. Iizuka’s “deep and dark exploration of the youthful psyche” (LA Weekly) is a compelling theatre experience you won’t soon forget.

Polaroid Stories contains language and situations which may not be suitable for children.

Present Laughter
by Noël Coward
Directed by Rob Clare
Longstreet Theatre
February 17-25, 2012

Vain matinee idol Garry Essendine has it all -- fame, fortune, his pick of the ladies, and perhaps best of all, a wife who doesn’t care about his indiscretions. An evening’s fun with a star-struck ingénue however, sets in motion a chain of events that sends his “perfect” world, and the worlds of his entourage, into a tailspin. Chock full of playwright Noël Coward’s razor-sharp wit, Present Laughter is a sidesplitting farce about the complications -- and pitfalls -- of living the privileged life.

Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Director Robert Richmond
Drayton Hall Theatre
April 14-22, 2012

“Something wicked this way comes….” Prepare yourself for a chilling theatrical thrill ride as Theatre South Carolina presents Shakespeare’s noble yet monstrous Macbeth. Doomed by his own nature and driven by the promise of power (and the desires of the scheming Lady Macbeth), his blind ambition leads him down the fateful path of seduction; compelling Macbeth to murder in order to gain the throne. Paranoia and guilt soon begin to consume the new royals however, resulting in a bloodthirsty campaign that leads to their ultimate demise. Shakespeare’s masterpiece will take you on an engrossing journey through the sinister recesses of the human psyche and keep you poised on the edge of your seat!

Location: 1400 Wheat St, between Sumter and Pickens, across from Blatt PE Center

Show Times: 8pm nightly

Ticket price: $5. Ticket available only at the door. Arrive early for best seating.

Oleanna
by David Mamet
Directed by Ait Fetterolf
September 15-18

Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Mamet delivers a riveting drama that explores the psychological complexities of a power-struggle between a college professor and the student accusing him of sexual harassment. “[Oleanna] evokes, however crudely, what one might wish to escape from: a sexual battleground where trust and even rational human discourse between men and women are in grave jeopardy” (NY Times).

Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Robert Richmond
November 17-20

Experience Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy of “star-cross’d lovers” caught between two warring families as you never have in a modern and daring take on the classic tale helmed by the always inventive Robert Richmond.

Undergraduate Original Works:

The History of Queen Elizabeth I by Jeffrey Earl
New Dates!
February 15-19
Benson Theatre

Good Mourning by Jake Mesches
Tomfoolery by Brittany Price Anderson
New Dates!
February 23-26
Lab Theatre

Three of our most stellar undergraduate students present original one-act plays they’ve written and directed. You don’t want to miss this evening showcasing work by the theatre artists of the future!

From legendary playwright Arthur Miller, Broken Glass is a gripping drama about a married Jewish couple living in NY in 1938. When the wife becomes mysteriously paralyzed -- perhaps a psychosomatic result of her anxiety about the atrocities of the Holocaust -- the couple’s dark secrets come to light. “... a gripping and at times powerfully affecting drama [which] balances private lives with public morality” (Daily Telegraph).

Twelfth Night, or What You Will
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Mary Tilden
April 19-22

The Lab season wraps up on a high note with Shakespeare’s hilarious tale of mistaken identity and gender confusion. Twin brother and sister Sebastian and Viola, once separated by a shipwreck, are reunited in a most unusual way when Viola, posing as a man to work for the Duke (who she secretly loves), is confused for her brother by his soon-to-be-wife.

Coming to the Main Stage and Lab Theatre
in 2011-12

THEATRE SOUTH CAROLINA
MAIN STAGE

Coming to the Main Stage and Lab Theatre in 2011-12

THEATRE SOUTH CAROLINA MAIN STAGE

Coming to the Main Stage and Lab Theatre
in 2011-12

THEATRE SOUTH CAROLINA
MAIN STAGE