Theatre News
February 16, 2012The New York Times had kind words for a play co-written and co-starred in by Joseph Curnutte ’04. The review of “Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War” praises the play's writing and calls Curnutte excellent in his role as radio host and voice actor.
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February 9, 2012The Cornell College theatre department is putting on "In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)," a provocative Tony-nominated sex comedy on Feb. 17, 18 and 24, 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.
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December 6, 2011On Dec 13th, experience this holiday classic as if you were sitting in on a 1940′s recording studio. See 16 actors play over 60 characters and enjoy watching the foley artists perform the sound effects live on stage! Fun for all ages. Additional Public Info: Before the performance, enjoy seasonal family events beginning 6pm.
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December 1, 2011A breakthrough Broadway musical-comedy first produced in 1970, COMPANY remains fresh, acerbic, and original today. With the clashing sounds and pulsing rhythms of New York City underscoring this landmark show, it is considered by many to have inaugurated the modern era of musical theatre. COMPANY follows bachelor Robert on the night of his 35th birthday [...]
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November 15, 2011Current and former students gathered on Nov. 14 to remember the life and work of Mark Hunter, associate professor of theatre at Cornell College. Hunter died Nov. 6. During his career he directed hundreds of performances, and in his 10 years at Cornell was involved in many productions, as well as serving as a mentor [...]
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October 5, 2011Riverside Theatre, Iowa City’s resident professional theatre company will present The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh, October 28 through November 13. Ron Clark, Riverside’s Resident Artist and Production Manager, directs. The Cripple of Inishmaan is a co-production with Cornell College. The show runs Oct. 20, 21, 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 23 at 2 [...]
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April 4, 2011The Department of Theatre at Cornell College will perform Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic “Waiting for Godot” starting April 15, 16, 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. and April 17 at 2 p.m. in Kimmel Theatre. The play is directed by Cornell professor Jim VanValen and is the last main stage production of the year at [...]
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February 1, 2011The Cornell College Lyric Theatre will present a production of the perennial favorite The Pirates of Penzance. The Gilbert and Sullivan musical comedy is directed and choreographed by guest artist Steven Smeltzer with musical direction by Cornell professor Jonathon Thull. The production will run Feb. 3, 4, and 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 6 at [...]
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November 29, 2010Cornell College will present William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Ron Clark. The show runs December 3rd, 4th, and 10th at 7:30 p.m., and December 5th, 11th, and 12th at 2 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students. The show is performed at Cornell’s Plumb-Fleming studio theatre in Armstrong Hall. Students, faculty and [...]
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October 19, 2010The Department of Theatre at Cornell College will present Electra, the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles as the first offering in Cornell’s season of classical works. The play, which deals with themes of revenge, bloodlust, and obsession, is directed by Cornell theatre professor Mark Hunter and features one of the greatest female roles in western theatre. [...]
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September 1, 2010Jim VanValen, assistant professor of theatre and communications, will give a lecture on Sep 9th titled “‘Waiting for Godot,’ ‘Looney Tunes,’ and the Liminal World of the Actor and the Theatrical Space.” In anticipation of the “Waiting for Godot” spring production, this lecture will explore moments of magic (and madness) within certain Western theatre conventions [...]
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August 3, 2010Bloddeuwedd, a one-person show based on a Welsh legend, will receive its world premiere at the Minnesota Fringe. The show tells the story of a young woman who is magically fashioned from flowers, becomes enmeshed in a brutal marriage and a passionate affair, and is punished by being turned into an owl. Written and directed [...]
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August 3, 2010Cornell College was selected as one of the best undergraduate institutions in the nation in the 2011 edition of The Princeton Review 373 Best Colleges, and its theatre program was ranked 15th in the nation. The ranking for Cornell’s theatre program increased from 16th last year to 15th this year. Reviews and rankings are based on [...]
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April 27, 2010As part of a research project on the ways work designed to develop new theater relates to undergraduate theatre education, Cornell College is presenting three short, non-traditional performances in May. The Owling Project takes its name from excursions where birdwatchers go out at night to see or hear owls. The performances are a theatrical collaboration [...]
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April 19, 2010Jeffrey McCune ’99 credits his Cornell experience for “planting the seed” that led him to become a professional scholar. His research examines closely the interrelatedness and intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class. McCune majored in theatre/speech and secondary education at Cornell. He says his path was shaped by experiences in both these departments, and [...]
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April 16, 2010For their final mainstage production of the 2009-2010 academic year Cornell will be mounting Jen Silverman’s new play, Akarui. The show, which runs April 16, 17, 18, 23, and 24 at 7:30 p.m., is directed by Cornell professor Mark Hunter. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for non-Cornell students. Faculty, staff, and students of [...]
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February 2, 2010MOUNT VERNON — The classic fables of “Arabian Nights” come to life in Cornell College’s Theatre Department production of “Arabian Nights” opening Friday, Feb. 12. Senior Greg Redlawsk of Iowa City directs playwright Mary Zimmerman’s powerful and humorous modern take on the timeless stories at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays Feb. 12-13 and 19-20, and [...]
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September 1, 2009A unique relationship with Iowa City’s Riverside Theatre provides Cornell students with a direct connection to professional theater, both on campus and through Riverside productions just 20 miles away. Riverside founders and artistic directors, Jody Hovland and Ron Clark, share a full-time teaching and directing position on Cornell’s faculty. Hovland says she’s most proud of [...]
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July 27, 2009MOUNT VERNON – Cornell is one of the country’s best undergraduate institutions, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company features Cornell in the new 2010 edition of its guidebook, The Best 371 Colleges. The Cornell theatre department was also ranked 16th in the nation. Reviews and rankings are based on surveys of students. [...]
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November 24, 2008MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College presents Baby With the Bathwater, a dark comedy by Christopher Durang, directed by Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Jody Hovland, Artistic Director at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City. The show will run Dec. 5-7 and 12-13 at the Plumb-Fleming Studio Theater on the Cornell Campus. Tickets range from $8 for adults to $5 [...]
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October 14, 2008MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College will present a production of the acclaimed play Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Christopher Hampton, based on the novel by Choderlos de Laclos. Directed by theatre professor Mark Hunter, Les Liaisons Dangereuses will run from October 17th to October 25th at the Kimmel Theater on the Cornell campus. Tickets prices are [...]
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April 18, 2008MOUNT VERNON – The Cornell College Department of Theatre presents “A Lie of the Mind,” directed by Jim VanValen, April 24-27 in Kimmel Theatre. Winner of the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play (1986), “A Lie of the Mind” is the story of two families joined by marriage and torn apart by violence. [...]
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January 4, 2008Charlie Thurston and Ellen Kirk, former high school classmates, have made the most of their Cornell theatre opportunities. In addition to numerous Cornell productions, both have spent summers in Colorado with Creede Repertory Theatre, and a semester of study and internships through the Chicago Arts Program. “While Cornell provides me with wonderful academic and extracurricular [...]
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November 4, 2007During the summer of 2007, both Matt Babbs and Tyler Jacobson took advantage of Cornell’s close relationship with Iowa City’s Riverside Theatre. The two served as interns during the annual Shakespeare Festival, and both say the experience convinced them to become theatre professionals. “I know now that this is what I want to do for [...]
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September 17, 2007Kris Longley-Postema ’06 enrolled in the Yale University School of Drama after Cornell to more deeply study stage management. He has also taken courses in theatre management, and has been very pleased with his Yale experience. ”I find that theatre is most rewarding when it is intellectually and artistically challenging,” he says. “Continuing to practice [...]
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March 5, 2007MOUNT VERNON — Inmates of an asylum on the outskirts of Paris stage a play about the murder of revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat in the Cornell College production of “Marat/Sade” opening Thursday, March 15, in the Plumb-Fleming Studio Theatre of Armstrong Hall. The full title of the play is “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat [...]
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February 20, 2007As an English and theatre major, Holli Gipson had interests in all forms of creative writing. She enjoyed Cornell fiction writing courses with Professor Glenn Freeman, but it was a playwriting course with award-winning guest artist Keith Huff that kindled her passion for dramatic writing, in particular. Huff’s encouragement sparked her to write Peach Blood, [...]
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November 30, 2006MOUNT VERNON — “Peach Blood,” a play by a Cornell College student about the eventful life of a woman trying to chart a future independent of a haunted past, premieres Friday, Dec. 8, in Cornell’s Plumb-Fleming Studio Theatre in Armstrong Hall. The play continues Dec. 9, 14, 15 and 16. All performances are at 8 [...]
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October 7, 2006MOUNT VERNON — An actor who appeared in the 1975 Broadway production of “Equus” plays the lead role when Cornell College opens “Equus” on Friday, Oct. 13, at Kimmel Theatre. Performances are Oct. 13 and 14 at 8 p.m., Oct. 15 at 2 p.m., Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. [...]
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May 3, 2006MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College’s theatre and communications studies department has received a $3,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant to workshop and develop a new play, with work on the production occurring in Term 3 of 2006-2007. The grant, provided through the New Plays On Campus program of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, will [...]
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March 7, 2006MOUNT VERNON — “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare’s timeless tale of lovers, nymphs, fairies, actors and aristocrats, takes the stage at Cornell College beginning Wednesday, March 15, at 8 p.m. The performance is in Kimmel Theatre of Youngker Hall, with additional engagements Thursday through Saturday, March 16-18, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 19, at [...]
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March 1, 2006Sweeney Todd is no ordinary production, but Cornell’s Lyric Theatre is no ordinary company. During Block 5 each year, Cornell’s music and theatre departments combine to produce ambitious works of opera and musical theater, and Sweeney Todd provided a formidable challenge to all involved. “The show is a tour-de-force for performers at any level,” says [...]
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January 20, 2006MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College Lyric Theatre presents the musical thriller “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” opening Friday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m. in Kimmel Theatre of Youngker Hall. Remaining performances are Saturday, Jan. 28, at 8 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 29, at 2 p.m. and Feb. 2-4 at 8 p.m. With music [...]
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September 23, 2005MOUNT VERNON — “Prosperity,” a new play that follows a band of actors as they improvise a raucous comedy about community greed, murder and sacrifice, comes to the Kimmel Theatre stage at Cornell College on Thursday, Oct. 6, at 8 p.m. This is a world-premiere co-production with Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, where the play [...]
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