The Normandale Theatre Department produces an annual season of plays and musical productions for both the college community and the public.
These award-winning productions are a great way for students to get involved and put their skills and learning outcomes into action. Stay up to date on what is currently playing and how you can attend.
Come From Away
Book, Music, & Lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein
Directed by Anne Byrd
October 23–24 & 29–30 at 7:30pm
October 24 & 31 at 2:00pm
Premanand Fine Arts Theatre
Tickets available starting September 1!
Come From Away is based on the true story of when the isolated community of Gander, Newfoundland, played host to the world. When 38 planes carrying 7,000 passengers from around the globe were diverted to Gander’s airstrip on September 11, 2001, the residents of Gander welcomed these strangers into their homes and hearts. While the world witnessed the worst of humanity, the people of Gander showed the stranded passengers that kindness, comfort, and generosity still exist.
Stupid F---ing Bird
By Aaron Posner
Sort of adapted from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Sean Byrd
December 4–5 & 10–11 at 7:30pm
December 5 & 12 at 2:00pm
Black Box Theatre
In this irreverent, contemporary and very funny remix of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Aaron Posner stages a timeless battle between young and old, past and present, in search of the true meaning of it all. With original songs composed by James Sugg drawing the famously subtextual inner thoughts of Chekhov’s characters explicitly to the surface, Stupid F—-ing Bird considers how art, love, and revolution can fuel one's own pursuit of happiness.
The Mad Ones
By Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk
Directed by Amanda White
March 3–5 at 7:30pm
March 6 at 2:00pm
Premanand Fine Arts Theatre
18-year-old Samantha Brown sits in a hand-me-down car with the keys clutched in her hand. Caught between a yearning for the unknown and feeling bound by expectation, she telescopes back to a time before her world had fallen apart. As she relives her senior year, we meet Sam’s well-intentioned helicopter mother Bev and her high school sweetheart of a boyfriend Adam, but it’s her painfully alive best friend Kelly that haunts her. Kelly was everything Sam is not – impetuous and daring. She pushed Sam to break rules and do the unexpected. When Kelly is killed in a car accident, Sam loses not only her best friend but also the part of herself that was learning to be brave. Now, Sam has to make a decision: Will she follow her mother’s dreams for her, or will she summon the courage to drive away from her friends and family into a future she can’t imagine?
Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Sean Byrd
April 29–May 1 at 7:30pm
May 1 at 2:00pm
Premanand Fine Arts Theatre
Lust. Greed. Ruthless, blinding ambition. Dark magic. A desperate couple, hungry for success and willing to do anything to achieve it, including murder. While it could be the next Netflix true crime documentary - it is also the story at the center of one of William Shakespeare’s finest tragedies. Macbeth, written in 1606, resonates in our 21st century world with shocking relevancy. Moving at breakneck speed, we watch as a young soldier and his wife become consumed by the darkest parts of themselves, and how their devouring need for power drives them to the brink of insanity and beyond. Blood will be spilled. Lots of it.
Don’t miss the big show and reserve your tickets!
Reservations are encouraged but not required.
Phone: 952-358-8884
Email: boxoffice@normandale.edu
We are proud to support Normandale’s Campus Cupboard food shelf during our Spring Theatre productions. Audience members who wish to participate may bring two donation items in exchange for each ticket. 2 items = 1 free ticket! All shelf-stable food and personal care items are welcome. For a list of suggested donations and more information about the Campus Cupboard, click the link below
By Walton Jones, David Wohl, Faye Greenberg
Directed by Anne Byrd
It’s Christmas Eve, 1943, and the Feddington Players are broadcasting from a hole-in-the-wall studio in Newark, NJ, with their “take” on A Christmas Carol. Between noisy plumbing, missed cues, blackouts, and the over-the-top theatrics of veteran actor William St. Claire, the show spirals into mayhem. As St. Claire unravels on-air, blurring his own life with Dickens’ tale, the company scrambles to save the broadcast by improvising a film noir ending complete with a hardboiled detective, a femme fatale, and an absurd rescue of Tiny Tim (and the Lindbergh baby).
By Ken Ludwig
Directed by Sean Byrd
Packed with thrills, romance, laughter, and immortal characters like Little John, Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian, Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood tells the enduring story of a hero of the people who takes on the ruthless powers that be. So get ready to duck a quarterstaff or two – you won’t want to miss a moment of the swashbuckling fun!
Music by Daniel Messé, Lyrics by Nathan Tysen & Daniel Messé
Book by Craig Lucas
Based on the motion picture “Amélie” written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant
Directed by Anne Byrd
Amélie is an extraordinary young woman who lives quietly in the world but loudly in her mind. She covertly improvises small but surprising acts of kindness that bring joy and mayhem. But when a chance at love comes her way, Amélie realizes that to find happiness she will have to risk everything and say what is in her heart.
By Julia Cho
Directed by Anne Byrd
George is a man consumed with preserving and documenting the dying languages of far-flung cultures. Closer to home, though, language is failing him. He does not know what to say to his wife, Mary, to keep her from leaving him, and he does not recognize the deep feelings that his lab assistant, Emma, has for him.
By John Heimbuch & Jon Ferguson
Directed by Amanda White
In the quaint village of Sleepy Hollow, stories of wonder and strangeness surround the legend of a headless Hessian. When the humble schoolteacher Ichabod Crane vies for the hand of the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel, the townsfolk might protest, but it is the Horseman who will decide Ichabod's fate.
By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Sean Byrd
Without William Shakespeare, we wouldn’t have literary masterpieces like Romeo and Juliet. But without Henry Condell and John Heminges, we would have lost half of Shakespeare’s plays forever! After the death of their friend and mentor, the two actors are determined to compile the First Folio and preserve the words that shaped their lives. They’ll just have to borrow, beg, and band together to get it done. Amidst the noise and color of Elizabethan London, The Book of Will finds an unforgettable true story of love, loss, and laughter, and sheds new light on a man you may think you know.
By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Amanda White
Four women lose their heads in this irreverent comedy set during the French Revolution. Playwright Olympe de Gouges, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen (and fan of ribbons) Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle hang out, murder Marat, and try to beat back the extremism of 1793 Paris. This grand and dream-tweaked comedy is about violence and legacy, art and activism, feminism and terrorism, compatriots and chosen sisters, and how we actually go about changing the world.
By Eric Pfeffinger
Directed by Tolu Ekisola
Madelyn and Keenan are NPR-listening, latte-sipping blue-staters who are planning a family. Or they were, anyway, until the fertility clinic accidentally implanted their fertilized embryo in another uterus — a uterus belonging to a small-government, churchgoing, NRA cardholder. Can these ideologically hostile couples make it through 9 months of gestation together?
Book by Joe Tracz, Music and Lyrics by Rob Rokicki
Adapted from the book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Directed by Sean Byrd
As the half-blood son of a Greek god, Percy Jackson has newly-discovered powers he can't control, a destiny he doesn't want, and a mythology textbook's worth of monsters on his trail. When Zeus's master lightning bolt is stolen and Percy becomes the prime suspect, he must find and return the bolt to prove his innocence and prevent a war between the gods. Adapted from the best-selling book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and featuring a thrilling original rock score, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is an action-packed mythical adventure!
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