Current Season

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.

KEN LUDWIG'S SHERWOOD: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD

By Ken Ludwig • Oct 9-11, 2025
Directed by Sean Byrd
Reservation link coming soon

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!

A 1940S RADIO CHRISTMAS CAROL

By Walton Jones, David Wohl, Faye Greenberg • Dec 4-6, 2025
Directed by Anne Byrd
Reservation link coming soon

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).

A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED

By Agatha Christie, Adapted by Leslie Darbon • Apr 2-4 & 9-11, 2026
Directed by Amanda White
Reservation link coming soon

An announcement in the local paper states the time and place when a murder is to occur in Miss Blacklock's Victorian house. The victim is not one of the house's several occupants, but an unexpected and unknown visitor. What follows is a classic Christie puzzle of mixed motives, concealed identities, a second death and a determined inspector grimly following the case's twists and turns. Fortunately, Miss Marple is on hand to provide the solution in a dramatic final confrontation.

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG

By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields • Apr 2-4 & 9-11, 2026
Directed by Anne Byrd
Reservation link coming soon

Welcome to opening night of the Cornley University Drama Society’s newest production, The Murder at Haversham Manor, where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. This 1920s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show – an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines). Nevertheless, the accident-prone thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences!

Amélie

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.

Love/Sick

By John Cariani
Directed by Tolu Ekisola

Set on a Friday night in an alternate suburban reality, this collection of nine slightly twisted and completely hilarious short plays explores the pain and joy that comes with being in love. Full of imperfect lovers and dreamers, LOVE/SICK is an unromantic comedy for the romantic in everyone.

The Language Archive

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.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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.

The Book of Will

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.

The Revolutionists

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.

Human Error

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?

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical

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!