Saint Louis University Theatre and Dance has produced the finest in academic theatre for 77 years. SLU students form the company and production team, mentored by expert faculty and staff.
2023-2024 Theatre and Dance Season
October 5-7, 2023
8 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
2 p.m, Saturday
The Grandel
Directed by Nancy Bell
As the Civil Rights movement is brewing, a controversial children’s book about a black rabbit marrying a white rabbit stirs the passions of a segregationist state senator and a no-nonsense state librarian in 1959 Montgomery, Alabama. A contrasting story of childhood friends — an African American man and a woman of white privilege, reunited in adulthood — provides private counterpoint to the public events swirling in the state capital. Political foes, star-crossed lovers, and one feisty children’s author inhabit the same page in a Deep South of the imagination that brims with humor, heartbreak and hope. Inspired by true events!
Content advisory: Alabama Story contains descriptions of violence, depictions of historical racism and racist attitudes, and references to suicide.
November 16-19, 2023
8 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
2 p.m., Friday and Sunday
Xavier Hall, Main Stage Theatre
Directed by guest artist Gaby Rodriguez
Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written," Our Town presents the small town of Grover’s Corners in three acts: "Daily Life," "Love and Marriage" and "Death and Eternity." Narrated by a stage manager, and performed with minimal props and sets, the play depicts the simple daily lives of the Webb and Gibbs families as their children fall in love, marry, and eventually — in one of the most famous scenes in American theatre — die.
Sponsored by Ms. Marianne Muellerleile
Produced in Collaboration with Prison Performing Arts
February 29- March 3, 2024
8 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday
The Kranzberg, Black Box Theatre
Directed by Lucy Cashion
Dreaming of Lear is a multi-media reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy filtered through the unconscious. It is a work of devised theatre in which participating artists reconstruct the play based on dreams while listening to King Lear's recordings. The production the audience experiences consists of recorded interviews with the ensemble of dreamers, fragments of Shakespeare's King Lear, and the realization of the ensemble’s dreams on stage. Dreaming of Lear is created in collaboration with Prison Performing Arts’ Alumni Company.
April 26-28, 2024
8 p.m., Friday and Saturday
2 p.m., Sunday
The Grandel
Directed by Holly Seitz Marchant
The interplay between dreams and reality has long fueled human imagination. Our personal ideas, hopes, dreams and nightmares work at the edges of our subconscious awareness often revealing the inner dimensions of our lives. Movement is an ideal medium for contemplating and expressing the lived experience at the liminal intersection of the oneiric and waking mind. Join the student choreographers of SLU Theatre and Dance for an evening of new and original dance artworks that bring dreamscapes into reality.
Tickets on Sale Now!
Season ticketholders can mix and match performances for a discounted price.
Auditions and Tech Interviews
Participate in Upcoming Productions
Auditions and technical interviews for Alabama Story and Our Town will be held 6-9 p.m., Wednesday, August 23 and Thursday, August 24, in Xavier Hall. Callbacks will be held the following two days.
For Alabama Story, please prepare a one- to two-minute contemporary American monologue (2000 to present).
For Our Town, please prepare a one- to two-minute modern realistic monologue (1900 to 1950).
Auditions for Dreaming of Lear and Dreamscape will take place in January 2024.
For complete details, please contact the Production Office at produce.theatre@slu.edu. All SLU students are invited to participate. You do not have to be a Theatre major or minor!
Theatre and Dance Parking
The Xavier Hall Main Stage is located in Xavier Hall on the Saint Louis University campus at 3733 West Pine Mall, one block east of Vandeventer Boulevard and one block south of Lindell Boulevard. Parking for performances at this venue is available in the Queen's Daughters Hall lot at 3730 Lindell Blvd.
Parking for Kranzberg Arts Foundation venues is as follows:
- The Grandel, 3610 Grandel Square — public garage or street parking
- Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand Ave. — public garage or street parking
Safety Precautions
We will follow the health and safety protocols set up by our university in line with the CDC and St. Louis City guidelines. All precautions regarding ticketing, masking, distancing, etc., are subject to change based on these guidelines.
We are Missouri Artsafe Certified.
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