2008-2009 Season

Some Girl(s)
By Neil LaBute
Directed by Melissa Crespo
Helms Theatre
Sept. 25-27, 30, Oct, 1-4
8 p.m.
You are a celebrated writer.  You are getting ready to marry a beautiful young bride and head off to a lavish honeymoon on the Mexican Riviera.  So what’s a man to do?  In Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s), a man crisscrosses the country to meet with four ex-girlfriends and learn more about the loves he discarded.  The journey brings him face to face once again with a collection of castoffs that includes a high school sweetheart, college professor, fun-filled fling and the “one who got away.”  More than a mere trip down memory lane, Some Girl(s) is a sharp and unsparing look into the barren heart of a retiring Lothario who was always much more interested in looking for love than ever finding it.Single Ticket Sales Begin Sept 8. ticket information>>


Strands In Motion: Fall Dance Concert
Culbreth Theatre
Oct. 17-18, 2008, 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Oct. 18
The University of Virginia Dance Program and the Department of Drama present the second annual Fall Dance Concert, featuring a selection of dances performed by students and choreography by U.Va. Dance Faculty and local dance instructors. Single Ticket Sales Begin Sept 15. ticket information>>


Day of Absence
By Douglas Turner Ward
Directed by Theresa M. Davis
Helms Theatre
Oct. 23-25, 28-31, Nov. 1
8 p.m.
Crisis and chaos come to a sleepy Southern town in Douglas Ward’s fantastical parody Day of Absence.  All the black people have disappeared!   Mothers are helpless to take care of their children!  Households and businesses are falling apart!  The increasingly helpless government is facing a full scale revolt!  The hapless mayor pleads with the governor, the NAACP and even the President to hasten their return and restore order to a world gone horribly off its axis.  With broad satirical strokes (including a reversal of the minstrel model, with black actors in whiteface), Ward’s 1965 play paints the world in which he wrote it and the world as it is all too often seen today…as the ultimate study in contrast. Single Ticket Sales Begin Oct 6. ticket information>>


Oklahoma!
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
Directed by Robert Chapel
Culbreth Theatre
Nov. 20-22, Dec. 3-5, 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 22.
When a show introduces the world to the most celebrated writing and composing teams of all time AND changes the landscape of the modern Broadway musical, it deserves an exclamation point.  Oklahoma! is coming to Culbreth Theatre with its time honored tale of love on the Plains and its wagon-load of unforgettable classics, including Oh What a Beautiful  Morning…People Will Say We’re In Love…and of course, theatre’s most unforgettable title tune.Single Ticket Sales Begin Oct 6. ticket information>>


No Boundaries: Dancing the Vision of Contemporary Black Choreographers
Culbreth Theatre
Jan. 17, 8 p.m.
The Department of Drama and the Dance Program will welcome dancer, choreographer and educator- Gesel Mason for a one week residency on January 14-17, 2009.  During her visit, Mason will conduct master classes and group discussions culminating in a public performance of her solo work, No Boundaries: Dancing the Vision of Contemporary Black Choreographers at 8 p.m. on Saturday, January 17th. Ticket Sales Begin Jan 15. ticket information>>


The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer
By Carson Kreitzer
Directed by Betsy Tucker
Culbreth Theatre
Feb. 12-14, 18-21, 2009, 8 p.m.
What went on inside the head of the man who invented the atomic bomb?  The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer takes audiences across a surreal dreamscape of one of history’s most brilliant minds and tortured souls.  Travel to the literal desert of Los Alamos and meet the men that helped him usher the world into the nuclear age.  Then travel to the personal deserts of his own making, from the wreckage of his romantic life to the government who built him up and broke him down…all guided by Lilith, the ghost of the Biblical figure who was cast out of the Garden of Eden for challenging authority in a way Oppenheimer never could, or did. Single Ticket Sales Begin Jan 26.  ticket information>>


Fuddy Meers
By David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Richard Warner
Helms Theatre
March 19-21, 24-28, 2009, 8 p.m.
An amnesiac whose memory is erased each night while she sleeps…a  limping, lisping “brother” who kidnaps her…a simple-minded accomplice who constantly speaks to, and through, a sock puppet…a husband whose intentions and past are equally murky…a mother who speaks in gibberish only she can understand…a foul-mouthed and rebellious teenage son.   Welcome to the delightfully dark and distorted world of Fuddy Meers, a fast-moving farce where laughs are unleashed as quickly as secrets are revealed, and where nothing, and no one, is above suspicion!Single Ticket Sales Begin Jan 26. ticket information>>


Spring Dance Concert
Helms Theatre
April 2-4, 2009, 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on April 4.
The University of Virginia Dance Program and the Department of Drama present the second annual Spring Dance Concert, featuring a selection of dances performed by students and choreography by U.Va. Dance Faculty and local dance instructors. Tickets can only be purchased one hour before each show. 


The Two Gentlemen of Verona
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Colleen Kelly
Culbreth Theatre
April 16-18, 22-25, 2009, 8 p.m.
What’s a man to do when faced with a choice between love and friendship?   In Shakespeare’s early comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona, THAT is the question.  With their hearts set on the same woman, Valentine and Proteus prove themselves to be gentlemen in name only as they embark on a series of romantic misadventures that test and tatter their ties that bind.  It’s a typically tangled web of love, power and money, mixed in with am mix of madcap comic mastery that only the Bard could concoct.Single Ticket Sales Begin Feb 23. ticket information>>