On or behind stage, you're invited to become part of Illinois College TheatreWorks. Whether you've been involved in high school productions or are new to the theatre, there are many opportunities for students with various interests.
TheatreWorks produces two or three main-stage shows and several student-directed shows each academic year in Illinois College's Sibert Theatre, a 250-seat modified thrust theatre. Committed to staging a variety of works including classics, new works, and musicals, we also experiment with a variety of theatrical styles, from realism to theatricalism. Mainstage seasons often revolve around particular themes. The 2005-2006 season offered a broad diversity of shows that all raise questions about time: the musical Working, Diana Son's Stop Kiss, and Tony Kushner's adaptation of Pierre Corneille's the Illusion. The 2006-2007 season invited patrons to broaden their horizons and experience various kinds of storytelling from around the globe: a chamber theatre adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, David Auburn's Proof, and a Foreign Langauge Play Festival presenting one-act plays in Spanish and German. Last season was dedicated to Shakespeare. We produced one of his most popular companies, Twelfth Night, and March Tale by contemporary American playwright Tim Slover, which tells the story, based partially on fact, of Shakespeare and Company's command performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor for Queen Elizabeth shortly before her death.
This year our theme is Persevering to Peace. We begin with Arthur Miller's adaptation of a Holocaust survivor's memoir, Playing for Time, which tells the story of the women's orchestra at Auschwitz kept alive in order to entertain the SS. In the winter we produce a new play, Anon(ymous): A Modern Adaptation of The Odyssey about a young immigrant searching for his identity and his home. We end the season with the musical The Secret Garden.
TheatreWorks is dedicated to maintaining an "open shop" in which everyone is welcome to participate. Every TheatreWorks cast will, where possible, contain students who are new to the stage at Illinois College. While we develop the abilities of the majors through a progression of roles, non-majors and even first-year students are often cast in significant parts as well.
Students play a vital role in the operation of TheatreWorks from staffing the box office, to house management, to publicity, to work on set and lights, to costume design and construction, to makeup artists. Paid student positions are available in many of these areas. Students also receive academic credit for production work.
Most jobs in the professional theatre require a master's degree, and our program prepares students for graduate school in theatre and in related areas. But we are also training students to enter the 21st-century workforce at large by training them in creative problem-solving, leadership, collaboration, critical thinking, and integrity. Despite claims that a theatre degree is "impractical," it teaches many valuable skills highly prized by employers in a multitude of fields. Some of the career paths you could pursue upon graduation include actor, designer (lights, set, sound, props, costume), director, makeup artist, stage manager, set builder, scene painter, light or sound engineer, playwright, box office manager, exhibit/display designer, talent scout, casting director, amusement park entertainer, tour guide, paralegal, admissions director, advertising/marketing specialist, business manager, residential life coordinator, movie theatre manager, media salesperson, public relations specialist, and radio/TV announcer.