Welcome to our 2024-25 Season

The Play That Goes Wrong

By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields  

Directed by David Skeen

Performances: September 6-14, 2024

Auditions: 3 p.m. June 2 and 7 p.m. June 3

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! Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is a global phenomenon that’s guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter!

August: Osage County

By Tracy Letts

Directed by James Raby

October 18-26, 2024

A vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Mix in Violet, the drugged-up, scathingly acidic matriarch, and you’ve got a major play that unflinchingly—and uproariously—exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family.

Our Place (Youth Wing Black Box show)

By Terry Gabbard

Directed by Shannon Huey

November 13-17, 2024

The unassuming location of a dock extending out onto a small lake serves as the backdrop for five different stories. On a cool autumn night, Jake arrives with Holly at a secluded spot. The couple feels an immediate connection to this place as if it were put there just for them. Things seem perfect until Anne and her date, Lyle, arrive. On another day, early in the morning, Beth has plans to spend the day with her dad at their favorite fishing place. She has high hopes for catching some sunshine, a few fish, and her dad's fading memories. The third story involves Al, who arrives at the dock with his family and has high expectations for their family canoe trip. The only problem is that his wife would rather stay inside, his son has a chip on his shoulder, and his daughter is really weird. In the fourth story, Cory and Liberty are having a picnic lunch out by the lake, but a realization about tuna-fish sandwiches sends a shockwave through their relationship and brings about questions of who they are and what lies ahead for them. In the fifth story, Stanley escapes the hardships of his life to blow off some steam on the dock when Sidney, his 6-year-old sister, arrives. All he wants is for her to go away, but she insists on staying with him. The entire ensemble gathers on the dock together for the final scene. In a poetic epilogue, they all discover the true meaning of Our Place—both comedic and tragic.

A Christmas Carol 

Based on the Charles Dickens Novel

Directed by James Schroeder

December 6-14, 2024

In the classic Charles Dickens novel "A Christmas Carol," Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter and miserly old man, is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come on a fateful Christmas Eve. Through haunting glimpses of his own life and the lives of those around him, Scrooge undergoes a profound transformation. He confronts the errors of his past, the joys he has missed in the present, and the grim future that awaits him if he does not change. Awakening on Christmas morning with a newfound sense of compassion and generosity, Scrooge embraces the true spirit of the holiday season. This timeless tale reminds us of the power of redemption and the importance of love, forgiveness, and human connection during the festive season.

A Year With Frog and Toad (Youth Wing Mainstage Musical)

Based on the books by Arnold Lobel

Score by Robert and Willie Reale

Directed by Frances Fields

February 14-22, 2025

Based on Arnold Lobel's well-loved books, this whimsical show follows two great friends – the cheerful, popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad – through four fun-filled seasons. Waking from hibernation in the Spring, Frog and Toad plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding and learn life lessons along the way. The two best friends celebrate and rejoice in the differences that make them unique and special. The jazzy, upbeat score bubbles with melody and wit, making it an inventive, exuberant and enchanting musical for the whole family. It is a perfect show to be performed by an ensemble group of actors and can be produced with either simple or extravagant staging and sets.

These Shining Lives

By Melanie Marnich

Directed by RJ Wall

March 28 - April 5, 2025

These Shining Lives is based on the true story of four women who worked for the Radium Dial Company - a watch factory based in Ottawa, Illinois. The play showcases the danger women faced in this workplace and highlights the wider lack of concern companies had for protecting the health of their employees. Catherine and her friends are dying, it’s true; but theirs is a story of survival in its most transcendent sense, as they refuse to allow the company that stole their health to kill their spirits—or endanger the lives of those who come after them.

Footloose

Stage Adaptation by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie

Based on the original screenplay by Dean Pitchford

Music by Tom Snow; Lyrics by Dean Pitchford

Additional Music by Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman

Directed by JC Crider

May 16-24, 2025

Newcomer Ren McCormack is in shock when he discovers the small Midwestern town he now calls home has made dancing and rock music illegal. As he struggles to fit in, Ren faces an uphill battle to change things. With the help of his new friend Willard Hewitt and defiant teen Ariel Moore, he might loosen up this conservative town, but Ariel's influential father, the Rev. Shaw Moore, stands in the way. Footloose celebrates the exhilaration of youth, the wisdom of listening to one another, and the power of forgiveness. 

A Bad Year for Tomatoes

By John Patrick

Directed by Thurmond Whatley

July 11-19, 2025

Fed up with the pressures and demands of her acting career, the famous Myra Marlowe leases a house in a tiny New England hamlet to write her autobiography. She is successful in turning aside the offers pressed on her by her long-time agent, but dealing with her nosy, omnipresent neighbors is a different matter. In an attempt to shoo them away and gain some privacy, Myra invents a mad, homicidal sister who is kept locked in an upstairs room but who occasionally escapes long enough to scare off uninvited visitors. The ruse works well but complications result when the local handyman develops an affection for “Sister Sadie” (Myra in a fright wig) and some of the more officious ladies decide it is their Christian duty to save the poor demented Sadie’s soul. In desperation, Myra announces that her imaginary sibling has suddenly gone to Boston, which brings in the sheriff and the suspicion of murder!