Our students shine on stage and behind the scenes. Come see the many ways that the
university's theatre and dance performances enhance the arts scene in Columbia, South
Carolina and the Midlands.
2025-2026 Theatre Season
The Seeing Place
September 26 - October 5, 2025
By Lauren Wilson Directed by Marybeth Gorman Craig & Lauren Wilson
This new play by USC Theatre Assistant Professor Lauren Wilson is a ghost story inspired
by the “haunted” reputation of our most notable performance venue. In the face of
budget cuts and theatre closures, directing student Sam and her cast sneak into Longstreet
Theatre, a building once used as a Civil War hospital and morgue that is now closed
for safety reasons, to stage a renegade production of Hamlet. Undaunted by the theater’s flickering lights and creeping mold, the director and
her cast throw themselves into the project – that is, until spirits of the building’s
past begin to stir. By turns funny, frightening, and poignant, The Seeing Place is an homage to the theatre and its artists, who carry compassion forward like a
flickering spark through a world of danger and sorrow.
Contains language that may not be appropriate for children.
The Grown-Ups
October 23-26, 2025
By Simon Henriques & Skylar Fox Directed by Hannah Magner
Produced in conjunction with student group Ghost Light Productions, this critically
acclaimed play invites you to pull up a seat around the fire with the counselors at
summer camp Indigo Woods, who meet nightly to strategize about the next day’s activities
without the kids finding out about…well, you’ve seen the news. As an increasingly
volatile outside threat gets closer to their safe haven, the counselors struggle with
how to preserve the fun while keeping their campers – and themselves – alive. The Grown-Ups explores how to mold the leaders of tomorrow in a dangerous world you’re hopelessly,
tragically not prepared for. “An apocalyptic play... part satire, part scary story.”
– The New York Times
Contains language and themes that may not be appropriate for children.
Meet Jack Worthing, a socialite leading two lives. He’s the respectable “Jack” at
his country estate, but pretends to be his imaginary brother, the freewheeling “Ernest,”
in the city. When his good friend Algernon discovers the deception, he decides to
get in on the action, coming to Jack’s country estate as the fictional brother. This
complicates not only Jack’s designs on Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen, but Algernon’s
own desire for Jack’s young ward, Cecily. Filled with absurdist plot twists and Wilde’s
acerbic wit, this “trivial comedy for serious people” is a masterpiece of farce that
The Telegraph said “has a claim to being the most perfect high comedy in the English language.”
Orlando
February 26 - March 1, 2026
By Virginia Woolf Adapted by Sarah Ruhl Director to Be Announced
Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of the “longest and most charming love letter in literature”
is a wild, fantastical trip through space, time and gender. Orlando’s story begins
as a young man serving as courtier to Queen Elizabeth I, but his yearning for more
takes him on a centuries-long adventure that finds him, in the 18th century, unexpectedly
transformed into a woman. Orlando’s travels form the heart of a dazzling tale where
gender and gender preferences shift regularly, with hilarious and heartfelt results.
“…faithfully recreates the incidents Woolf uses to illustrate her ideas about the
fluidity of gender and identity, and the great mysteries of time.” – The New York Times
All is fair and good in the land of Equestria, the colorful kingdom in the classic
children’s cartoon My Little Pony. But in an apartment in rural Pennsylvania, where Ben hosts a weekly gathering of
“bronies” (cosplaying fans of the cartoon), things are becoming decidedly less harmonious.
An overzealous Neighborhood Watch has begun patrolling the streets, and as its political
influence surges, fear and paranoia begin to creep into the bronies’ (and pegasisters’)
circle of friendship. “...reminds us that acceptance and community can indeed be magical – but sometimes
magic can be dark.” – Time Out New York
Contains language and themes that may not be appropriate for children.
Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.
