Studying Theatre

Why Theatre?

The study of theatre arts at UW-Eau Claire provides students with an outstanding liberal arts education and fosters the development and appreciation of theatre as a significant art form. Theatre students begin their training immediately at UW-Eau Claire, working in a disciplined group effort under real-life pressures and deadlines to develop fully realized productions for campus and community audiences. Theatre students begin their training immediately at UWEC working in a disciplined group effort, under real-life pressures and deadlines to develop productions.

There are numerous ways to be involved and share in creating art that presents the wildly swinging pendulum of human experience. Each year there are four mainstage plays, an active musical/opera theatre ensemble, a one-act play festival or touring theatre production, and numerous other smaller events that all showcase the broad emotions we experience in life. This thriving community puts you in the midst of performances and classes that will make you a better artist! Whether your art is dance, acting, directing, playwriting, design, costuming, set building, stage managing, or sound and lights — there’s a place for you here. You can even work as a student employee in our scenic and costume shops, get a job in publicity, or as a master electrician.

For more information about the Theatre Division productions, auditions, or classes, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Arthur Grothe at grothear@uwec.edu.

2025-26 Theatre Productions

➤YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

By Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Directed by Arthur Grothe
Music Direction by Emily Sternfeld-Dunn
Choreographed by SK Stone

JAMF Theatre | Pablo Center at the Confluence
Friday, October 17 | 7:30pm
Sunday, October 19 | 1:30pm
Wednesday-Saturday, October 22-25 | 7:30pm
Sunday, October 26 | 1:30pm

From the creators of The Producers comes the celebrated West End Version of this monster musical comedy. Featuring slight revisions and enhancements made by the original Broadway creative team, Young Frankenstein (West End Version) is ready to shock your audience! The grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein, Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced "Fronk-en-steen") inherits his family's estate in Transylvania. With the help of a hunchbacked sidekick, Igor (pronounced "Eye-gore"), and a leggy lab assistant, Inga (pronounced normally), Frederick finds himself in the mad scientist shoes of his ancestors. "It's alive!" he exclaims as he brings to life a creature to rival his grandfather's. Eventually, of course, the monster escapes and hilarity continuously abounds.

➤MEN ON BOATS

By Jaclyn Backhaus
Directed by Jennifer Chapman

Riverside Theatre | Haas Fine Arts Center
Wednesday-Friday, December 10-12 | 7:30pm
Saturday, December 13 | 1:30pm & 7:30pm
Sunday, December 14 | 1:30pm

In 1869, ten explorers set off to chart the Green and Colorado Rivers, under the guidance of John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War Veteran and personal friend of President Grant, a government-sanctioned journey following in the footsteps of the deserters, lone adventurers, and countless indigenous people who have previously braved the wild rapids leading through Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, and through the most dangerous waterway of all: the Grand Canyon. Along the way they make friends, they get on each other’s nerves, they suffer loss of boat and supplies, they doubt, struggle, and name mountains after themselves, they posture and pretend, they quit while they’re ahead, and they repeatedly brave dangerous rapids to reach the other side. As boats capsize and supplies are lost, as belts tighten and nerves fray, the company draws together as a band of brothers, even as three members fear the outcome of the final waterfalls and make the fateful decision to leave before the end. In Men On Boats, Jacklyn Backhaus’ original, hilarious, and delightful adventure dramedy, the conquering men out to chronicle the land in service of America, God, and Manifest destiny, are given voice and movement by actors who are anything and everything but white and male, and the bravery, determination, foolishness, humanity, and true grit of the historical explorers is memorialized, while the historical moment of their journey is viewed with a critical lens.

➤EURYDICE

By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Arthur Grothe

JAMF Theatre | Pablo Center at the Confluence
Friday-Saturday, February 27-28 | 7:30pm
Sunday, March 1 | 1:30pm
Wednesday-Saturday, March 4-7 | 7:30pm
Sunday March 8 | 1:30pm

In Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.

➤JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH

By David Wood, Based on the Book by Roald Dahl
Directed by Jennifer Chapman

Riverside Theatre | Haas Fine Arts Center
Friday-Saturday, April 24-25 | 7:30pm
Sunday, April 26 | 1:30pm
Wednesday-Thursday, April 29-30 | 7:30pm
Saturday, May 2 | 7:30pm
Sunday, May 3 | 1:30pm

In this delightful stage adaptation, Roald Dahl’s classic tale is faithfully told by James himself, along with the insect characters – Miss Spider, Old-Green-Grasshopper, Centipede, Ladybird, and Earthworm. The play begins at the end of the story, when James and his friends are living in the giant peach stone in Central Park, New York.

A tour guide brings a party of tourists (the audience) to see this major attraction, and James and his friends tell the story of how they came to live in New York. The insects play the other roles, like James’s cruel Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, and the epic journey across the Atlantic is acted out with live action, puppetry and storytelling in David Wood's masterful adaptation.