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Surrealism and slapstick, the beautiful and the bittersweet – the 2023-2024 UMass Theater season encompasses what’s thrilling about live theater. The season presented by the Department of Theater will explore what it means to make a family with a little help from a magical house, contemplate political farce with a leading lady who makes Lucy Ricardo look sedate, observe a brilliant scientist as he dissects the “love vs career” dichotomy and delight in a classic comedy of unrequited love and mistaken identity.

A festival marking the end of the season will illuminate what the next generation of theater-makers has in store.

General admission tickets for performances are $17. Tickets are $5 for students, youth and senior patrons, as well as Card to Culture patrons.

Fringe Fest ‘24 events are free, and reservation details will be shared by organizers as events are announced in spring 2024.

Tickets for all events except Fringe Fest are on sale now through the UMass Fine Arts Center Box Office and can be purchased by calling 1-800-999-UMAS or online from the box office website.

Season and group discounts also available through the Fine Arts Center Box Office.

More information can be found on these performances and the Department of Theater can be found at
https://www.umass.edu/theater/2023-2024-season.
 

The Hatmaker’s Wife
Written by Lauren Yee
Directed by Gina Kaufmann
The Curtain Theater, Bromery Center for the Arts
Oct. 27 & 28, Nov. 1, 2, 3, & 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Matinee - Nov. 4 at 2 p.m.

In Lauren Yee’s whimsical comedy with a heart, a lost young woman moves in with her boyfriend expecting to find domestic bliss — but before she does, she must contend with her magical new home. Learn the tale of the house’s previous inhabitants, an old hat-maker and his long-suffering wife, in a surreal journey between past and present, examining the important stuff of life: identity, love, belonging and the meaning of home.

Appropriate for all audiences.


They Won’t Pay? We Won’t Pay!
Written by Dario Fo
English translation by Jon Laskin and Michael Aquilante
Directed by Behnam Alibakhshi
The Rand Theater, Bromery Center for the Arts
Dec. 1, 2, 6, 7 & 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Matinee - Dec. 2 at 2 p.m.

The price of food rises astronomically every day, so what’s a working-class person to do? Join up with neighbors and loot the local grocery store, of course. Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo—Italy’s premiere purveyor of social commentary and political farce—spins a relatable situation into an absurdly funny tale as wily Antonia and her friend Margherita cover their criminal tracks in a series of subterfuges including a baby transplant, a casket put to creative use and a teetering tower of increasingly improbable lies.

Recommended for audiences age 12 and up.


Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight
Written by Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Iris Sowlat
The Curtain Theater, Bromery Center for the Arts
March 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 & 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Matinee - March 9 at 2 p.m.

Most people, if they know her at all, recognize Emilie, La Marquise du Châtelet, as Voltaire’s lover. She was also a brilliant scientist who contributed to our understanding of physics. Eighteenth-century France was even more hostile than our society to women who “want it all,” and on the eve of her death from childbirth, Emilie tracks "love vs. science" on a scoreboard to see which dominated her life more. Lauren Gunderson’s thoughtful, wistful play invites us along as this charismatic, daring intellectual investigates her life choices.

Recommended for audiences age 16 and up for the discussion and depiction of death in childbirth and romantic relationships.


Twelfth Night
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Milan Dragicevich
The Rand Theater, Bromery Center for the Arts
April 26 & 27, May 2, 3 & 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Matinee - May 4 at 2 p.m.; Student matinee - May 1 at 10 a.m.

Lovers find one another as mistaken identities abound, lost bonds are magically restored, boisterous passions are exhausted, and the swirling music plays on and on and on. Shakespeare’s comedy is full of whimsy and wordplay, humor both clever and crass, and larger-than-life characters who are complex, human and intimate. Join the Elizabethan festival of epiphany, when the world is turned upside down in a long night of revelry that takes players and audience alike on a journey through the heights and depths of the human emotional experience.

Recommended for audiences age 12 and up for some raucous humor and gags.


Fringe Fest ‘24
Event details to be announced in Spring 2024

The season will close with the third annual explosion of students’ creativity, skills and (sometimes wild) imaginations. During Fringe Fest, the Department of Theater’s spaces are turned over to the students to produce sparkling new plays, delightful takes on established work and pieces that test the boundaries of theater. All work is free and open to the public and will be announced in Spring 2024.