Current Season

General Information

Unless otherwise marked:
All shows begin at 7 pm CST and there is no admittance once the performance has started.
General Admission: $7
Students with ID: $5

For reservations, call 618/453-7570

For information, contact jmgray@siu.edu

The Kleinau Theatre is located on the second floor of the Communications Building.

2026-2027

Marion Kleinau Theatre Performance Season

The Kleinau Theatre returns to a full, in-person season, complying with all masking and social distancing protocols as deemed necessary by the university.

Fall Semester 2026

August 29, 7 pm

Graduate Student Performance Spotlight (free)

Graduate students are invited to share work at this spotlight. Meet new and returning graduate students with interests in Performance Studies. Previews of upcoming shows often included.

September 17-19, 7 pm

Performing Normal

Co-Directed by Paula Horton and Dr. Jonny Gray

What does it take to pass as “normal” when you’re autistic? Performing Normal features autistic individuals sharing personal stories about the social masks they wear. Through moments of humor, tension, and vulnerability, they reveal the strategies autistic people use to navigate classrooms, workplaces, friendships, and families. This ensemble performance invites audiences behind the mask to explore the hidden labor of appearing “normal” – and the cost of surviving that way.

October 15-17, 7 pm

AI Robot

Directed by Dr. Jonny Gray
Devised with Cast

We humans have been thinking and writing about robots and artificial machine intelligence for over a century. Those representations have included hopeful possibilities and serious cautions. As we enter the “AI Age,” this show uses performance to explore many sides of that love/hate obsession. Cast-devised scenes and improvisational performances created from audience input are generative tools used to contemplate the costs and benefits of robots and artificial intelligence. Mature Themes possible.

October 29, 7 pm

Breaking Up with Jesus (Free)

Written and Performed by Dr. Joseph Richards

Grounded in small-town Georgia, USA and blending comedy and tragedy, the show tells the story of how religion affects family, struggles with gender and sexuality, and issues of depression and anxiety. Dr. Richards is a performer and scholar who focuses on stand-up comedy as embodied performance practice and performance methodology. This performance and an accompanying workshop titled “Reading the Room: Using the Mechanics of Stand-up Comedy for Storytelling and Deep Listening” (Friday afternoon) are made possible by the Fine Arts Activity Fee.

November 12-14, 7 pm

3…2…1: Deconstruction!

Co-Directed and Performed by Dr. Christina Ivey, Jessica Paxton, and Grace Dwyer.

3…2…1…De-Construction! presents a collection of scenes interrogating the social phenomena of religious deconstruction. Often following religious trauma, identity revelations, or newfound distrust of the institution of religion, deconstruction urges individuals to question the doctrines, beliefs, and practices of their church community. Blending humor, worship music, poetry, and dramatic monologues, 3…2…1…De-Construction! elevates the voices and stories of those at an important crossroads in their faith journey; whether it is coming to an end or just fully beginning. Mature Themes.

December 3, 7 pm

Performance Course Spotlight (free)

Undergraduate and graduate students in performance courses present their best work, as selected by instructors.

Spring Semester 2027

January 30, 7 pm

Faculty Performance Spotlight (free)

School of Communication Studies Faculty share performance work.

March 18-20, 7 pm

Reviving the Octopus

Written and Performed by Dr. Shelby Swafford
Co-Directed with Dr. Craig Gingrich-Philbrook

Our bodies are carefully balanced ecosystems, swimming with microscopic creatures whose survival determines our own. This solo personal narrative show dives into the depths of our bodies’ oceans to explore chronic illness, pain, and mortality. Reviving the Octopus invites us to consider currents of blood, waves of disease, and gulfs of grief. What can we see from the shorelines of our family histories? How does death turn the tides of our lives? What do we do when the octopuses in our blood go extinct? Mature Themes.

April 22-24, 7 pm

Clean Your Own House

Composed and Performed by Dr. Craig Gingrich-Philbrook
Co-Directed with Dr. Shelby Swafford

This one-person performance considers the phrase “Clean your Own House” both literally and figuratively, discussing Craig’s family history of housekeeping, clutter, with inter-generational depression, drawing upon recent research into the relationship between an overwhelming world and an overwhelming house. It examines the phrase figuratively by linking the idiomatic uses of the phrase in the face of political hypocrisy and the ways it often perpetuates the very dynamics of fear and anxiety that create a home that feels always threatened, always never enough, and always too much to bear. Mature themes.

April 29, 7 pm