Current Season

Main Content

2023-2024 

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. The Kleinau Theatre is Rm 2018 on the second floor of the Communications Building

All shows premiere at 8 pm CST. For information, contact jmgray@siu.edu.

Reservations & Information
(618) 453-5618

Fall Semester 2023

September 9, 8 pm

Graduate Student Performance Spotlight (free)

New and returning graduate students present work in a variety of performance genres.


September 23, 8 pm

Finland, A Place for Romance [provisional title](free)

Written and Performed by Elizabeth Whitney

This one woman show explores Elizabeth Whitney’s research in Finland, including diving into ice swimming and grief in the face of losing her brother. The show also explores the concept/passion of research as a romantic endeavor, using and expanding beyond autoethnographic methods.


October 21, 8 pm

To Move Mountains (free)

Directed by Rebecca Walker, Jonny Gray, and Craig Gingrich-Philbrook

This experimental, one-night-only short performance features multiple ruminations on the idea of what it means to move a mountain - literally and metaphorically. The show will feature three 10-minute segments, each directed by one of our faculty in performance studies in the School of Communication Studies.  Join us for this unique show, created for the Petit Jean Performance Festival.  MATURE THEMES (maybe). 


November 3, 8 pm

Archival Acts: Reperforming the Kleinau Archives(free)

Curated by Shelby Swafford

For almost sixty years, the Marion Kleinau Theatre has been a space of artistic and scholarly experimentation. This one-night performance event features snapshots from the theatre’s rich history. Join us for a collection of performances adapted from the Kleinau Theatre archives.


November 30-December 2, 8 pm

Grounded

Written by George Brant and Performed by Carolyn M. Ridler

A one-woman show portraying a female fighter pilot navigating the clash between a career in the typically masculine world of modern warfare and the more traditional role of wife and mother. When a fighter pilot at the top of her game is grounded due to an unexpected pregnancy, she is reassigned to operate military drones from a windowless trailer outside Las Vegas. By day, she hunts and kills terrorists. By night, she returns home to domestic life with her husband and daughter.


December 7, 8 pm

Performance Course Spotlight (free)

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

Spring Semester 2024

February 24, 8 pm

Black as Hell Showcase

Africana Theatre Lab

A one-night-only variety show that showcases music, theater, monologues, comedy, and drama. This show is a part of the Black History Month calendar. This year’s theme is “Reclaiming Our Power” and showcases that within the presentations. Along with the theme, performances also celebrate Black culture, the Black experience, topics of insecurities within our community, identity issues, and most of all fun.


March 2, 8 pm

Nebraska Backwards(free)

Written and Performed by Charles Parrott

A one-person mixtape of sorta sad stories about growing up on the Great Plains.  It debuted as part of an artist residency at Louisiana State University in the spring of 2023 and was featured at the 2023 Atlanta Fringe Festival


March 21-23, 8pm

Ways to Say Goodbye

Written and Performed by Craig Gingrich-Philbrook

Co-Directed with Shelby Swafford

How does one mourn the intangible: A sister one didn’t know one had until after her death? Animals sacrificed in medical experiments, broken at the side of the road, or gone extinct? The time lost to a long depression that finally seems to fade as one looks back over it like a valley one has crossed and now rises out of on the other side? In this solo performance, Gingrich-Philbrook tracks five years of loss—personal, familial, ecological, and cultural—to forge ways to speak about grief that transcend the personal by acknowledging that all of our bodies are the “screens,” the sites where we meet the suffering and passing of other people, creatures, ideas, and ways of life. He asks, “How do any of us invent ‘ways to say goodbye,’ even as we ourselves change and eventually disappear?” MATURE THEMES.


April 25-27, 8 pm

A Martian Odyssey

Written by Stanley G Weinbaum

Adapted and Directed by Juniper Blue

Co-Directed with Alicia Utecht

A science fiction short story that shows the telling of a man's adventures on Mars as he explains the creatures he’s met on Mars to the rest of his crew. In this rendition you will follow along with the tale of Jarvis as he tries to get back to the ship with the help of Tweel, an alien whose origins are as extraordinary as he is.


May 4, 8 pm

Performance Course Spotlight (free)

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

 

General Information

Unless otherwise marked:
All shows begin at 8 pm CST and there is no admittance once the performance has started.
General Admission: $7
Students with ID: $5

For reservations, call 618/453-5618

For information, contact jmgray@siu.edu

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