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.

2024-2025

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 2024

September 7, 7 pm

Graduate Student Performance Spotlight (free)

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

September 13, 4 pm

Lore LeMaster Presentation (free)

Presentation on Transgender Performativity – a more specific topic TBA

October 3-5, 7 pm

Comically Close

Written and Performed by Alicia Utecht

Co-Directed with Jonny Gray

Growing up in a household where nerd has always been the word, comic books and their related media have been the basis for constant connections among Alicia's immediate family. In this performance, she examines the comic universes so beloved by her family and the closeness that these stories inspire between them.

November 7-9, 7 pm

Echo’s Repertoir

Written and Performed by Juno Blue

Assistant-Directed by Craig Gingrich-Philbrook

Echo is the captain of an interstellar craft. Be the Lords who have done Echo wrong as they investigate what happened during a recent mission. Watch as Echo recounts events that lead them to fall in love with their crew and the people they have lost. Be swept away while seeing the broad expanse of what Echo has gone through all while complemented by classical music.

December 5, 7 pm

Performance Course Spotlight (free)

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

Spring Semester 2025

January 25, 7 pm

Faculty Performance Spotlight (free)

School of Communication Studies Faculty share performance work.

February 6-8, 7 pm

Epiphanies

Written by Epiphany Farrell

Adapted and Directed by Craig Gingrich-Philbrook

Co-Directed with Shelby Swafford

A group performance of selected short short fiction by local author, Epiphany Farrell. Short short fiction delivers a narrative and poetic punch in brief vignettes. The cast explores the challenges and potential of staging such literature.

February 21-22, 7 pm

Black as Hell Showcase

Africana Theatre Lab

A two-night variety show that showcases music, theater, monologues, comedy, and drama. This show is a part of the Black History Month calendar. Performances celebrate Black culture, the Black experience, topics of insecurities within our community, identity issues, and most of all fun.

February 28, 7 pm

Jordan Bargett MFA Presentation (free)

A lecture performance on the history & theory behind the development of vocal filtering technologies like autotune as used by trans women in popular culture intertwined with Jordan’s personal experiences with sound, hearing, and gender.

March 27-29, 7 pm

‘Til Death Do Us Part

Written and Performed by Sean Maulding

Co-Directed with T Brown

‘Til Death Do Us Part is a lighthearted persona performance following a down-on-his-luck wedding officiant, Phillip, as he works to create his first eulogy. The lines between persona and performer blur as Phillip confronts his own mortality, a topic we have taken care to avoid.

April 11, 4:00 pm

Dr. Sasha Sanders (free)

The Spring Fine Arts Activity Fee guest artist will discuss the embodied, cultural, and political significance of making autoethnographic comics as well as the intersection of fanart and performance.

April 24-26, 7 pm

Cult Piece

Written and Performed by T Brown

Co-Directed with Craig Gingrich-Philbrook

Cult Piece is a video/audio installation accompanied by a performing body. It is a meditation, exploration, and an exposition of the intimate and prolonged experience of being recruited, groomed, trafficked by, and finally escaping from, a religious cult. Cult Piece is also a rite, a ritual whose purpose is to provide healing for the performer through the illumination of abuse which can exist only in darkness and secrecy. It infuses agency into an identity defined by submission to another. Mature Themes.

May 3, 7 pm