Theatre Performances
All fall and spring 2021 theatre performances will be in-person. Production information is listed below.
Students interested in supporting the productions as performers and management should email Prof. Rogers for more information. Students interested in supporting the productions as management, technicians, and crew should email Prof. Hengen for more information.
Fall Semester Auditions
Auditions for Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea will be virtual. Callbacks will be face-to-face.
Audition times: Monday, September 27, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Tuesday, September 28, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Callback times will be offered at the audition.
Auditionees should come prepared with a monologue from a play of no more than 2 minutes
in length.
Any genre works, and it's best if you're familiar with the play it comes from.
Alternatively, auditionees can choose a side from the play. Options can be seen at the Dontrell Sidesnew window page, or auditionees can tell a story two minutes in length.
Montgomery College's College Performing Arts Series productions often contain adult language and situations. Some productions include discussions of sexuality, sexual abuse, and/or cultural and personal violence.
Please submit the Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea Audition formnew window and the Stage Manager from the show will return to you an email about an audition time.
For more information, please email Prof. Rogers or Prof. Hengen.
Technical crew open positionsnew window are listed herenew window. Please email Prof. Hengen if you are interested in joining our shows as a technician.
Fall 2021 Productions
The Nether by Jennifer Haley
Performances (in-person, Rockville): October 20 – 23, 8 p.m.; October 24, 2 p.m.
"The Nether, a daring examination of moral responsibility in virtual worlds, opens with a familiar
interrogation scene given a technological twist. As Detective Morris, an online investigator,
questions Mr. Sims about his activities in a role-playing realm so realistic it could
be life, she finds herself on slippery ethical ground. Sims argues for the freedom
to explore even the most deviant corners of our imagination. Morris holds that we
cannot flesh out our malign fantasies without consequence. Their clash of wills leads
to a consequence neither could have imagined. Suspenseful, ingeniously constructed,
and fiercely intelligent, Haley’s play forces us to confront deeply disturbing questions
about the boundaries of reality." ~ Book Revue.comnew window
The Burn by Phillip Dawkins
Performances (in-person, Takoma Park): November 5 – 6 & 12 - 13, 8 p.m.; November
7 & 14, 2 p.m.
"When a high school production of The Crucible forces them together, tensions escalate into acts of bullying—both online and IRL.
THE BURN explores what happens to a teacher and his students when a classroom conflict turns
into an online witch hunt." ~ New Play Exchangenew window
Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea by Nathan Alan Davis
Performances (in-person, Rockville): November 17 – 20, 8 p.m.; November 21, 2 p.m.
"It’s a month before his first day of college and Dontrell Jones III wakes up from
a dream that will change his life. Haunted by powerful visions, Dontrell takes an
unconventional journey that begins with scuba gear, swimming lessons, and ends in
a boat drifting into the Atlantic Ocean to meet his ancestor’s spirit. Woven with
movement, sound and song, "Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea" is a magical, modern day
story about living in the moment and answering the call to connect with our past."
~ CPT Onlinenew window
Spring 2022 Productions
Working by Nina Faso & Stephen Schwartz
Performances (in-person, Rockville): February 23 – 26, 8 p.m.; February 27, 2 p.m.
"Working concerns the hopes, dreams, joys and concerns of the average working American. In
the course of one twenty-four hour workday, the audience meets and hears stories of
various workers including the schoolteacher, the parking lot attendant, the waitress,
the mill worker, the mason, the trucker, the fireman and the housewife."
~ StageAgent.comnew window
Electricidad by Luis Alfaro
Performances (in-person, Rockville): April 21 – 23, 8 p.m.; April 24, 2 p.m.
"In the years following the murder of her father by her mother, Electricidad is committed
to vengeance. To get it, she’ll need her brother, Orestes, to return from Las Vegas
and help her finish the job. Transporting Sophocles’ Electra to the Los Angeles barrios,
Luis Alfaro investigates violence, loss, and redemption through the lens of this age-old
tragedy."
~ Dramatists Play Servicenew window
Past Performances
My aMeriCa 2021: “O say! Can you see?”
The performances featured live (real time) and pre-recorded performances.
“There’s No Business Like Show Business":
Anatomy of the American Musical
Theatre professionals from NYC, DC, and around the country shared tips and techniques for singing, dancing, and designing for musical theatre.
Featuring Broadway Legend, Triple Crown Winner, Andre De Shields; New York Actors Happy McPartlin and Brad Nacht; Howard University Professor Marty Austin Lamar and featured Howard University Students; Playwright and Lyricist Angelica Cheri and Composer Ross Baum, collaborators on the Broadway aimed, GUN AND POWER; Actors Awa Sal Secka and Billy Bustamante; Ryan johnson of SOLE DEFINED; Director Dennis Mulligan, Scenic Design Elizabeth McFadden, Lighting Designer Lynn Joslin, Sound Designer Neil McFadden, and Costume Designer Peter Zakutansky; Lighting Designer Helen Garcia-Alton
Twilight: Los Angeles 1992
Written by Anna Deavere Smith | Directed by Sasha Olinick and Angelisa Gillyard
"From acclaimed playwright Anna Deavere Smith, a captivating work of dramatic literature and a unique first-person portrait of a pivotal moment in American history: the 1992 Los Angeles riots ... Twilight is a stunning work of “documentary theater” that explores the devastating human impact of the five days of riots following the Rodney King verdict. From nine months of interviews with more than two hundred people, Smith has chosen the voices that best reflect the diversity and tension of a city in turmoil….
A work that goes directly to the heart of the issues of race and class, Twilight ruthlessly probes the language and the lives of its subjects, offering stark insight into the complex and pressing social, economic, and political issues that fueled the flames in the wake of the Rodney King verdict and ignited a conversation about policing and race that continues today." ~ Penguin Booksnew window
She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms
Written by Qui Nguyen | Directed by Wyckham Avery
“Agnes Evans is a completely average woman who strives to be nothing but average until the day she wishes her life was a little less boring. Her wish unfortunately comes true when her family, including her younger sister Tilly, dies in a car crash. Agnes was never close to Tilly due to the fact they were interested in completely different things; Agnes loved everything average, while Tilly had a passion for everything classified as nerdy or geeky and a special love for the Dungeons and Dragons game. As Agnes is cleaning and packing Tilly’s room in order to move everything to her new house, she finds a module Tilly had written for D&D. In order to get closer to the sister she never really knew, Agnes embarks on her own adventure with the help of a Dungeon Master to play the game as Tilly designed. As she delves deeper into her quest, the fantasy world and reality begin to collide and mix as Agnes searches to connect with Tilly and realizes how much of her sister she never knew.” ~ Wikipedianew window
Our National Museum
of the Unforeseen Tragedy
Directed by KenYatta Rogers | Written by Renee Calarco
“United States. The Future. The country is still recovering from a devastating yet
oddly familiar event that nobody saw coming. Out of the ashes of the tragedy rises
a memorial museum—The Museum of the Unforeseen—dedicated to preserving the memories
of the day when everything changed.
OUR NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE UNFORESEEN TRAGEDY is an immersive theater piece that memorializes and explains “The American Spring,” a series of national uprisings and protests that were figuratively—and literally—ignited by a separatist suicide bomber who blew himself up on the National Mall one beautiful April afternoon -- on Good Friday. Part performance piece, part exhibit, MUSEUM asks us to consider the politics of memory and national identity.”
As You Like It
Directed by Dr. Frank Trezza | Music Direction by Dr. Jay Crowder | Choreography by Angelisa Gillyard
Written by William Shakespeare, adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery | Music and Lyrics by Shaina Taub
"Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live
within. I use the word ‘love’ here not merely in the personal sense but as a state
of being, or a state of grace — not in the infantile American sense of being made
happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth."
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
The Crucible
Directed by Sasha Olinick | Written by Arthur Miller
"Written in the early 1950s, Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. This was a time when paranoia, hysteria, and deceit gripped the Puritan towns of New England. Miller captured the events in a gripping story that is now considered a modern classic in the theater." ~ thoughtco.comnew window
Good Kids
Directed by Chelsea Radigan | Written by Naomi Iizuka
"Something happened to Chloe after that party last Saturday night. Something she says she can't remember. Something everybody is talking about. Set at a Midwestern high school, in a world of Facebook and Twitter, smartphones and YouTube, Good Kids explores a casual sexual encounter gone wrong and its very public aftermath. Who's telling the truth? Whose version of the story do you believe? And what does that say about you?" ~ Playscripts.comnew window
My aMeriCa Fall 2019
Directed by Nicole Brewer | Written by MC students
Performances at Theatre Arts Arena, Rockville Campus
Pieces written and performed by MC students showcasing their hopes for the future.
