WAYFINDING: In search of connection along divergent paths
WAYFINDING
In search of connection along divergent paths
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
– Robert Frost, from “The Road Not Taken”
AUBURN UNIVERSITY THEATRE & DANCE
You are here!
| 112 th Season
Our Mission
Theatre has the potential to foster dialogue, alter perceptions, and inspire social change. The Auburn University Department of Theatre and Dance is dedicated to the education and professional training of theatre artists, scholars, and audiences within a liberal arts environment.
The Department champions the interaction between theory and practice and produces citizen artists who advocate for the arts through their own work in local, national, and international communities.
Auburn University theatre and dance students think critically, creatively, and collaboratively and carry their knowledge from rehearsal spaces and classrooms to stages, campuses, and communities worldwide.
CITIZEN ARTISTS
Dear Supporters of AUTD,
It is with joy that we welcome you to our 2025-2026 theatrical season. This year, we are combining timehonored Auburn traditions with bold goals for growth. On the back of last season’s Resilience, this season’s theme, Wayfinding, suits our upcoming journey.
For years, AU Theatre and Dance has offered an outstanding liberal artsbased education to emerging theatre and dance artists. We practice intensive mentorship with our students and work closely with them as they find their way. This season, we want to show our students how much we appreciate their hard work by providing a better educational path for success through an increase in scholarship funding. To make this journey possible, we need your help.
To remain a competitive program, we must grow our awardable scholarship dollars. Currently, we award roughly sixty thousand dollars in scholarships each year. Our goal
is to raise our available funds to one hundred thousand dollars within the next three years. Meeting this goal will give us the capacity to continue our recruitment of the finest academic, performance, and production students.
This year, we are excited to debut our Scholarship Benefit Opening Nights. All ticket sales and donations on any opening night will go directly to student scholarships. If you purchase tickets for opening nights, even if you ultimately must reschedule your attendance, your ticket purchase will go to the scholarship fund.
While you can always support AUTD through a direct gift when you order any tickets, we also ask that you consider giving on opening night by buying a ticket and/or including an extra donation if you are able.
This January, we will also host a special event for our alumni during the run of Sweeney Todd. More information will be coming in the fall regarding this fun and celebratory event.
We are upheld by our community, and without you we could never have reached and sustained the level of excellence that you see in our productions. We ask for your support to continue thriving on our path forward.
With sincere appreciation,
Tessa Carr, PhD Chairperson
Left: Lily Sosebee works in the costume shop; photo by Henry Eiland. Right: Tessa Carr’s photo by Jessi Rogers.
“Two roads diverged in a wood . . .”
WAYFINDING
We are, all of us, sojourners of a sort, simply finding our way. At times, the journey is a mad dash toward some shelter from a raging storm; at others, it’s a slow trudge away from a past that hangs heavy. Sometimes, we enjoy a leisurely stroll with stops for play and exploration.
A well-plotted map helps to negotiate obstacles and rough terrain, but maps rarely ever provide the full picture. When the course is uncharted, or paths diverge unexpectedly, we must adapt. Choices must be made, and life is altered accordingly. Our guiding quote for this season, from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” is the quintessential examination of such an acute moment of choice and consequence. Theatre is uniquely positioned to explore the journeys that become our stories, inviting audiences to help navigate experiences both familiar and new. This season, we hope to meet you along the path as we find our way. Connecting . . . Diverging . . . And connecting again. Wayfinding.
SANCTUARY, LOVE, COMMUNITY
September 25-October 5, 2025
Telfair B. Peet Mainstage Theatre
As You Like It
A Musical Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It
Adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery
Music and Lyrics by Shaina Taub
Directed by Ashley Butler & Abdul-Khaliq Murtadha
Music Direction by Brian Osborne | Choreography by Jeri Dickey
This delightful musical adaptation of As You Like It explores themes of identity, love, and transformation at life’s crossroads. Rosalind, exiled by her uncle—and disguised as the male Ganymede—journeys through the forest of Arden, where she and others face pivotal choices. The forest is a place of both escape and confrontation, where individuals diverge from societal constraints and converge in new forms of love and understanding. Shakespeare’s comedy celebrates how every choice—whether to embrace or resist—leads to the potential for renewal, revealing that life’s paths are full of possibilities.
As You Like It is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals (www.concordtheatricals.com).
Image: A banyan tree carved with messages.
Map: An imagined map of the royal court, the forest of Arden, surrounding lands, and the edges of parts unknown.
MEANING,
October 23–November 2, 2025
Small Mouth Sounds
By
Bess Wohl
Directed by Lindsay Rae Taylor
Six strangers gather at a silent retreat, each seeking clarity at a personal crossroads. Stripped of words, they navigate isolation, connection, and the quiet tension between seeking solitude and craving understanding. Through gesture, silence, and vulnerability, Bess Wohl’s offbeat play reveals how people on separate journeys can still collide, overlap, or quietly pass each other by. When language fails us, new ways of knowing and relating can emerge.
Small Mouth Sounds is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection (www.dramatists.com).
Image: Harriman State Park, upstate New York.
Map: Inspired by the campus map of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY (eomega.org).
Telfair B. Peet Theatre
CENTER, BALANCE,SELF
(shin,
Boom (shin, mid, head)
(shin, mid, head)
Boom (shin, mid, head)
Conceived and directed by Adrienne Wilson and Jeri Dickey Featuring the AUTD Dance Ensemble
This original dance concert invites audiences into a space where bodies in motion trace the shape of decisions, distance, and intimacy. Through movement, dancers explore the moments that pull us together and push us apart, shifting between harmony and contrast, stillness and urgency. Each piece becomes a fragment of a larger conversation about direction, and the forces that shape our journeys—both shared and solitary.
Image: Raoul Auger Feuillet’s dance notation for Mr. Isaac’s The Rigadoon, published in Orchesography or the Art of Dancing ... an Exact and Just Translation from the French of Monsieur Feuillet by John Weaver, A Dancing Master, c. 1721. Map: An imagined mapping of a dance (inspired by 2024’s “Gliding/Soaring,” choreographed by Dickey and Wilson).
As You Like It is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com
2025-2026
February 19-28, 2026
The Demon Barber of F leet Street
Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN
A Musical Thriller
SONDHEIM Book
by HUGH WHEELER
From an Adaptation by CHRISTOPHER BOND
Originally directed on Broadway by HAROLD PRINCE Orchestrations by JONATHAN TUNICK
Directed by Andrew Schwartz | Music Direction by Brian Osborne | Choreography by Jeri Dickey
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, a barber returning to London after being wrongfully exiled. Seeking revenge on the corrupt judge who destroyed his life, Todd’s quest for justice spirals into madness. Alongside Mrs. Lovett, who runs a meat pie shop with a sinister secret, Todd embarks on a deadly mission that intertwines their fates with those of innocent victims. Through dark humor and unforgettable music, Sweeney Todd explores how the pursuit of vengeance shapes and destroys lives, revealing the tragic consequences when obsession leads people down irreversible paths.
Sweeney Todd is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI (www.mtishows.com).
Image: One of the alcoves on Westminster Bridge (edited). Extracted from Old and New London, illustrated by Walter Thornbury, c. 1873. Original held and digitized by the British Library.
Map: London, 1843 (detail). Drawn & engraved by B.R. Davies; accessed via the David Rumsey Map Collection (davidrumsey.com).
Places of interest based on a map by Robert Mack, published in his Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2010; accessed via The Heritage of Fleet Street, VOL. 1 - No. 36, 2023 (www.fleetstreetheritage.co.uk).
PLACE, IDENTITY, PATH FORWARD
By
Christopher Durang
Directed by Scott Phillips
Agroup of siblings and misfits gather under one roof, each wrestling with the lives they’ve lived—and the ones they’ve avoided. Old regrets, theatrical dreams, and unexpected arrivals stir up long-buried tensions and surprising revelations. Through a maze of absurdity and affection, the characters stumble toward self-discovery, often missing each other entirely. Christopher Durang’s sharp and tender comedy is a portrait of what happens when the past resurfaces, futures are uncertain, and the present demands a choice.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection (www.dramatists.com).
Image: A proverbial cherry tree.
Map: An imagined landscape design for the family home in question.
Across 5 major degree tracks and 3 different minors, our students engage daily in the rigorous hands-on work of the theatre. They construct sets, call shows, sew costumes, create designs, analyze texts, choreograph dances, devise new works, build props, focus lights, block scenes, conduct research, score scripts, and everything in between.
Our theatre and dance students depend on scholarships to keep up rigorous academic and creative schedules and to balance the various aspects of student life. Your gift to our scholarship fund will help support the work and well-being of our student citizen artists.
Use the form below or donate at auburngiving.org/theatre aub.ie/AUTDgiving
2024-25 Scholarship Donation Form Department of Theatre and Dance
YES, I would like to give to the Student Scholarship Fund. I have enclosed my generous gift of: $50 $100 $250 $500 $___________
Make check payable to: Auburn University Foundation
Mail this form with payment to: Department of Theatre & Dance 211 Telfair Peet Theatre Auburn, Alabama 36849
Name as you would like it listed in the program: ___________________________________ QUESTIONS? Contact the Department Office at 334.844.4748 Thank You! Your gift will be considered fully tax deductible!
IMPORTANT:
Checks written for the Student Scholarship Fund must be written separately from checks for season subscription purchases.
4 5
7 6 2 2024-25
3
1, 2
Wellesley Girl, 2024: Calling stage manager Abby Bowling in the booth. Hannah Carstarphen and Reid Williams onstage. 3 Violet, 2025: (L to R) Kirsten Estes, Kara Anne Smith, Evie Slaughenhoup, Alaya Young, Ashleigh Vickery, Patrick Barnett, Morgan McKenzie. 4 “Falling (Down)” from Flying/Falling, 2024: (L to R) Marielle Burque, Liz Koifman, Samantha Richardson. 5 Orlando, 2025: Daisha Flint and Harrison Dunn. 6, 7 Ordinary Days, 2024: (Onstage, top) Jeb Bethel, Michaela Williams; (bottom) Hali Everette, Wil Eplett, Catherine Govignon. Props coordinator Kate Nymark on the tension grid ready to drop flyers over the stage. Opposite page: A Will Johnson checking electrical equipment. B Student designer Linne Johnston examining costume stock; C Jason Owens programming LED pixel lights. All photos by Henry Eiland
SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS
Your season subscription secures single admission to each of the five shows in the 2025-26 season, plus TWO ADDITIONAL FREE TICKETS to any show of your choice if ordered by September 25. That’s seven tickets for only $70.00! PLUS, enjoy opening night receptions sponsored by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
Use the form below or purchase at aub.ie/theatretickets
this form with payment to: Department of Theatre & Dance
(______)
Individual show tickets are available at these prices:
• General Admission: $18
• Seniors: $14
• AU Faculty & Staff: $14
• AU Students: FREE
• Non-AU Students: $14
All seats will be general admission. If you need accommodations, please contact the Box Office.
Every opening night ticket goes toward student scholarships!
Parking at the theatre is very limited. We provide golf cart transport to and from the stadium deck.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
As You Like It
Telfair B. Peet Mainstage
Thurs. Sept. 25 Opening
Fri. Sept. 26
Sat. Sept. 27
Sun. Sept. 28 Matinee
Thurs. Oct. 2
Fri. Oct. 3
Sat. Oct. 4
Sun. Oct. 5 Matinee
Small Mouth Sounds
Telfair B. Peet Black Box
Thurs. Oct. 23 Opening
Fri. Oct. 24
Sat. Oct. 25
Sun. Oct. 26 Matinee
Wed. Oct. 29
Thurs. Oct. 30
Fri. Oct. 31
Sun. Nov. 2 Matinee
Sweeney Todd
Telfair B. Peet Mainstage
Thurs. Feb. 19 Opening
Fri. Feb. 20
Sat. Feb. 21
Sun. Feb. 22 Matinee
Wed. Feb. 25
Thurs. Feb. 26
Fri. Feb. 27
Sat. Feb. 28
SPECIAL EVENT:
Body Maps
Telfair B. Peet Mainstage
Fri. Mar. 20
Join Our Talkback
Sessions
Footprints
Telfair B. Peet Mainstage
Tues. Nov. 18 Opening
Wed. Nov. 19
Thurs. Nov. 20
Fri. Nov. 21
Evening shows at 7:30 pm Matinees at 2:30 pm (Central Time)
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Telfair B. Peet Black Box
Thurs. Apr. 9 Opening
Fri. Apr. 10
Sat. Apr. 11
Sun. Apr. 12 Matinee
Wed. Apr. 15
Thurs. Apr. 16
Fri. Apr. 17
Sat. Apr. 18
Creative Team
Artistic Director: Tessa Carr
Creative Director/Designer: Ashley Butler
Production Photographer: Henry Eiland
Project Manager:
Magalí Zaslabsky
Editorial Team: Becky Henderson
Laura Sims
Magalí Zaslabsky
Special Thanks
Auburn
Photo credits:
Front and back cover: Images from AU’s interactive online map (aub.ie/ CampusMap), powered by Concept3D. Above: Andrew Hayworth in Flying/ Falling, 2024. Photo by Henry Eiland.
