The regular season features five shows and our Lab Series — including a classic comedy from Oscar Wilde, a magical Shakespeare, a musical masterpiece from Kander and Ebb, a concert of original dances, and a winter meditation from Minnesota original Kevin Kling.
“I couldn’t be more excited by the selections for our upcoming theatre season,” says Jeremy Youde — Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. “With opportunities for crowd-pleasing spectacle and form-pushing experimentation, the Twin Ports community will see our talented students shine in myriad ways.”
All performances are at the Marshall Performing Arts Center (MPAC) at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Tickets, including season subscriptions, will go on sale this summer.
The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Rebecca Katz Harwood
October 11 - 19, 2024
Marshall Performing Arts Center Main Stage
The season opens with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde’s self-described ‘trivial comedy for serious people’ stylishly satirizes the upper class and romantic comedy tropes of his time while enchanting us with characters whose happy ending we cheer.
DanceWorks 2024
November 22 - 24, 2024
Artistic Director, Matthew Wagner
Marshall Performing Arts Center Main Stage
Join us again for another annual showcase of the incredible talent of UMD’s dance community. Past DanceWorks programs have delighted with pieces featuring a wide range of styles, including tap, jazz, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, modern, musical theatre, and ballet.
The Tempest
By William Shakespeare
February 7 - 15, 2025
Marshall Performing Arts Center Dudley Experimental Theater
The stage is set for revenge in Shakespeare’s tragicomic The Tempest. The sorcerer Prospero, long banished on an island with his daughter and a few associates, hatches a plot to shipwreck his betrayers and wrest back his old title as the duke of Milan. Soon Prospero realizes that his path to freedom may imperil his beloved daughter. The Tempest is frequently considered Shakespeare’s metatextual tribute to theatre itself, with Prospero standing in for The Bard.
The Ice Fishing Play
By Kevin Kling
March 7 - 8 & 18 - 22, 2025
Marshall Performing Arts Center Dudley Experimental Theater
Few capture the spirit and complexity of the North Star State and its inhabitants with the poetic precision of Minnesota playwright Kevin Kling. In The Ice Fishing Play, a parade of colorful characters visit Ron, a taciturn fisherman determined to hunker down in his ice house and finally catch an elusive fish while a blizzard rages outside. As the radio cycles through school closures we come to realize how great the stakes really are for Ron.
Cabaret
Book by Joe Masteroff, Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Thomas Jacobsen
April 18 - 26, 2025
Marshall Performing Arts Center Main Stage
Seductive and sensational, Cabaret is set at a 1930s Berlin nightclub, where the comedic but sinister Emcee ushers us through the story of the romance of American writer Cliff and Kit Kat Klub performer Sally Bowles. Based on the 1998 Broadway revival, the show explores the dark, heady, and tumultuous life of Berlin's natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich.
ALSO:
Lab Series
Ongoing
Now in its second season, UMD Theatre’s Lab Series offers intimate, stripped down productions. Stay tuned for announcements about these DIY experiences.