Theatre

BU School of Theatre Presents Spring 2025 Works

Follow the journey of an opera diva on a boat ride down the Amazon, watch a comic deconstruction of a Shakespeare play, and celebrate graduating BU theatre students with their capstones and thesis projects.

The season begins at the end of January with the Senior Acting Thesis Presentation Pods and capstone events as part of the Senior Theatre Arts Majors’ Productions. In February, follow the journey of an opera diva and her fellow passengers on a boat ride down the Amazon in Florencia en el Amazonas, co-produced with BU Opera Institute.

In April, dive into the world of two female characters from Shakespeare’s Othello. Desdemona has long been viewed as the “victim of circumstance,” but Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel’s play proves far from that. Produced in repertory with Desdemona at BU’s Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre is Emilia, a riotous, witty reclaiming of the life of an exceptional woman. In Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s electrifying play, Emilia and her sisters reach out across the centuries with passion, fury, laughter, and song.

See what else is on the horizon at BU School of Theatre this spring!

SCHOOL OF THEATRE SPRING 2025 SEASON

January 25 – February 23, 2025
Studio ONE • CFA 104
College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Ave

The Senior Acting Thesis Presentations, facilitated by Christopher V. Edwards, is a culminating experience for Senior BFA Acting majors involving the mounting of Acting thesis projects that been developed during the Fall semester and presented in collaboration with the rest of their ensemble in the Spring.

All tickets are free, general admission at the door.

Featuring the Senior Theatre Arts Majors of the Class of 2025
January – April
College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Ave

The School of Theatre presents the Senior Theatre Arts Majors’ Productions. These capstone events will be sprinkled throughout this semester and will bloom in many different guises.

All tickets are free, general admission at the door.

February 27 – March 2, 2025
Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre, 820 Commonwealth Ave

Co-produced with BU Opera Institute

Music by Daniel Catán
Libretto by Marcela Fuentes-Berain
Conductor • William Lumpkin
Stage Director • Amy Hutchinson

Steeped in the beautiful style of magical realism, the opera follows the journey of the legendary diva Florencia Grimaldi and her fellow passengers on a boat ride down the Amazon. As they travel through the magical rainforest toward their destination, the opera house in Manaus, each passenger harbors a secret hope of what the trip will bring.

A co-production between the School of Music’s Opera Institute and the School of Theatre, each spring the BU community and beyond is invited to the Booth Theatre to experience the exceptional talent of the students in the College of Fine Arts in this unique collaboration.

• Thursday, February 27 • 7:30pm
• Friday, February 28 • 7:30pm
• Saturday, March 1 • 2pm
• Sunday, March 2 • 2pm

General Admission: $20, free with BU ID at the box office 5 minutes before curtain, subject to availability

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March 5 – 7, 2025
“Jewels 1” Juliane Ethel Leilani Miller Studio Theatre
CFA 352 • College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Ave

By Gina Femia
Directed by Shalee Mae Cole Mauleón

Ellie and Britt have been lifelong friends, lifelong haters of cheerleaders and lifelong drama geeks so when their All Girls Catholic School’s drama club does Romeo and Juliet, obviously they’ll be a part of it. But when Amber, a cheerleader with an injury unexpectedly gets the lead across from Britt, Ellie’s heart is turned upside down. Actually, all their hearts are. A new queer kinda adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

• Wednesday, March 5 •  7:30pm
• Thursday, March 6 • 7:30pm
• Friday, March 7 •  7:30pm

All tickets free, general admission at the door.

April 10 – 13, 2025
Studio ONE • CFA 104
College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Ave

By Terrence McNally
Directed by Gregg Wiggans (CFA’25)

The most controversial and talked about play of the 1998 theatrical season begins: “We are going to tell you an old and familiar story.” But from that point on, nothing feels quite familiar again. What follows is a story that parallels the New Testament’s, and its subject is nothing less than the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. But McNally’s Christ figure is a character named Joshua, a young man born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the early 1950s. Different from the other boys because he is homosexual, Joshua grows up in isolation and torment, an object of scorn. He flees Corpus Christi in search of a more accepting environment, gathering along the way a group of disciples who are bound to him by his message of love and tolerance. Joshua delivers his Sermon on the Mount, and officiates at a gay marriage ceremony, but, inevitably, his radical teachings (like Jesus’) will not deliver him from his fate. Returning to Corpus Christi, he is betrayed by his lover, Judas, and crucified in front of the jeering throngs who hated him as a boy, and still do. His plea, that we look upon all souls as equal in the sight of God, falls unattended.

• Thursday, April 10 • 7:30pm
• Friday, April 11 • 7:30pm
• Saturday, April 12 • 2pm
• Saturday, April 12 • 7:30pm
• Sunday, April 13 • 2pm

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April 16 – 19, 2025
Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre, 820 Commonwealth Ave

By Paula Vogel
Directed by Grant Sorenson (CFA’25)

As the wrongly accused and suffering wife of Shakespeare’s tragic Moor, Othello, Desdemona has long been viewed as the “victim of circumstance.” But as Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel demonstrates in her comic deconstruction of Shakespeare’s play—aligning tongue-in-cheek humor while raising serious questions as to the role of women through the ages—Desdemona was far from the quivering naïf we’ve all come to know. (From: dramatists.com) This play will be produced in repertory with Emilia in the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre.

• Wednesday, April 16 • 7:30pm
• Thursday, April 17 • 7:30pm
• Friday, April 18 • 7:30pm
• Saturday, April 19 • 11am

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April 24 – 27, 2025
Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave

Co-produced with BU Opera Institute

By Giacomo Puccini
Conductor • William Lumpkin
Stage Director • Nathan Troup

Suor Angelica tells the story of a woman (Marina Costa-Jackson) who bears a child out of wedlock and is sent to a convent for penance. After seven years, she is visited by her aunt, the Principessa, who brings tragic news of her son, which sets in motion a series of dire actions that ultimately result in tragedy, forgiveness, and peace.

The comic-opera Gianni Schicchi begins with the death of wealthy Florentine Buoso Donati, and his distraught family who are upset about being forgotten in his will. So they enlist the help of fixer Gianni Schicchi who helps turn the tables, but not in the way they expect. Considered a comic masterpiece, this is a dark satire based on a real story mentioned in Dante’s Inferno and includes the famous aria “O mio babbino caro.”

A coproduction between the School of Music’s Opera Institute and the School of Theatre, each spring the BU community and beyond is invited to the Tsai Center to experience the exceptional talent of the students in the College of Fine Arts in this unique collaboration.

• Thursday, April 24 • 7:30pm
• Friday, April 25 • 7:30pm
• Saturday, April 26 • 7:30pm
• Sunday, April 27 • 2pm

get tickets

April 25 – 27, 2025
Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre, 820 Commonwealth Ave

By Morgan Lloyd Malcolm
Directed by Taylor Stark (CFA’25)

A riotous, witty reclaiming of the life of an exceptional woman. Four hundred years ago, Emilia Bassano wanted her voice to be heard. It wasn’t. Could she have been the ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets? What of her own poetry? Why was her story erased from history? In Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s electrifying play, Emilia and her sisters reach out across the centuries with passion, fury, laughter and song. (From: https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/emilia). This play will be produced in repertory with Desdemona in the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre.

• Friday, April 25 • 7:30pm
• Saturday, April 26 • 2pm
• Saturday, April 26 • 7:30pm
• Sunday, April 27 • 2pm

get tickets

April 27 – May 1, 2025
Studio ONE • CFA 104
College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Ave

The Sophomore Festival, facilitated by performance faculty, offers students a curated and intentional casting experience that is faculty-led and tied to a class curriculum and pedagogy. It is intended to help students become familiar with the rehearsal process and the actor’s creative process/practice. Three plays would be chosen with performances occurring in Studio ONE with minimal production and design elements to introduce the students to a larger space at the School of Theatre and a repertory schedule.

All tickets free, general admission at the door.