Join UB Theatre and Dance for a season of dance, musicals, and drama. Nationally recognized directors, choreographers, and faculty work with emerging student talent to produce innovative original productions that entertain audiences and explore the human condition. The season consists of live performances at the UB Center for the Arts and at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, both on UB North campus.
Tickets for all public performances are available on Ticketmaster via the individual show links below.
Please note that our box offices are now cashless. We accept VISA, Mastercard, Discover and American Express credit and debit cards for in-person purchases.
Group Sales: Groups of 10 or more are eligible for discounted tickets. Contact: ubcfatickets@buffalo.edu to make a reservation. Please allow 24 hours for a reply.
The UB Theatre and Dance 2024-2025 season is sponsored in part by Fox Run at Orchard Park, celebrating its sixth season in support of our student productions!
Book by Jeremy Meyers
Created by Jeremy Meyers and John DellaContrada
Instrumental Compositions by Prairie Pavement (Jack Chadwick, Sal Constantin, Dylan Lumb, and Owen Shotwell)
Inspired by “The Egg” by Andy Weir
Directed by Jeremy Meyers
as part of our Student Directed Series
Feb. 7 - 8, 2025
7:30 p.m.
UB Katharine Cornell Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
God decides humanity is going to end. Ian Voe Meyer, a recently deceased heart surgeon, must be the one to pull the plug. Ian will be the last soul to exist in the cycle of human reincarnation, leaving the rest of the world to fade away. To demonstrate the ugliness of humanity to Ian, God takes him through his chaotic home life, and across time and space into past lives. Will Ian challenge God’s decision or will he be the final casualty in the long line of human rebirth?
Due to mature content, language, and themes, including references to death and suicide, the production is recommended for ages 13+.
By Oliver Lansey
Directed by Sophia Vessecchia
as part of our Student Directed Series
Feb. 14 - 15, 2025
7:30 p.m.
UB Katharine Cornell Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
Inspired by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock, Ernest and the Pale Moon is a spinechilling tale of obsession and murder based upon a short story by Oliver Lansley about a man who spends his days watching the beautiful young woman who lives in the apartment block opposite.
Upon seeing her with another man he is thrown into a jealous rage and driven to murder, though all is not what it may at first seem and slowly Ernest’s guilt sends him on a spiraling descent into madness.
Ernest and the Pale Moon is recommended for ages 12+.
Content Warning: Murder, sounds of gunshots and war.
ERNEST AND THE PALE MOON is presented by arrangement with Les Enfants Terribles.
www.lesenfantsterribles.co.uk
By Arthur Kopit
Directed by Jo Yanko
as part of our Student Directed Series
Feb. 21 - 22, 2025
7:30 p.m
UB Katharine Cornell Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
This strange meeting features The Woman in the Safari Outfit, the Woman in Armor (she has barracks language down pat, wears rusty armor, is called Joan of Arc and carries a big crucifix), the Woman with the Gavel, and others. The business at hand is how to attack the men's ward before they attack the women and devour them like cannibals? A ruse is needed so they kill the Aviatrix named Amelia Earhart. This exercise causes them to lose the strand of their thought and forget why they did it.
Chamber Music is intended for a mature audience due to intense adult themes.
Content Note: The depictions of mental health issues among the patients as well as their treatment can be disturbing.
CHAMBER MUSIC is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
www.concordtheatricals.com
Co-Directed by Kerry Ring and Michael Deeb Weaver
Choreographers TBA
Feb. 27 – Mar. 1, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Mar. 2, 2025
2 p.m.*
Morning Program:
Feb. 28, 2025
10 a.m.**
UB Center for the Arts Drama Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
Zodiaque Dance Company is UB’s eminent pre-professional dance company. Join us in celebrating five decades of innovative, creative performances at the 50th Anniversary concerts this spring at UB Center for the Arts!
In keeping with Zodiaque’s mission, the spring program will feature a diverse array of dance styles across two acts, created by a varied and accomplished group of choreographers. The concert is under the co-direction of faculty members Kerry Ring and Michael Deeb Weaver, who will also set works. The performance will showcase collaborations with our Theatre Design and Technology program who will provide new set, costume, lighting, and projection designs.
*UB Dance Day is Sun. Mar. 2. All standard ticketing options are available plus a special $32 UB Dance Day Ticket, which includes:
· A participatory pre-show workshop for ages 14 and up in the UB Center for the Arts Dance Studios (Rooms B82 & B82 in the basement of building). Arrive at noon in the hallway outside of the Dance Studios (rooms B82 and B84) for check-in.
· A dance class focusing on movement presented in the 2pm performance, and observation of company warm up, plus Q&A with UB dance majors. No specific dancewear required. Come dressed to move!
· Admission to "Zodiaque Dance Company Celebration 50 Spring Program" 2 p.m. performance in the Drama Theatre.
· Questions: Email Professor Kerry Ring: kring2@buffalo.edu
**Students, senior citizens and the general public are welcome to attend the morning program. Tickets may be purchased online or in person at the Box Office. Backstage tours for groups available upon request. Contact: td-theatredance@buffalo.edu
By Maria Irene Fornes
Directed by Lindsay Brandon-Hunter
Mar. 6 - 8, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Mar. 8 - 9, 2025
2 p.m.
UB Center for the Arts Black Box Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
One of Off-Broadway’s best-loved plays, originally directed by the author. The audience follows the lives of eight women. For this play, María Irene Fornés received one of her nine Obie awards.
“A wonderful, important play.” —Susan Sontag
“One of the most powerful plays written about the mysteries and shared hallucinations of the female experience.” —L A Weekly
“Though written in 1977, the message of FEFU AND HER FRIENDS remains ever the same: women don’t know what to do with feminism. Or rather, they don’t know what to do with themselves. It’s a strange, unsettling play, not least because the strong women characters are at a loss with each other and with themselves. Without a man to center around, they disintegrate into cattiness and then madness. Fefu is probably deranged to begin with. She ‘pretends’ to shoot her husband with a gun that may or may not be loaded. She likes men better than women and in fact finds women ‘loathsome.’ Fefu and her friends are a group of society women, circa 1935. They’re bored and affected in the manner of wealthy women who have too much free time.” —Jenny Sandman, CurtainUp
Fefu and Her Friends is recommended for ages 14+.
Content notes: the production includes prop firearms and the sound of gunshots, and includes depictions of death, distress due to mental illness (including hallucination), and discussion of acquired physical disability.
FEFU AND HER FRIENDS is presented by arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing, Inc.
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com/
Directed by Anne Burnidge
Choreographers TBA
Mar. 28 - 29, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Mar. 29 - 30, 2025
2 p.m.
UB Center for the Arts Black Box Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
Now in its sixth season, ChoreoLab is a performance and choreographic research laboratory for faculty, graduate and undergraduate dance students, and guest artists. Dedicated to fostering a diverse, creative environment to explore movement, the program embraces contemporary trends, while supporting dancers investigating the role of dance within society and culture. ChoreoLab provides versatile opportunities for UB students that reflect the current dance landscape.
The spring program will include a sizable cohort of student performers and technical crew, including both undergraduate and graduate students.
Directed by Rebecca Chaleff
Choreographers: Joshua Ikechukwu, Dani Schofer, and Amelia Rojek
Apr. 4 - 5, 2025
7:30 p.m.
UB Center for the Black Box Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
The annual MFA Dance Thesis Concert will feature the premier of new works by MFA Dance candidates Joshua Ikechukwu, Amelia Rojek, and Dani Schofer. The production showcases the culmination of the trio’s creative research from their thesis projects, a requirement for the conferral of the degree Master of Fine Arts. The concert features collaborations with designers, technologists, and the student performers.
The Master of Fine Arts in Dance is the equivalent of the PhD in a scholarly discipline and represents the synthesis of years of study and the honing of artistic sensibilities. The MFA Dance Thesis Concert is an opportunity to see new works by the next generation of doers, makers, and thinkers in the field.
A Five Lesbian Brothers play written by Maureen Angelos, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey, and Lisa Kron
Directed by Janet Werther
Apr. 11 - 12, 2025
7:30 p.m.
UB Center for the Arts Rehearsal Workshop
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
Something's rotten in Big Bone! Pretty Patty Johnson is thrilled to join the secretarial pool at the Cooney Lumber Mill under the iron-fisted leadership of sultry office manager Susan Curtis. But she soon begins to feel that all is not right—the enforced diet of Slim-Fast shakes, the strange clicking language between the girls, the monthly disappearance of a lumberjack. By the time Patty discovers murder is part of these office killers' skill set, it's too late to turn back! In the guise of satiric exploitation-horror, The Secretaries takes an unflinching look at the warping cultural expectations of femininity. The Secretaries premiered at the WOW Cafe in New York City in December 1993 under the direction of Kate Stafford.
"The Secretaries is a sustained, amusing look at the fine line between aggression and assertiveness. – The New Yorker
"95 minutes of gritty, bawdy, bloody humor pregnant with incisive social commentary." – San Francisco Examiner
Due to strong language, depictions of alcohol use, and other sensitive content, The Secretaries is recommended for a mature audience.
THE SECRETARIES is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
www.concordtheatricals.com
The production embraces a stripped-down aesthetic. No lighting or set design, and minimal props and costumes --- effectively, conditions which mirror those which Shakespeare’s players worked in. Elizabethan actors often had only four days of rehearsal. According, our actors will take the stage with script in hand – holding scrolls upon which are their parts so they might reference as they act.
Henry VI ii has 52 named parts. Our actors will play between four and six roles each. In addition, each will be cast in two “tracks.” Before every performance, a coin flip will determine which track they play for that performance, ensuring that every performance will be unique.
As the production develops, director Dr. Danielle Rosvally is documenting the behind-the-scenes process on TikTok at: http://www.tiktok.com/@yassifiedshax (look for “Directing Henry” in the video banner).
Book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell
Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
Directed and Choreographed by James Beaudry
Music Direction by Matt Marco
Apr. 25 - 26, 2025 and May 2 – 3, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Apr. 27, 2025 and May 3 - 4, 2025
2 p.m.
Morning Program:
Apr. 25, 2025
10 a.m.
UB Center for the Arts Drama Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
A union strike at a pajama factory generates plenty of steam heat in this toe-tapping, comedic love story.
The Pajama Game was awarded the 1955 Tony for Best Musical and, over half of a century later, claimed the award for Best Revival of a Musical, proving that the story is truly timeless. With an energetic score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (Damn Yankees), The Pajama Game is brimming with songs and dances that have become musical theatre standards, including "Steam Heat" and "Hernando's Hideaway."
Conditions at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory are anything but peaceful as sparks fly between new superintendent, Sid Sorokin, and Babe Williams, leader of the union grievance committee. Their stormy relationship comes to a head when the workers strike for a 7 ½ cent pay increase, setting off not only a conflict between management and labor, but a battle of the sexes as well.
Featuring plenty of fun and splashy production numbers, The Pajama Game is filled with standout featured roles and a large ensemble, making it a perfect choice for high schools and community theatres. This perennial favorite is a surefire crowd-pleaser and a glowing example of solid, classic musical comedy.
The Pajama Game is rated PG by Music Theatre International.
Content note: This production has mild stage violence and depicts alcohol use.
American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters will also be provided for the May 3, 2 p.m. public performance.
*Students, senior citizens and the general public are welcome to attend the morning program. Tickets may be purchased online or in person at the Box Office. Backstage tours for groups available upon request. Contact: td-theatredance@buffalo.edu
THE PAJAMA GAME is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
www.mtishows.com
The Pajama Game
Curricular Connections & Ideas for Discussions
The Romeo and Juliet-like story of two people from opposing groups who fall in love. But in comedies, like The Pajama Game, these stories have happy endings. What other books or stories use the device of two characters with a conflict who fall in love?
Pin and Needles. In The Pajama Game, the song “Steam Heat” is part of a show put on by the union. Way back in 1937--before anyone heard of Wicked, Hamilton, The Lion King and The Phantom of The Opera--The International Ladies Garment Workers Union staged its own Broadway musical called Pins and Needles. The hit show was a comedy “revue” featuring short skits and songs make fun of (or “satirize”) everything from the Depression-era world of workers to the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union.
Teamwork. In the company picnic scene, the workers all come together to win various picnic and party games in the song “Once A Year Day.” How does this sequence “foreshadow” the end of the story? Can you think of examples in other books, films or stories where a scene or event “foreshadows” what is going to happen?
The changing roles and opportunities for women in the workforce in the 20th Century. How does gender diversity in leadership promote better conditions for workers?
The rise of unions after World War II, and the subsequent decline of unions in the 1970s and 1980s. What happened in U.S. and World History that caused manufacturing jobs to be sent to other countries?
The International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the rise of “social unionism” in the 20th Century. Beyond collective bargaining, Social Unionism takes a broad approach to the role of a union in the lives of its members, offering educational, recreational and community building opportunities.
The history of minimum wage and the ethics of profits going to shareholders and CEOs rather than workers. How do the labor issues in The Pajama Game relate to today’s economic issues?
Directed by Shannon Brien
as part of our Student Directed Series
May 8 - 10, 2025
7:30 p.m
May 10, 2025
2 p.m.
UB Katharine Cornell Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
Founded in 1977, Dancers Workshop is an annual student-run showcase led by UB Dance majors, extending to all undergraduates, for a unique dance show experience. The 49th installment includes work from a substantial cohort of choreographers working with a sizable cast of dancers in a variety of styles. Dancers Workshop is a fun way to celebrate diverse talent at UB beyond the Department of Theatre and Dance, and to commemorate the end of a successful year for all students.
Directed by Kelly Quinn and NJ Wingo as part of our Student Directed Series
as part of our Student Directed Series
May 11, 2025
4 p.m
UB Katharine Cornell Theatre
$22 Adults
$17 Seniors/Veterans/UB Employees
$12 Students
$7 UB Students
(Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.)
The annual Senior Dance Showcase provides graduating dance majors with a final opportunity to perform their own choreography for the community before their future professional endeavors in the arts. The program features more than a dozen graduating seniors who appear primarily in solo works, as well as in collaborative group pieces, as they take the UB stage a final time. Senior Dance Showcase is student-directed and produced.