THE BRIGHT LIGHTS AT CCSU THEATRE
Lani Beck Johnson, Professor and Chair, Department of Theatre
Central Connecticut State University

Hit the lights and raise the curtain. It’s show time at CCSU!  We offer a varied and challenging season of exceptional productions each year to the campus and the New Britain community at an affordable price.  We present classical plays, children’s theatre, magic and improvisation performances, dance concerts, and new playwrights for audiences to enjoy and ponder.

Our spring productions include the Broadway musical, “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim (March 6-10) and a dark modern comedy, “House of Blue Leaves” by John Guare (April 1-5).  In addition, we will be presenting a children’s theatre play and several student-directed pieces. The “Laugh with Purpose and Improv Olympix Championships” will go on all day, March 31. The department keeps student actors, technicians, and designers busy with an active program for the public. Check our web page at www.theatre.ccsu.edu.

CCSU Theatre Department offers both the BFA and BA degree in theatre with emphases in acting, dance, educational theatre, directing, and design. Our students are provided exciting opportunities both on stage and behind the scenes, and theatre students graduate with impressive resumes and portfolios for professional or graduate work. We are able to provide opportunities for students to perform major roles and design costumes sets, lights or sound for main stage productions.  The department also looks forward to new teacher certification programs in both the areas of dance and theatre that should be in place within a few years.

We have long maintained an active outreach program with the New Britain community.  We offer free Friday morning matinees to local high schools, invite local students to participate in Improvisation workshops, and often take performances out to local public schools. In December, the Theatre Department helped to sponsor the Albano Ballet’s “Nutcracker,” which was offered free of cost to all the public elementary school children in New Britain.  Over 1,500 children were enchanted with a shortened version of the classic holiday ballet.

Many CCSU Theatre students are actively involved in internship projects with Hartford Stage, Hartford Children’s Theatre, Newington Children’s Theatre, The Bushnell, local after-school theatre programs, and other professional area theatres. Such internships often lead our students to productive careers in professional theatre and children’s theatre.

Most of our performances are presented in the Black Box Theatre in Maloney Hall. For those of you who remember the old Stanley Street School, this building was renovated years ago for the CCSU Theatre and Art Departments and contains a small, intimate theatre space called The Black Box.  We also perform in the Torp Theatre, a large proscenium theatre in Davidson Hall, and in Theatre 123, a small proscenium theatre also in Davidson Hall.

For questions about our exciting program or performances, check our web page or call Lani Johnson, Theatre Chair at 860 832-3151. 

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