URI Theatre’s 2025-26 seasons blends classic and contemporary stories
KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 2, 2025 – This season in the University of Rhode Island’s Theatre Department, audiences will get a chance to visit Georgian-era England, a Las Vegas bus stop, the realistic and unsettling mind of Harold Pinter, a magical Shakespearean forest, and theme park purgatory. Any combination of these destinations feels only possible in a dream state.
The rich variety of performances gives the swath of talent in the department the ability to flex their muscles; student actors, stage managers, designers, and directors have the opportunity to build their skillset, face challenges, and harness their craft in both classic and contemporary text.
“Pride and Prejudice” and “Two by Two” (student one acts), will premiere in J Studio in the Fine Arts Center, 150 Upper College Road, during the fall semester. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Ride the Cyclone” will be held in the Robert E. Will Theatre in the spring.
The season will begin on Oct. 17 with “Pride and Prejudice” by Kate Hamill, directed by guest artist Sophia Blum, who is originally from Providence, Rhode Island. The classic story by Jane Austen explores social expectations, self-awareness, and love through the Bennet sisters navigating love and marriage in 19th-century England. Hamill’s adaptation creates a unique opportunity to step into some classical aspects of performance while juxtaposed with contemporary text.
“Kate Hamill’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ takes Austen’s story to another level of fun-loving silliness. In this production, we will be implementing aspects of clowning into our rehearsal process to honor the magnificent sense of play found throughout Hamill’s text,” said Blum.
Next, “Two by Two,” an evening of two student one-act plays, opens Dec. 4, directed by two senior directing students. Kenneth Dunn will direct “Free Range Chickens” by Ann Wuehler, and Brandon Tallardy will direct “The Dumb Waiter” by Harold Pinter.
Each season, the department supervises a completely student-led production that covers directing, stage management, designing, costumes, props – truly anything that goes into bringing a show to life, students are at the helm. Typically, there is one play during the season with a student director attached. This year, two seniors with a concentration in directing have produced each of the one-act plays.
“It’s important to me to give more obscure plays the attention that they deserve, and ‘Free Range Chickens’ is the very definition of a hidden gem. It’s atmospheric, rapid-fire, and kooky, and will bring a unique energy to the department’s season. I cannot wait to collaborate with the brilliant people at URI once again,” said Dunn, B.F.A. Theatre.
– Demetrius of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”“Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.”
On Feb. 27, director and URI faculty member Tracy Miller will explore themes of love, illusion, and the transformative power of dreams in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The department deliberately selects a classic work every year, ranging from the Bard to Moliere, offering students a challenge to sink their teeth into heightened language. It also provides foundational skills for actors approaching any text, classical or contemporary.
“I’m excited to direct this version of ‘Midsummer’ for several reasons. It’s a play I’m very familiar with, yet each time I crack it open, it sings to me in different ways,” said Miller. “This time I’m deeply interested in the focus on the climate and how the dissension between Oberon and Titania is affecting everything; a marvelous connection to the current state of the contemporary world. And I am also deeply interested in finding the love, humor, and joy in every scene of this play. We need wonder, magic, and, most of all, the opportunity to laugh together!”
The 2008 darkly comic musical, “Ride the Cyclone,” will round out the season on April 17. URI faculty member Rachel Walshe will direct the final production. The campy and playful musical follows the lives of six teenagers from a Canadian chamber choir who are cut short in a freak accident aboard a roller coaster. When they awake in limbo, a mechanical fortune teller invites each to tell a story to win a prize like no other — the chance to return to life.
The cabaret-style musical involves a leaner cast, compared to past productions like last season’s “Guys and Dolls.” This affords more students the opportunity to sharpen their skills behind the scenes. Musicals are traditionally performed in the larger of the two available theatres, and this show in particular will require some out-of-the-box creativity. How do you scale up a smaller musical to a mammoth space? Walshe is eager to find out.
“Young adults can easily relate to these characters; the challenges of being a teenager. Several archetypes in the play are equal parts audacious and campy, and really moving. I think one of the show’s virtues as a piece of art is the balance between the untimely death of young people wrapped in a silly premise,” said Walshe.
“Pride and Prejudice” by Kate Hamill
Oct. 17-18 and 22-25, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 19 and 26, 2025, at 2 p.m.
J-Studio, URI Fine Arts Center
An evening of two one-acts
“Free Range Chickens” by Ann Wuehler and “The Dumb Waiter” by Harold Pinter
Dec. 4-6, at 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 7, at 2 p.m.
J- Studio, URI Fine Arts Center
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare
Feb. 27-28, and March 4-7, at 7:30 p.m.
March 1 and March 8, at 2 p.m.
Robert E. Will Theatre, URI Fine Arts Center
“Ride the Cyclone”
Music, lyrics, and book by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell
April 17-18 and 22-25, at 7:30 p.m.
April 19 and 26, at 2 p.m.
Robert E. Will Theatre, URI Fine Arts Center
Tickets are available now by visiting: uri.edu/theatre/buy-tickets/.
This story was written by Paige Monopoli, communications coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences.
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