Theatre@ODU

Up Next

The Play That Goes Wrong

Apr. 4-6 & 11-13, 7:30 p.m.
Apr. 14, 2:00 p.m.

Goode Theatre

By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields
Directed by Steve Earle

An award-winning masterpiece of malfunction! It’s opening night for the Cornley Drama Society and their new show, The Murder at Haversham Manor, but everything that can go wrong... does!

This 1920s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines).

The accident-prone but persistent thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences! Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is a global phenomenon that’s guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter!

2023-2024 Season

What the Constitution Means to Me

Sep. 19–23, 7:30 p.m.
Sep. 24, 2 p.m.
Goode Theatre

By Heidi Schreck
Directed by Katherine Hammond

Beginning in middle school, Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives. 
 

The Women of Troy

Oct. 12–14 & 18–21, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 22, 2 p.m.
Goode Theatre

Written and directed by Deborah Wallace
Produced by ODURep

Another senseless war is won, a great city is reduced to ashes, and the women of defeated Troy must pay the reparations with their lives - through enslavement or death. In Argos, the bereaved and embittered Queen Clytemnestra awaits the return of the victors with a furious vengeance that has been brewing for a decade, since Agamemnon’s sacrifice of her beloved daughter to appease Artemis and speed Grecian ships to their attack on Troy.

Be careful who your hubris offends! The gods interfere in human affairs for their own amusement and purposes - all too often there is a shockingly high cost for both the guilty and the innocent.

The Women of Troy, produced with the generous support of the Hellenic Studies Endowment, is the final chapter in Deborah Wallace's visually stunning and powerfully evocative Apollo & Artemis Trilogy, the sequel to Niobe and Artemis, I.

Free parking is available in Constant Center/45th St. Garage.

Blood at the Root

Nov. 9–11 & 15–18, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 19, 2 p.m.
Goode Theatre

By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Brittney S. Harris

In 1939, Billie Holiday sang, “Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.” In 2006, white high school students in Jena, Louisiana hung nooses on their campus tree, igniting the ever-present racial powder keg. The school fight that resulted ended with the Jena Six, all Black students, being arrested for attempted murder.

Blood at the Root is a striking drama based on these true events. This bold, lyrical play or “choreopoem” by Dominique Morisseau reveals our criminal justice system’s ingrained white supremacy, the exhausting persistence of racial double standards, and the resulting effects on the lives of Black people and their families.

As Maya Phillips, for American Theatre (TCG) writes:
[Blood at the Root] aims to take the language of incrimination, of privilege, of prejudice, and transform it into poetry, music, and choreography that does not obscure the underlying sociopolitical messages, but rather highlights and recontextualizes them, steering them away from the straightforward black and white of the issue to instead probe the grey areas of politics and social culpability.

Amid music, choral performances, and dance, each student explores his or her proximity to the events and determines their place within a tradition of hatred and segregation.

Free parking is available in Constant Center/45th St. Garage.

Revolutionists Graphic

The Revolutionists

Feb. 15-17 & 22-24, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 25, 2:00 p.m.

Goode Theatre

By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Kate Clemons

Four beautiful, badass women lose their heads in this irreverent, girl-powered comedy set during the French Revolution’s infamous Reign of Terror. Hilarious, historical, heroic, and haunting, The Revolutionists is a rollicking ride through a Barbie-Movie-esque reverie/reality.

Award-winning playwright Lauren Gunderson bring us a witty, fast-paced dark comedy about art and activism, feminism and terrorism, and how we actually go about changing the world. We meet four forgotten women activists as they journey together through fear and self-doubt to empowerment, while dodging the guillotine with sparkling banter:

• Playwright/activist Olympe de Gouges, who uses her plays and pamphlets to promote abolition, women’s rights, feeding the hungry, and the fair treatment of illegitimate children.

• Assassin Charlotte Corday, who is bent on murdering the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, no matter the personal cost.

• Caribbean freedom fighter Marianne Angelle, who exposes the hypocrisy of the French Revolutionaries maintaining a slave colony while chanting “fraternité, egalité, fraternite.”

• And the one we think we know, Marie Antoinette, who asks at her final moment, “Do you see? Do you see this woman? Do you see. Me. Now?”  

PTGW Graphic

The Play That Goes Wrong

Apr. 4-6 & 11-13, 7:30 p.m.
Apr. 14, 2:00 p.m.

Goode Theatre

By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields
Directed by Steve Earle

An award-winning masterpiece of malfunction! It’s opening night for the Cornley Drama Society and their new show, The Murder at Haversham Manor, but everything that can go wrong... does!

This 1920s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines).

The accident-prone but persistent thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences! Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is a global phenomenon that’s guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter!

What the Constitution Means to Me

Sep. 19–23, 7:30 p.m.
Sep. 24, 2 p.m.
Goode Theatre

By Heidi Schreck
Directed by Katherine Hammond

Beginning in middle school, Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives. 
 

The Women of Troy

Oct. 12–14 & 18–21, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 22, 2 p.m.
Goode Theatre

Written and directed by Deborah Wallace
Produced by ODURep

Another senseless war is won, a great city is reduced to ashes, and the women of defeated Troy must pay the reparations with their lives - through enslavement or death. In Argos, the bereaved and embittered Queen Clytemnestra awaits the return of the victors with a furious vengeance that has been brewing for a decade, since Agamemnon’s sacrifice of her beloved daughter to appease Artemis and speed Grecian ships to their attack on Troy.

Be careful who your hubris offends! The gods interfere in human affairs for their own amusement and purposes - all too often there is a shockingly high cost for both the guilty and the innocent.

The Women of Troy, produced with the generous support of the Hellenic Studies Endowment, is the final chapter in Deborah Wallace's visually stunning and powerfully evocative Apollo & Artemis Trilogy, the sequel to Niobe and Artemis, I.

Free parking is available in Constant Center/45th St. Garage.

Blood at the Root

Nov. 9–11 & 15–18, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 19, 2 p.m.
Goode Theatre

By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Brittney S. Harris

In 1939, Billie Holiday sang, “Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.” In 2006, white high school students in Jena, Louisiana hung nooses on their campus tree, igniting the ever-present racial powder keg. The school fight that resulted ended with the Jena Six, all Black students, being arrested for attempted murder.

Blood at the Root is a striking drama based on these true events. This bold, lyrical play or “choreopoem” by Dominique Morisseau reveals our criminal justice system’s ingrained white supremacy, the exhausting persistence of racial double standards, and the resulting effects on the lives of Black people and their families.

As Maya Phillips, for American Theatre (TCG) writes:
[Blood at the Root] aims to take the language of incrimination, of privilege, of prejudice, and transform it into poetry, music, and choreography that does not obscure the underlying sociopolitical messages, but rather highlights and recontextualizes them, steering them away from the straightforward black and white of the issue to instead probe the grey areas of politics and social culpability.

Amid music, choral performances, and dance, each student explores his or her proximity to the events and determines their place within a tradition of hatred and segregation.

Free parking is available in Constant Center/45th St. Garage.

Revolutionists Graphic

The Revolutionists

Feb. 15-17 & 22-24, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 25, 2:00 p.m.

Goode Theatre

By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Kate Clemons

Four beautiful, badass women lose their heads in this irreverent, girl-powered comedy set during the French Revolution’s infamous Reign of Terror. Hilarious, historical, heroic, and haunting, The Revolutionists is a rollicking ride through a Barbie-Movie-esque reverie/reality.

Award-winning playwright Lauren Gunderson bring us a witty, fast-paced dark comedy about art and activism, feminism and terrorism, and how we actually go about changing the world. We meet four forgotten women activists as they journey together through fear and self-doubt to empowerment, while dodging the guillotine with sparkling banter:

• Playwright/activist Olympe de Gouges, who uses her plays and pamphlets to promote abolition, women’s rights, feeding the hungry, and the fair treatment of illegitimate children.

• Assassin Charlotte Corday, who is bent on murdering the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, no matter the personal cost.

• Caribbean freedom fighter Marianne Angelle, who exposes the hypocrisy of the French Revolutionaries maintaining a slave colony while chanting “fraternité, egalité, fraternite.”

• And the one we think we know, Marie Antoinette, who asks at her final moment, “Do you see? Do you see this woman? Do you see. Me. Now?”  

PTGW Graphic

The Play That Goes Wrong

Apr. 4-6 & 11-13, 7:30 p.m.
Apr. 14, 2:00 p.m.

Goode Theatre

By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields
Directed by Steve Earle

An award-winning masterpiece of malfunction! It’s opening night for the Cornley Drama Society and their new show, The Murder at Haversham Manor, but everything that can go wrong... does!

This 1920s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines).

The accident-prone but persistent thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences! Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is a global phenomenon that’s guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter!

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About ODURep

ODURep is the production arm of the Old Dominion University Theatre Program. The goal of ODURep is to give a voice to student and professional artists as we create theatre together for the Hampton Roads community.

Department of Communication & Theatre Arts

Theatre@ODU is home to passionate artists seeking to explore the possibilities, excitement and energy of the performing arts. ODURep is the production arm of the Old Dominion University Theatre Program in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts.