The Theatre Department faculty is committed to providing our students with a multitude of experiences as theatre-goers as well as theatre-makers. We sponsor two annual field trips, one to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, each fall and one to New York City every spring. Our “See It Live!” program takes students to several professional, college, and community productions in the Williamsport vicinity every year.

During Long Weekend every fall, we travel to the Shaw Festival, one of Canada’s premiere professional theatre companies.  In October 2008, 18 students and three faculty spent four days in Canada, seeing four different productions.  This year we saw The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman, George Bernard Shaw’s Getting Married and Mrs. Warren’s Profession, and An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly.  Students also took a backstage tour of the Festival Theatre and spent an evening taking in the sites at Niagara Falls.

Our annual spring trip to New York City allows students to explore the Big Apple during the day, taking in a matinee, shopping, sight seeing—or all of the above!  In the evening we see one of Broadway’s best musicals.  Recent productions seen include Xanadu, Avenue Q, The Producers, and Wicked.

The “See It Live!” program travels within a 100-mile radius of Williamsport several times a year.  At the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, a professional company, we have seen William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, How I Learned to Drive, and Much Ado about Nothing.  At nearby Bucknell University, students saw Urinetown and True West.  We have also viewed productions at Lock Haven University (The Laramie Project), Bloomsburg University (Six Characters in Search of an Author), and Penn State University (Pentecost).  At Williamsport’s Community Arts Center, we have seen professional touring companies perform Hamlet, Rent, and Seussical.