Archive of theatre productions.


Fall Quarter 2023

The Gods of Comedy

What do you do when you’re a Classics professor at one of the greatest universities in America and find a long-lost manuscript by Euripides that will make you famous throughout the world?  You lose it, of course.  And then you call on the Ancient Greek Gods of Comedy to get you out of the mess.  

For young professor Daphne Rain, the first surprise is that the gods show up.  And the second surprise is that any two people – even if they are gods – can wreak so much havoc on one college campus.

The Ivy League will never be the same as a pair of screwball deities encounters the carnal complexity of college coeds, campus capers, and conspicuous consumption.  


Spring Quarter 2019

Proof

A mathematical genius and University of Chicago professor, Robert, suffers with mental illness. Catherine, his brilliant and emotionally fragile daughter, is struggling to get her own life together. Torn by the attentions of her older sister Claire and Robert's former student Hal, Catherine's sense of her own identity is challenged. How much of her father's terrifying mental illness or creative genius is she destined to inherit?


Winter Quarter 2019

The Importance of Being Earnest

Enjoy the sparkling humor, dazzling wordplay, and hilariously unlikely situations wrapped up in beautiful 19th Century costumes. A trivial comedy for serious people.


Fall Quarter 2018

True West

By Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Sam Shepard, True West is an explosive comedy of rivalry as two bickering brothers try to sell Hollywood their version of the great American West.Contains mature subject matter and strong language.


Spring Quarter 2018

A Piece of My Heart

This is a powerful true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. Adapted from the book by Keith Walker, the play shows each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.


Winter Quarter 2018

The Wrestling Season

Matt and Luke, friends and teammates on a high school wrestling team, are victimized by rumors about their relationship. Two other players, Jolt and Willy, spread the rumors as does Jolt's girlfriend, the popular cheerleader, Heather. Matt tries to defuse the rumors by dating Melanie, who has a reputation for being “easy”. Luke is beaten up. Other friends' loyalties are tested. The play provides no easy answers and the characters are left trying to distinguish truth from lies.


Fall Quarter 2017

Red Herring

Love, murder, and nuclear espionage converge in this noir comedy set in 1952. America is about to test the H-bomb, Eisenhower & Nixon are on the campaign trail, and I Love Lucy is the most popular TV series. Meanwhile, Senator Joe McCarthy's daughter just got engaged to a Soviet spy, and Boston detective Maggie Pelletier has to find out who dumped the dead guy in the Harbor. A zany look at love and cold war politics.


Spring Quarter 2017

Antigone

Desperate to gain control after the ravages of a long civil war, newly appointed King Creon's first executive order is challenged on punishment of death by his niece, Antigone. One by one citizens of Thebes confront the question of individual responsibility versus the authority of the government, while Antigone's life hangs in the balance. Antigone challenges each of us to speak out before it is too late.


Winter Quarter 2017

The Last Night of Ballyhoo

For the Jewish Freitag family, December of 1939 is a world away from Hitler's invasion of Poland. Gone with the Wind is having its lavish premier in their hometown of Atlanta, and Ballyhoo, the social event of the season, is in a few days. When Joe Farkas, a Brooklyn native with Eastern European Jewish heritage arrives on the scene, cultures clash with comic proportions.


Fall Quarter 2016

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Henry Jekyll is a brilliant scientist frustrated by dull "respectable" life in 1888 Victorian London. He creates a formula to unleash his inner bestial nature, transforming him into the brutish but oddly compassionate Edward Hyde. Hyde lives the high life while Jekyll's middle-aged normalcy continues -- until Hyde's passions begin to turn up a body count.


Spring Quarter 2016

A Doll's House

Lively Nora Helmer is dependent on her successful husband, Torvald, in every way. Her marriage and life are governed by the unspoken rules of society. Nora secretly violates these rules in order to save her husband's health and male pride: arranging a loan for a great deal of money by forging a signature.


Winter Quarter 2016

The Ruby Sunrise

From an Indiana barn in 1927 to NYC in 1952, this period drama explores the country's growing pains during the early years of television “Who could bear to see war right in your own living room?” — asks the pioneering young heroine of The Ruby Sunrise as she argues in an Indiana barn in 1927 for the social benefits of television.


Fall Quarter 2015

Almost, Maine

It's love! But not quite, in a remote, mythical almost-town called Almost, Maine; and featuring a series of amiably absurdist vignettes about love. Join us for a delightful almost-rom-com that will leave you almost-smiling.


Spring Quarter 2015

Egad! The Woman in White: Sealed in a Madhouse

This laugh oriented, old fashioned melodrama was wild, fast and funny and featured a disreputable (and hilarious) villain who dispatched his adversaries with nefarious ease and even sealed his wife in a madhouse to steal her fortune!

Winter Quarter 2015

Book of Days

Set in a small town dominated by a cheese plant, a fundamentalist church, and a community theatre, Book of Days is a fascinating, gasp-worthy murder mystery by Lansford Wilson.

Fall Quarter 2014

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure

"Elementary my dear Watson...the game's afoot!" Doctor Watson tells the story in a series of flashbacks of the events that lead up to the final saga of Sherlock Holmes.


Spring Quarter 2014

Laundry and Bourbon / Lone Star

Texas One Act Comedies: women and their men and men and their women by James McLure.

Winter Quarter 2014

The Tempest

Magic and revenge on an isolated island by William Shakespeare.

Meet the Cast & Crew: Performance Program

Fall Quarter 2013

Bullshot Crummond

A parody of 1930s B grade detective movies by Ron House, Diz White, etal. British heroism at its dumbest. Professor Fenton, who has discovered a formula for making synthetic diamonds, has been kidnapped by Otto and Lenya. Bullshot Crummond is called to the rescue. He finally triumphs by shooting the rest of the cast.

Meet the Cast & Crew: Performance Program

News Story:

LCC Crime parody 'Bullshot Crummond' will give you a case of the giggles
The Daily News | November 20, 2013


Summer Quarter 2013

Godspell

Book by John-Michael Tebelak, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. The show centers on a group of followers who are called to gather together to create a community following a very loving and knowledgeable teacher. By sharing stories about living good lives and singing about love, joy, gratitude, judgement and redemption, the group of disparate individuals band together with a common purpose to face challenges and obstacles as they are tested along the way.

Meet the Cast & Crew: Performance Program

News Story:

Center Stage's 'Godspell' set to descend on LCC
The Daily News | August 7, 2013

Spring Quarter 2013

Cloud 9

Time shifting British African comedy by Caryl Churchill. Both parody and spoof of the 1880s Victorian Empire and its rigid attitudes towards sex. The play shifts twenty-five years later to London in 1980 where all the characters' repressed sexual longings have evaporated along with the British Empire.

Meet the Cast & Crew: Performance Program

News story:

Theater Review: LCC's 'Cloud 9' explores gender, sexual roles
The Daily News | May 22, 2013

Winter Quarter 2013

An Evening with Tennessee Williams ~ Three One-Act Plays

The Long Goodbye
A young man moves out of the family house filled with memories of his family.
The Purification
A woman has died and the people who knew her gather to judge the man who killed her. But did he kill her, or just an image?
Something Unspoken
Explores the relationship between a southern aristocratic woman and her private secretary.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

Fall Quarter 2013

A Flea in Her Ear

Funniest bedroom farce ever by Georges Feydeau.A woman suspects her husband of infidelity and she and her best friend concoct a perfumed letter to trap him at the Hotel Pussycat. In true Feydeau fashion the plan misfires; the plot is complicated by confused identities, revolving beds and a great many slamming doors.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

News story:

LCC lifts curtain on bedroom farce 'A Flea in Her Ear'
The Daily News | October 31, 2012


Summer Quarter 2012

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Book by Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbhart. Music & lyrics by Steven Sondheim.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

News story:

Lower Columbia College to put on second summer musical next week
The Daily News | August 16, 2012

Spring Quarter 2012

Other People's Money

Wall Street = Greed; Funny, serious, suspenseful, involving, disturbing...it concerns the intended hostile takeover of a deserving but obsolescent Rhode Island family business...honorable and not unprofitable run, that provides jobs for an entire small town's population.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

News story:

Play Review: 'Other People's Money'
The Daily News | May 18, 2012

Winter Quarter 2012

The Dining Room

Comedy Treats! A lighthearted and warm look at a way of life that is no longer with us.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

News story:

Theatre Review: 'The Dining Room'
The Daily News | February 22, 2012

Fall Quarter 2011

The Unexpected Guest

Murder most foul by Agatha Christie. In the midst of a love triangle, a murder occurs in a house full of people. Who would have guessed the victim had so many enemies?

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

News Story:

Review: Strong cast keeps you guessing in 'The Unexpected Guest'
The Daily News | November 9, 2011


Summer Quarter 2011

Little Shop of Horrors

Popular rock musical by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken that follows a flower shop employee while he raises a blood thirsty plant.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

New story:

Singing, homicidal flora makes debut at LCC in "Little Shop of Horrors"
The Daily News | August 17, 2011

Reviews:

Play Review: 'Little Shop' an inspired choice
The Daily News | August 26, 2011

Collaboration Brings Horror(s) to Longview (link unavailable)
Columbia River Reader | August 25, 2011

Photo album: Little Shop of Horrors 2011 Summer Musical, including audience members posing with Audrey!

Spring Quarter 2011

The Adding Machine 

A drama by Elmer Rice. The story of Mr. and Mrs. Zero and their coupled friends 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 experiencing technology changes. They see first hand how the face of the world in 1922 is changed with technology making humans feel obsolete.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

News story:

Take a surreal journey through office limbo with 'The Adding Machine'
The Daily News | May 26, 2011

Winter Quarter 2011

Three Views of Love (link unavailable)

Three one-act plays about love through the ages.
Blind Date, love in 1920s Texas by Horton Foote, directed by Jamie Hegstad
Am I Blue, love in New Orleans 1960s by Beth Henley, directed by Leslie Slape
Wooed and Viewed, love in Paris 1890s by Georges Feydeau, directed by Janice Clark

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

Fall Quarter 2010

Charley's Aunt

A comedy about mistaken identity, a British farce of three acts, with physical humor, absurdity and unlikely comedy of sophistication with fast-paced plots.

Meet the cast & crew: Performance Program

News story:

Mary Rayon has been dressing local actors for nearly three decades
The Daily News | November 13, 2010

Review:

LCC's 'Charley's Aunt' offers an evening of British Comedy
The Daily News | November 10, 2010


Spring Quarter 2010

The Three Cuckolds

A commedia dell’arte by Leon Katz.

News story:

LCC's 'Three Cuckolds' is exhaustingly funny
The Daily News | May 26, 2010

Winter Quarter 2010

Eurydice

By Sarah Ruhl based upon the myth of Orpheus in the underworld. Orpheus and Eurydice are young lovers. Eurydice dies and goes to Hades, Orpheus attempts to bring her back to the world of the living. The play is seen from Eurydice's viewpoint.

News story:

LCC's 'Eurydice' a new twist on a classic tale
The Daily News | February 24, 2010.

Review:

'Eurydice' is an enjoyably strange, thought-provoking production
The Daily News | March 2, 2010

Fall Quarter 2009

Alice in Wonderland ~ An Acid Trip


Spring Quarter 2009

This Island Earth

Where we've been and where we're going. Written and adapted by LCC alumni Leslie Slape and Drama Instructor Don Correll, and choreographed by LCC Dance Instructor Megan Jasurda.

YouTube Playlist: This Island Earth (Play 2009) © Leslie Slape

Winter Quarter 2009

Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare, the fortunes and misfortunes of being in love.

Fall Quarter 2008

The Laramie Project

The story of gay student Matthew Shephard's death, the murder investigation and trials, and the Laramie community's attitude toward gays.


List of older Productions by Academic Year

2007–2008

The Foreigner, Larry Shue, Comedy
The Underpants, Steve Martin, Comedy
REP, Greg Atkins, Comedy

2006–2007

Strangers On Earth, Mark O'Donnell, Comedy
The Chairs/The Bald Soprano, Eugene Ionesco, Absurdist
Beyond Therapy, Christopher Durang, Comedy

2005-2006 - Pepper Theatre

Feiffer's People, Jules Feiffer, Comedy
Successful Strategies, Pierre de Marivaux, Restoration Comedy
An Evening with Thornton Wilder:
The Drunken Sisters, Comedy
Love and How to Cure it, Comedy
The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden
, Drama
The Long Christmas Dinner Drama

2004–2005

Art, Jasmine Reva, Comedy
To Kill A Mockingbird, Christopher Sergel - 705, Drama
The Company of Wayward Saints, George Herman, Commedia dell arte
The Eclectic Electric House That Jack Built, Physical Theatre

2003–2004

No Opera at the Opry House Tonight, Tim Kelly, Melodrama
The Transylvanian Clockworks, Don Nigro, Thriller
The Fantasticks, Tom Schmidt & Harvey Jones, Musical

2002–2003

Hay Fever, Noel Coward, Comedy
Book of Days, Lanford Wilson, Drama
Antigone, Jean Anoulih, Tragedy

2001-2002

Picasso at the Lapine Agile, Steve Martin, Comedy
Two Gentlemen of Verona, William Shakespeare, Comedy
At This Evening's Performance, Nigel Jackson, Comedy

2000-2001

The Butler Did It, Walter Marks, Peter Marks, Comedy Thriller
A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen, Drama
The Servant of Two Masters, Carlo Goldoni, Commedia dell arte

1999-2000

Red Scare On Sunset, Charles Busch, Comedy
Our Town, Thornton Wilder, Drama
Pride's Crossing, Tina Howe, Drama

1998-1999

Tartuffe, Moliere, Comedy
A Cheever Evening, A. R. Gurney, Drama
Six Characters in Search of an Author, Luigi Pirandello, Absurd

1997-1998

Musical Comedy Murders Of 1940, Comedy
Absent Friends, Alan Aykbourn, Comedy
Time Travelers Story Guide To Planet Earth, Physical Theatre

1996-1997

Bullshot Crummond, Diz White, etal., Comedy
Love's Labour's Lost, William Shakespeare, Comedy
Plays In One Act:
On the Harmfulness of Tobacco, Anton Chekhov, Comedy
A Marriage Proposal, Anton Chekhov, Comedy
The Actor's Nightmare, Christopher Durang, Comedy

1995-1996

Egad, The Woman in White, Tim Kelly, Melodrama
The Venetian Twins, Carlo Goldoni, Commedia dell arte
Oedipus The King, Sophocles, Tragedy

1994-1995

Face the Mask, Workshop 7, Mask Revue
One Acts:
Rusty Hands, Seth Vermilyea, Drama
As Is, William F. Hoffman, Drama
Mastergate, Larry Gelbart, Comedy

1993-1994

Count Dracula,Ted Tiller, Thriller
Rosencrantz and Guildstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard, Comedy/Drama
Texas Comedies:
Laundry and Bourbon,James McLure, Comedy
Lone Star, James McLure, Comedy
Face the Mask, Workshop 7, Mask Revue

1992-1993

Arsenic and Old Lace, Joseph Kesselring, Comedy
Hound of the Baskervilles, Agatha Christie, Mystery
Animal Farm, Nelson Bond, Drama
Love and Marriage:
Overruled, Bernard Shaw, Comedy
The Boor Hug, George Feydeau, Comedy
Alls Well That Ends As You Like It, Michael Green, Comedy
Il Fornacazoni, Michael Green, Comedy

1991-1992

Its Only A Play, Terrance Mc Nally, Comedy
Jabberwock, Lawrence and Lee, Comedy
Arsenic and Old Lace, Joseph Kesselring, Comedy

1990-1991

Comedy, Comedy:
110 and Ten in the Shade, Eugene Labisch, Comedy
Wooed and Viewed, George Feydeau, Comedy
Passion, Poison and Petrification, Bernard Shaw, Comedy
U.S.A., John Dos Passos, Drama
Summertree, Ron Cowen, Drama 

1989-1990

My Three Angels, Sam and Bella Spewack, Comedy
Shadowbox, Michael Cristofero, Drama
The Eclectic Electric House That Jack Built, Musical Revue

1988-1989

A Hatful of Rain, Michael V. Gazzo, Drama
The Company of Wayward Saints, George Herman, Commedia dell arte
Romulus, Gore Vidal, Satire

1987-1988

To Kill A Mockingbird, Christopher Sergel, Drama
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, Tragedy
Moonchildren, Michael Weller, Comedy

1986-1987

Ten Little Indians, Agatha Christie, Mystery
Some Enchanted Evening, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Musical
Doctor and Lover, Commedia dell arte
Dr. Arlecchino, Commedia dell arte
Two Lovers of Verona, Commedia dell arte
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Harnick and Sondheim, Musical

1985-1986

Antigone, Sophocles, Tragedy
A Sleep of Prisoners, Christopher Fry, Morality
Vanities, Jack Heifner, Comedy
The Dining Room, A. R. Guerney, Comedy

1984-1985

Fifth of July, Lanford Wilson, Drama
Macbeth, Eugene Ionesco, Absurdist Comedy
You Can't Take It With You, Kauffman and Hart, Comedy
Any Wednesday, Muriel Resnick, Comedy

1983-1984

The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie, Mystery
The Ceremony of Innocence, Ronald Ribman, Drama
Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley, Comedy

1982-1983

A Man For All Seasons, Robert Bolt, Drama
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde, Comedy
Oklahoma!,Rodgers and Hammerstein, Musical

1981-1982

Long Days Journey Into Night, Eugene O'Neill, Drama
The Provoked Wife, John Van Brugh, Restoration Comedy
The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan, Musical

1980-1981

Fallen Angels, Noel Coward, Comedy
Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Drama
Tango,Slavomir Mrozek, Drama
The Three Cuckolds,Commedia dell arte

1979-1980

The Lion In Winter, William Goldman, Comedy
The Fantasticks,Tom Schmidt and Harvey Jones, Musical
To Kill A Mockingbird, Horton Foote, Drama

1978-1979

Doctor In Spite of Himself, Moliere, Comedy
The Glass Menagerie,Tennessee Williams, Drama
Cinderella, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Musical

1977-1978

Arsenic and Old Lace,Joseph Kesselring, Comedy
Cabaret, Kander and Ebb, Musical
Midsummer Nights Dream, William Shakespeare, Comedy
Singing and Dancing Madness, Drama and Music Revue

1976-1977 - Fine Arts Building

Old Love, New Love,
A Phoenix to Frequent, Christopher Fry, Comedy
The Boor, Anton Chekov,Comedy
Servant of Two Masters, Carlo Goldoni, Commedia dell arte
This is the House that Jack Built, Physical Theatre


Contact the Drama Department

 Betsy Richard, Drama Instructor

  (360) 442-2682
  brichard@lowercolumbia.edu

 Robert Cochran, Building Manager/Technician

  (360) 442-2277
  rcochran@lowercolumbia.edu