Theatre

Where we work

Housed in the Ford Center for Fine Arts, our facilities are a labyrinth of spaces. In addition to our theatres and shops, it's not uncommon to find students making and performing art in stairwells, lobbies, lawns, and just about anywhere else.

Harbach Theatre seats up to 500 people in a modified apron thrust or proscenium stage. Exceptional acoustics and sight lines highlight performances on the 72 foot stage with full white and black cycloramas. The three faculty productions each year are drawn from a wide range of styles and genres.

Studio Theatre, a 40' x 60' black-box venue, is a laboratory for the experimental work of Knox students. With an overhead suspension grid, fully equipped sound and lighting systems, moveable audience risers, and five entrance/exit locations, Studio allows students to create in a space with endless possibilities.

The Costume Shop boasts a collection of more than 40,000 hanging pieces spanning numerous styles and historical periods. Producing nearly 250 complete costumes each year, this shop is equipped with 10 sewing units, draping mannequins, cutting tables, laundry and pressing facilities, and an exclusive area for textile manipulation.

The Scene Shop is a fully functional carpentry and painting studio that covers more than 1200 square feet. Equipped with a full range of hand, power, and pneumatic tools, it is located adjacent to both the Harbach and Studio Theatres. With a 24 foot high ceiling, large items are transferred with ease into either venue.

Recent Productions

The Thanksgiving Play—Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.

The Drowning Girls—Three women have three things in common: they are married to the same man, they are dead, and at his hands. Surfacing from the bathtubs in which they were drowned, the women share their stories indicting their serial murderer husband. In a contemporary play that illustrates women's vulnerability in Victorian times and today, a cast of only three actresses played multiple roles.

The Laramie Project—On October 6, 1998, in Laramie, Wyoming, Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence, beaten, and unconscious. Two days later, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney were arrested for his kidnapping, robbery, and attempted murder. The charges were amended to first-degree murder when Matthew died after spending five days in a coma. In November of that same year, Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project made their first trip (of six) to Laramie to meet with and interview the people of the town. The result is a compassionate and complex portrait of a town shocked by an inexplicably brutal act of hatred.

Richard III—1485 marks the end of The War of the Roses. The death of Richard III on the field at Bosworth is the culmination of 30 years of gruesome murder, intrigue, and civil war. Thousands of ordinary people and soldiers died and though there were numerous, vicious players in this saga, history offers up no one more deadly than Richard, Duke of Gloucester. His ruthless craving for power was driven by a prodigious intellect corrupted by rapacious amorality. He stopped at nothing because he understood what it takes to get and wield power. Not much has changed in 550 years...

The Nether—Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Nether explores the psychological and ethical consequences of virtual simulations as they collide with real life. Set in the not-so-distant future, this mind-numbing detective drama alternates between interrogation room reality and the darker side of the internet in order to raise questions about identity, technology, illicit fantasies, second life morality, and personal privacy.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere—A stage adaptation by Rob Kauzlaric of the much loved epic fantasy novel. Produced by the company of Rep Term XVII, and featuring the largest set we've ever constructed in Harbach Theatre.

The Secret in the Wings—Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of several fairy tales was the first ever Rep Term production in our blackbox Studio Theatre, performed by an ensemble of thirteen actors each playing multiple roles.