PERFORMING ARTS SEASON

To purchase tickets, visit ticketor.com/rockforduniversity or call the Rockford University Box Office at (815) 226-4100, or email boxoffice@rockford.edu

Season tickets can be found here

Each academic year, our Performing Arts department produces a collection of theater productions open to our campus community and the general public. In addition, Artists’ Ensemble, Rockford’s only professional theater company, is in residence on our campus and performs in our theatres in the Clark Arts Center.

The following list includes this year’s Rockford University productions. Single ticket admission for adults $12, $9 for seniors age 55 and up, and non-RU students is $9 unless otherwise noted.  Groups of 8 or more are $5 each. RU STUDENTS/FACULY/STAFF are FREE with ID, or by emailing the box office, but free tickets are limited (boxoffice@rockford.edu).  Dates and locations are subject to change. All seating will be assigned.

 

Rockford University
Performing Arts Season: 2023-2024

Spring 2024 Performances

Songs For A New World
February 22-25, 2024 (Thursday-Friday 7:30 pm; Saturday at 4pm and 7:30pm; Sunday 2 pm)
Cheek Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Director, Stephen Schellhardt
Writer and composer Jason Robert Brown transports his audience from the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship to a ledge, 57 stories above Fifth Avenue, to meet a startling array of characters that range from a young man who has determined that basketball is his ticket out of the ghetto to a woman whose dream of marrying rich nabs her the man of her dreams… and a soulless marriage. Songs for a New World is, according to composer Jason Robert Brown, “about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” This contemporary song cycle weaves characters and history together, illuminating the timelessness of self-discovery.

Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot 
April 18-21, 2024 (Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 pm; Sunday 2 pm)
Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Director, Prof. Deborah Mogford
It is December 1936, and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous.

 

 

 

Across the Pond: Songs from the British Isles
May 3, 2024 (Friday, 7:30 pm)
Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Director, Prof. Timm Adams
Join Rockford University’s Regent Singers, Vocal Collective, and other members of the Performing Arts department for a festive journey across the pond to the British Isles. In excited anticipation of our performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this coming August, RU’s choirs present a celebration of music from England, Ireland, Wales, and of course, Scotland. From the bawdy to the sublime, these beloved songs include “Loch Lomond,” “Wearin’ of the Green,” “What Shall We do with a Drunken Sailor?” and more. Throw in some Beatles and other pop music icons, and you’re in store for a bloody good time!

Fall 2023 Performances

Exit the King 
September 21-24, 2023 (Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 pm; Sunday 2 pm)
Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Director, Prof. Deborah Mogford
King Berenger has a problem. He does not want to leave the stage. He is enjoying the spotlight even though he is caught in a tug-of-war between his two Queens. One wants him to face reality in a true kingly manner and behave well, while the other younger Queen is ready to “Party-Hearty” and forget the concerns of the world. Which Queen will win? Will Berenger gracefully exit the stage or will he refuse to leave? Exit the King is from the imagination of Eugene Ionesco, one of the foremost playwrights from the genera of Theatre of the Absurd, and in true Absurd fashion Ionesco deals with this dilemma through outrageous comedy using vaudeville routines, slapstick, prat falls, clowning, and other comic turns. Ionesco is the master of an important idea seen through the lenses of comedy. The play is even more relevant today than it was when it opened in 1963.

Lucky Stiff
November 9-12, 2023 (Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 pm; Sunday 2 pm)
Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Director, Prof. Timm Adams
Based on the novel, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth, Lucky Stiff is an offbeat, hilarious murder mystery farce, complete with mistaken identities, six million bucks in diamonds and a corpse in a wheelchair. The story revolves around an unassuming English shoe salesman who is forced to take the embalmed body of his recently murdered uncle on a vacation to Monte Carlo. Should he succeed in passing his uncle off as alive, Harry Witherspoon stands to inherit $6,000,000. If not, the money goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn… or else his uncle’s gun-toting ex!

 

Starry Night Morning Light
December 8, 2023 (Friday, 7:30 pm)
Maddox Theatre, Clark Arts Center
Director, Prof. Timm Adams
Join Rockford University choirs and soloists for a one-of-kind holiday concert. Our journey from the dark of night to the exquisite light of morning celebrates the season in a contemplative yet joyous collection of holiday classics and other gems. There’s an air of Appalachia in this unique program, accompanied by piano, fiddle, and oboe. Selections include “I Wonder as I Wander,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” “Starry, Starry Night,” “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Box Office
Clark Arts Center
5050 E. State Street
Rockford, IL 61108
815-226-4100
fax: 815-394-5167

boxoffice@rockford.edu

TICKETS: ticketor.com/rockforduniversity

Fall/Spring Hours:
Mon-Fri - 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Summer Hours:
Tue-Fri - 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm