Indiana Wesleyan’s Theatre Guild announced their upcoming 2025-2026 season.
The first show, “American Songbook Onstage”, will premiere in October.
“We’re not sure what the show looks like yet because it’s a show that has to sort of get created. So, you can think of it as a cabaret, a musical review kind of show,” Dr. Steven Wood said.
Wood is the Director of Theatre at Indiana Wesleyan.
William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” will debut in November.
“It’s just a comedy in that no one dies because in a tragedy everyone dies, but no one dies in this, so it’s technically a comedy,” Wood said. “So comedy is a weird way to describe it, but it is a comedy.”
Handel’s “Messiah” is lined up for the Christmas season.
“That will be a one night only. And so that’s a big deal we’ll do in the main stage,” Wood said.
“Little Women the Musical” is scheduled for next March.
“They turned ‘Little Women’, the book, into a play and then it got turned into a musical. So, we’re going to do the musical,” Wood said.
Some students seem to be looking forward to “Little Women”.
“I’m excited. I think I’m only going to be auditioning for ‘Little Women’, but I think it’ll be a good season for everybody,” Elise Lenertz said.
Lenertz is one of the students who participated in the Theater Guild’s “Seussical”.
“Silent Sky” will be the last show of the season.
“The last show we’ll do next April during the day of scholarship will be a play called ‘Silent Sky’, which tells the story of a scientist from the last century whose calculations were crucial in some mapping in the galaxy,” Wood said. “They used some of her formulas and her calculations, for example, for the Hubble telescope. And it just tells of her life.”
The Theatre Guild brings students closer together.
“It’s a great community, the cast is a great community and everyone is a part of it. It’s like you make friends along the way, kind of thing,” Lenertz said.
People from Indiana Wesleyan and the local community get to come watch the performances.
“I think it also brings people in from the campus to watch the show. I have friends that aren’t doing theatre here, but they still came to support me and everyone else in the cast,” Meredith Hays said. “And then, of course, family and friends from in town or just back home or something, I think it really brings in a lot of the Marion community as well.”
Meredith Hays is another student who participates in the Theatre Guild performances.
The selection process for musicals has changed now that IWU only offers a minor in Theatre.
“More recently, the last two seasons, the way I’ve thought of it is I have students who need to finish out the major,” Wood said. “So, I have given them options where I say, these are the shows I’d like us to do. You as students, which would you like to do? That way they have a buy-in and they have some ownership and some responsibility.”
The change to only offering a minor shifts the focus to a more practical approach to theatre.
“We’re just making it a really practical, hands-on minor where students can be part of shows and not be overwhelmed with that,” Wood said. “We want it to be academically rigorous, but it’s not going to be the same rigor that a major would have.”
