Arcadia Theater Productions

Conceived, Designed & Directed by Alisa Sickora Kleckner and Damien Figueras

Friday, Oct. 15 to Sunday, Oct.17, 7 p.m.
Arcadia University Parking Lot #12 (The Pit)

When a children’s game goes too far, a legacy of paranoia and tragedy takes root in this immersive theatrical event sure to leave you haunted.

Arcadia University has its haunted places;  places where mirrors reflect futures and phantom footsteps race the hallways.  Those are the tales you’ve been told as a freshman or a guest of a campus ghost tour but there are other stories, one’s that have been intentionally kept out of the folklore, one’s that run deep, too near to the core of the community.

This fall, join us for an experience like none other as we uncover one of the area’s most suppressed tragedies. Part podcast, part immersive theatre, audiences will engage in the legend as both sleuth and voyeur.  Attend by car or sitting on the hillside for this site specific event.  Listen to the narrated testimonials, puzzle through the artifacts and experience the unsettling revelation that too far can always go further.

Be warned, once you know the whole story, parking in The Pit will never feel the same.

By José Rivera

Thursday, Nov.18 to Saturday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 21, 2 p.m.
The Little Theater

In a world where apples are extinct, and people turn into mounds of salt, the angels plot an epic battle to save the human race as Marisol, a Puerto-Rican woman from the Bronx, embarks on a magical journey to survive the apocalypse. 

Jose Rivera’s fantastical drama Marisol pushes the boundaries of religion, biology, and everyday existence.

Marisol Perez, a young Latino woman, is a copy editor for a Manhattan publisher. Although she has elevated herself into the white collar class, she continues to live alone in the dangerous Bronx neighborhood of her childhood. As the play begins, Marisol narrowly escapes a vicious attack by a golf club-wielding madman while traveling home on the subway. Later that evening Marisol is visited by her guardian angel, who informs her that she can no longer serve as Marisol’s protector because she has been called to join the revolution already in progress against an old and senile God, who is dying and “taking the rest of the universe with him.” The war in heaven spills over into New York City, reducing it to a smoldering urban wasteland where giant fires send noxious smoke to darken the skies, where the moon has not been seen in months, where the food has been turned to salt, and water no longer seeks its level. Alone, without her protector, Marisol begins a nightmare journey into this new war zone where she is attacked by a man with an ice cream cone demanding back pay for his extra work on Taxi Driver. Marisol finds herself on the streets, homeless, where her many encounters include a woman beaten for exceeding her credit limit and a homeless burn victim in a wheelchair looking for his lost skin. With the apocalypse well under way, the angels have traded in their wings for Uzis and wear leather motorcycle jackets and fatigues. As the action builds to a crescendo, the masses of homeless and displaced people join the angels in the war to save the universe.

By Euripides
Translation by Anne Carson

Thursday, March 31, 8 p.m.
Friday, April 1 and Saturday, April 2, 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 3, 2 p.m.
The Little Theater

Dionysos is the god of intoxication. Once you fall under his influence, there is no telling where you will end up.

The Bacchae (Euripides’ most subversive play) tells the story of a man who cannot admit he would rather live in the skin of a woman, and a god who seems to combine all sexualities into a single ruinous demand for adoration. Euripides was a playwright of the fifth century BC who reinvented Greek tragedy, setting it on a path that leads straight to reality TV. His plays broke all the rules, upended convention and outraged conservative critics.

Performances and project presentations commence Friday, April 22, culminating in our Thesis Night Celebration on Friday, April 29.

The Theater Arts program’s Senior Capstone Showcase features projects by graduating seniors that bring together four years of coursework and artistic training into an original, extended creative endeavor. Theater Arts students design and complete their capstones independently. The projects reflect each student's artistic interests and future ambitions.