The Playshop Theatre

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Playshop 2024-2025 Description






The Playshop Theatre at Allegheny College was inaugurated by Alice Huntington Spalding in 1929 with her production of Dear Brutus in Arter Hall. In the intervening years, the Playshop has produced over 500 plays including classic works by Shakespeare, Molière, Shaw, Williams, O’Neill, Miller, Wilder, and Coward, contemporary playwrights such as Sam Shepard, Tom Stoppard, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wendy Wasserstein, Tina Howe, Tony Kushner, Caryl Churchill, and Paula Vogel, and musicals including  The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Pirates of Penzance, and Carousel, as well as original works by faculty, students and visiting artists. In 2009 we moved into our new home in the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts. The Playshop season is now performed in the Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre.



The Allegheny College Playshop Theatre Presents An Afternoon of Crankies
Sunday, October 6 at 2 p.m. in the Montgomery Performance Space

poster for Crankies

The Allegheny College Playshop Theatre presents An Afternoon of Crankies Sunday, October 6 at 2 p.m. in the Montgomery Performance Space on the Allegheny College campus.

An Afternoon of Crankies is directed and performed by Beth Watkins, Brian Thummler, and Friends. Josh Searle-White, assisted by Siznik, serves as the afternoon’s Master of Ceremonies.

Fun for all ages! Crankies are panoramic scrolls that are ‘cranked’ on the handles of a box that the scrolls wind through. An intergenerational troupe of local performers explores Crankie storytelling through visual images, music, songs and puppetry.

An Afternoon of Crankies features the work of a large company of performers and artists, including Ahmaya Andrews, Lily Bulman, Charmaine Koehler-Lodge, Doug Lodge, Bob Michel, Milt Ostrofsky, Lee Scandinaro, Josh Searle-White, Connel Stout, Brian Thummler, Autumn Vogel, Beth Watkins, and Dan Winston.

Admission is pay-what-you-will for An Afternoon of Crankies. There are no reservations and seating is unreserved. The performance runs about 65 minutes and is appropriate for all ages. For more information, please call the Playshop Theatre Box Office at (814) 332-3414.

The digital version of the Crankies program can be viewed here.

Alum Liz Colarte presents “As Good As It Gets” at the Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre Sept. 20-21!

What do you do when you hate the guy you’re dating, but he only has one eye? What do you stare at when sitting across from an old person whose eyes are constantly dripping in a way that can’t possibly be healthy? What happens when a textbook life doesn’t match up with the story you had in your head? May as well have some gross, wet cake and laugh all the way down. A wet punch of the ordinary and of what we lose when we can’t be satisfied.

Join us for this special performance on September 20 at 6:30pm and September 21 at 2:30pm as part of Blue and Gold Weekend!

You can view the digital program for As Good As It Gets here.

Allegheny College Introduces Commitment to Access Program To Enhance Affordability for Pennsylvania Students and Families

Allegheny College today introduced a new Commitment to Access Program (CAP) that will cover 100 percent of tuition for Pennsylvania students from families earning an income of $50,000 or less. If you’re a student interested in studying communication, film, theatre, and/or dance within a rigorous liberal arts college, you should come visit!
Read the full story here.