Production Archive: 2025-2026

Thursday, September 18 at 7:30pm
Gordon Center, Studio 2

One-night reading of Bess Welden’s play Death Wings presented in collaboration with Waterville Creates and Two Cent Theatre.

Described as “lyrical, mysterious, and moving,” Death Wings unfolds over the last 100 minutes of Grand’s life—her memories, visions, feelings, and questions that help her discover the five sentences that tell her final story. She’s dedicated her life to making wings that she believes help others die and to raising her granddaughter Rachel, a scientist determined to fly. Full of poetry, songs, and a radical re-visioning of the Daedelus/Icarus myth, Death Wings asks us to marvel at the wonder of flight—real and metaphorical—and the mysteries of human love, connection, loss, and letting go.

Co-directed by Bess Welden and Joshua Veilleux
Co-sponsored by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life

Sunday, October 19 and Monday, October 20 at 7:00pm
Gordon Center, Rehearsal Room 280

Ferdinand Vanek, the eternal dissident and central character in Havel’s semi-autobiographical one-acts “Audience”, “Private View”, and “Protest”, is approached by a friend whose future son-in-law, a singer and dissident, has been arrested. Vanek is asked to write a protest letter, collect signatures, and raise awareness abroad so his friend can save his future son-in-law without jeopardizing his comfortable middle-class existence.

Senior capstone project featuring Isadora Wells ’26 and James Asadoorian ’27
Directed by Todd Brian Backus

Friday, October 31 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 1 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm
Gordon Center, Studio 2

Two one-act plays exploring climate change, spreading authoritarianism, fancy hats, and penguin romance, inspired by the Colby Center for the Art and Humanities 2025-2027 theme: Islands.

Far Away by Caryl Churchill; directed by guest faculty Lynne Conner

Confronting our deepest fears, Caryl Churchill’s extraordinary play depicts a chilling world where everyone is at war, and not even the birds in the trees or the river below can be trusted.

and

At World’s End by Nora Sørena Casey; directed by Bess Welden

Two Emperor penguin parents face starvation for themselves and their baby, Baby Baby, until a strange new Macaroni penguin comes on the scene. Greedy for his food, they get concerned when the stranger and Baby Baby seem to be falling in love, until a surprising new fact makes heartbreak the least of anyone’s worries.

Friday, November 14 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 15 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm
Gordon Center, Studio 3

This production encourages student artists to BREAK with familiar patterns, find the sparks of new ideas, let them BURN, and then BUILD new work. Pieces include the annual first year dance project, led by Matthew Cumbie and Annie Kloppenberg as well as new dance works choreographed by student choreographers and guests from Maine Arts Academy.

Featuring student choreography by:
Isabella Brozic ’27, Ainsley Colt ’28, April Levy ’27, Elaine June Llewellyn ’28, Halle Puchalski ’26, Anna Rosenfeld ‘27

Tuesday, January 27 and Wednesday, January 28 at 7:30pm
Greene Block + Studios

Show Up Stand Up Speak Up: an evening of original story-based performances by Colby students inspired by the issues that matter to them the most.

The event is the culmination of Performance, Theater, and Dance’s Jan Plan Activist Storytelling Workshop – Collaborative Company course showcasing student creative writing, research, and live performance led by PTD faculty Bess Welden with design by Jim Thurston and Elizabeth Jabar.

Sunday, March 15 at 5:30pm
Gordon Center, Performance Hall

Continuing its fruitful partnership with Colby and Colby students, the Portland Ballet returns with a slate of new contemporary and neo-classical ballets. Steve Feeney of the Portland Press Herald celebrated the company’s “complete theatrical experience” as “sophisticated” and “engrossing.”

Artistic Directors: Annie Kloppenberg and Nell Shipman

Thursday, April 30, Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2 at 7:30pm
Gordon Center, Studio 1

Archer (still Angela to his family) doesn’t want to move back to his childhood home in eastern Oregon when his father falls ill. But at night under the oldest Ponderosa Pine, he meets a stranger who knows the history of the forests and the sadness of losing endangered things. As Archer accepts big changes in his family, he discovers the power of names and the histories they make and mask.

Directed by guest faculty Catherine Stewart