WEBB ARTS

Theater

Theater at Webb boasts a tradition of innovation. Combining classes and afternoon activities, Webb’s theater arts program mounts two major dramatic and musical theater productions each year and offers students the flexibility to tailor their involvement to their experience level and goals.

Experienced acting students hone their performance and improvisational skills, investigate performance theories and discover how to apply them to scenes from a wide range of genres.

Utilizing the Susan A. Nelson Performing Arts Center, students interested in technical theater have the opportunity to practice their craft in a professional-level facility.

Theater Program at Webb

With two major productions each year, Webb theater students have the freedom to stage pieces that challenge expectations of form and content – such as Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera and Ionesco’s Exit the King – as well as masterworks such as Chekhov’s The Seagull and Euripides’ Medea. Spring welcomes a musical production showcasing students’ vocal talents in productions such as Finn’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

Theatrical productions at Webb are staged in either the Copeland Donahue blackbox theater, or the state-of-the-art Susan A. Nelson Performing Arts Center. The center’s Liu Cheung Theater seats nearly 300 and features professional grade lighting and sound systems, two spotlights, a cyclorama with LED lighting, a sprung floor on the stage, lighting catwalks, a rehearsal room and a dedicated machine shop for fabricating sets and props.

Sweeney Todd Musical Theater Performing Arts

Watch the full show Here We Go Again - Mamma Mia

Watch the full show The Revolutionists

Watch the full show Peter and the Starcatcher

Theater Facility

Susan A. Nelson Center for the Performing Arts / Liu Cheung Theater

The newly renovated theater complex of the Susan A. Nelson Performing Arts Center, with its state-of-the-art technology, seating, stage, and back-of-the-house, also houses innovative next-generation classroom spaces. Together with the award-winning Copeland Donahue Black Box Theater and Digital Media Studio, more than $6 million has been devoted to enhancing the arts at Webb.

For those students interested in studying technical theater, Liu Cheung features a state-of-the-art control booth with professional grade lighting and sound systems, two spotlights, a cyclorama with LED lighting, a sprung floor on the stage, lighting catwalks, a rehearsal room and a dedicated machine shop for fabricating sets and props.

Theater Facility

Copeland Donahue Theater

The Copeland Donahue Theater – a black box theater allowing for a more flexible performance space – is a favorite for non-traditional theater productions. Along with the Liu Cheung Theater, Copeland Donahue features state-of-the-art light and soundboards, LED lighting and robust technological advancements.

Since its construction in 2008, the theater quickly became a new center for the Fine and Performing Arts at Webb. It has hosted plays, concerts, art shows and guest artist lectures as well as theater arts and digital media classes. During the academic day, the theater is used for Theater Arts classes, orchestra rehearsal, and as an occasional practice space for Webb’s Dance Company.