Lights, camera, action! The UIS Theatre has shared their lineup for the 2014-15 season. They will present “Brighton Beach Memoirs” by Neil Simon in the fall of 2014 and “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee William in the spring of 2015.

With the large amount of musicals that can be found in the Springfield area, the UIS Theatre department tries to break it up with throwing some plays within. According to Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson, Associate Professor of Theater, they hope to start doing musicals soon, but for right now the plays add a nice amount of variety.

“Brighton Beach Memoirs” is set in Brooklyn back in 1937. According to GoodReads, the play follows 15-year-old Eugene Jerome who is “witty, perceptive, obsessed with sex, and forever fantasizing his baseball-diamond triumphs as star pitcher for the New York Yankees.” He takes us through different scenes as he and his family try to overcome different situations, as GoodReads puts it, “with pride, spirit and a marvelous sense of humor.” In the end, it shows how one era comes to an end, but there is always a new one beginning.

Preparations for the fall show are already underway, seeing as auditions were held on Sept. 2-3. Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson, Associate Professor of Theatre, is the director for this production. The show is scheduled to be performed on Nov. 7-9, as well as the 13-15 in the Studio Theatre.

According to Samuel French, “A Streetcar Named Desire” “reveals to the very depths the character of Blanche DuBois, a woman whose life has been undermined by her romantic illusions, which lead her to reject— so far as possible—the realities of life with which she is faced and which she consistently ignores.” When she moves in with her sister and brother-in-law down in New Orleans, DuBois has a “revelation of her tragic self-delusion and, in the end, to madness.”

“Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson will be on sabbatical and will be playing Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” So, that should be interesting because it is a faculty/student showcase production,” said Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson.

Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson will be the director for this performance. Open auditions for the cast and crew are set to be held Jan. 25-26, 2015 in the Studio Theatre. Callbacks will, hopefully, take place on Jan. 27. The show needs 10 more individuals, five men and five women, in addition to the two parts that have already been cast. The invitation to audition extends to UIS students, faculty and surrounding community members.

The show is scheduled to hit the stage April 10-12 and April 16-18 in the Studio Theatre.

For Thursday, Friday and Saturday night shows, the performance is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., and for Sunday shows, it is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. College students, both UIS and not, can get their tickets for $8, while faculty/staff can purchase theirs for $10. For the general community it is $14 for adults and $12 for senior citizens.

On top of the two major plays that are being brought to the stage, the UIS Theatre department also plans on putting in a proposal for there to be a theatre major at UIS that will hopefully begin in the fall of 2016.

The logistics of this proposal are still being worked out and more information will be coming soon.

For more information about the season or the theatre in general, please contact Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson at [email protected].