Department of Theatre | Events & Productions

The Department of Theatre at Harding University is a year-round production environment. Students, faculty and staff are learning and teaching in an exciting and interactive manner. Theatre activities include musicals and musical revues, children's theatre, comedies, tragedies, classical theatre and contemporary works. Theatre is alive and well at Harding University! Come join us!

"THE DROWSY CHAPERONE"

August 22-24 — Ulrey Performing Arts Center

Winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Original Score, The Drowsy Chaperone is a loving send-up of the Golden Age musical, featuring one show-stopping song and dance number after another.

With the houselights down, a man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical. The recording comes to life and The Drowsy Chaperone begins as the man in the chair looks on. Mix in two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a not-so-bright actress, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Latin Lothario and a *drowsy* chaperone, and you have the ingredients for an evening of madcap delight.

HOMECOMING MUSICAL: “TUCK EVERLASTING”

October 25-26 — Benson Auditorium

What would you do if you had all eternity in the here and now? Winnie Foster yearns for a life of adventure beyond her white picket fence, but when she becomes unexpectedly entwined with the Tuck Family, she gets more than she could have imagined. As her adventure unfolds, Winnie faces an extraordinary choice: return to her life, or continue with the Tucks on their infinite journey.

“TAMING OF THE SHREW”

December 5-7 — Ulrey Performing Arts Center

Come join us as we reinvent The Taming of the Shrew for a new generation. Using the play’s roots in commedia dell’arte, the cast and the audience both join in the slapstick fun! Katherine is smart, independent and angry at the world. Petruchio is smart, independent and angry at the world.They both reject everything about the traditions of love and marriage in their world. It’s a match!

“PETER AND THE STARCATCHER”

February 27 – March 1 — Ulrey Performing Arts Center

Discover the untold story of Neverland. Before Captain Hook, before Wendy, before Peter Pan. The winner of five Tony awards, complete with marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, "Peter and the Starcatcher" is a play with music that playfully explores the depths of greed and despair... and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.

PIED PIPERS

The Pied Pipers of Harding, an improvisational children’s theatre troupe, will perform on campus Oct. 26, 2024, and April 12, 2025. The Pipers tour extensively nationally and internationally, performing for more than 16,000 children every year.

SPRING SING 2025

April 10-12, Benson Auditorium

Come join us as we showcase the tremendous talent, art and heart of our student body! Performance dates for the extravaganza are April 10-12, and tickets will be available on hardingtickets.com in early February 2025. The annual musical revue program features more than 1,000 students, comic parodies, amazing music, and incredible spectacle, bringing more than 11,000 people to Searcy each year to see the production.

SO MUCH MORE…

Campus Players, a student organization for those interested in theatre will present various productions throughout the year. Many of our theatre courses culminate in performance projects each year and many are open to the public. In particular, Play Directing II students present an annual one act festival each April. Children’s Theatre students will present a touring children’s show in December. There is always something happening on stage at Harding.

Theatre