NAU 2023 – 2024 Theatre Events
The NAU Theatre Season Pass is back!
Join us for a season of mystery, intrigue, survival, community, and living for today. See great theatre at an excellent price with the return of our season subscription with a choice of plans; the Full Season, the Half Season, or the Staged Reading Series. Buy the full season for a terrific price with fees included!
The Great Survival Debate
The Clifford E. White Theater
March 21 at 6 PM
Free and Open to the Public
Welcome to the fourth annual Great Survival Debate!
The Departments of Theatre and Philosophy have designed our own version of the epic debate modeled after a long-standing tradition at the University of Montevallo in Central Alabama. The debate focuses on a different scenario every year in which some great upheaval has occurred and humanity has to set up a new world.
This year our debate scenario is our favorite thus far and connects to last year’s adventure in space.
A socio-political cataclysm has devolved to such an extent that all of Earth’s land is uninhabitable. We have returned from our journey into space with the next generation of our survivors. We seek to colonize the bottom of the ocean and establish an underwater utopia. We have room for just one more person aboard our submarine and it is up to the audience to determine who joins us to make the world as it should be.
The illustrious group of academics we are inviting to participate in the debate will fight for the LAST spot on the submarine voyage to shape our new society. The final discipline/person will be armed with the coveted axe and a breathing apparatus to aid in the task of building a better society.
At the conclusion of the debate, the audience and our esteemed panel of judges will vote for the discipline/person who will receive the last space on the ship. The winner will receive the axe to keep in a proud place of honor in their department for the duration of the year.
Each participant will be given 5 minutes to introduce their discipline and present the reason that their discipline should be given the final spot. Following the 5-minute presentations, each of the other participants will have 2 minutes in order to rebut the other disciplines’ arguments. There will be six debaters selected from across campus, all fighting for the final seat.
A seventh participant will join the panel as the Devil’s Advocate. The Devil’s Advocate will attempt to convince our audience of survivors that the six disciplines are all unworthy and should be left behind.
We ask that the winner return next year to attempt to retain the axe with four new disciplines and a Devil’s Advocate. The winner of last year’s Debate, Comparative Cultural Studies, will be defending their honor to join the new expedition.
RENT
The Clifford E. White Theater
April 19, 20, 25 and 27 at 7:30 pm
April 21 at 2:00 pm
Book, Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Kathleen M. McGeever
Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize winning musical RENT, hit Broadway by storm 26 years ago and it continues to resonate for audiences. Loosely based on Puccini’s La Boheme, RENT tells the story of young artists struggling to survive as creatives in New York City under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Through the darkness of poverty, disease, and tragedy, RENT makes-clear that our lives lose meaning without a community to give testimony.
“There’s only now, there’s only here. Give in to love, or live in fear. No.other course, no other way. No day but today.” Jonathan Larson, RENT