Drexel Players
The Drexel Players is the Theatre program's ensemble, providing the Drexel community with a variety of productions every year. Students participate in all aspects of theatre performance and production including: acting, directing, design, costumes, lighting, sets, sound, publicity, and box office. Auditions occur in the spring and the beginning of each fall term for incoming students. Scholarships are available. Please contact the program director for more information at nma28@drexel.edu.
For more information including past shows and upcoming events visit www.drexelplayers.com.
Upcoming Shows
The Poet Laureate of Capitalism
Cocreated by The Riot Group and Drexel' s Mandell Professionals in Residence Project (MPRiP)
The Poet Laureate of Capitalism is a new play created by the New York City theatrical company The Riot Group in collaboration with an ensemble of Drexel students. This new drama is a feverish journey into the soul of a hustler on the brink, charting the rise and fall of an Elizabethan-era writer as he creates his final disastrous work. The Poet Laureate of Capitalism brings together Playwright Adriano Shaplin, and Director Whit MacLaughlin, to lead a cast featuring professional actor Brian Osborne, and 14 Drexel students, in an unprecedented theatre performance that explores art, money, and the limits of friendship.
Adriano Shaplin is the Artistic Director of Riot Group and has authored eight plays for the company, including Wreck the Airline Barrier, Victory at the Dirt Palace, Pugilist Specialist, and Switch Triptych. He is a four-time recipient of the Scotsman Fringe First Award for new writing. Whit MacLaughin is the founder and Artistic Director of New Paradise Laboratories of Philadelphia. MacLaughlin has conceived, directed and designed 11 original performance pieces with the company, and is an OBIE and Barrymore award winner. Brian Osborne is a co-conspirator at New Paradise Laboratories and has performed in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York. His stage credits include the smash New York hit De La Guarda, and WHaLE OPTICS at the 2011 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.
The Poet Laureate of Capitalism is the 2012 Mandell Professionals in Residence Project (MPiRP), an ongoing collaboration with the professional theatre and dance communities of Philadelphia and Drexel University, which is supported in part by a grant from the Samuel P. Mandell Foundation. Previous MPiRP Residents include11th Hour Theatre Company, Pig Iron Theatre Company, and Azuka Theatre Company.
Audiences can expect bloody bacchanalias, back-stabbing bromances and obscene hubris. The show will run from March 1st – 4th in the Mandell Theater (33rd & Chestnut Sts.), where tickets are $5 with a Drexel ID and $15 for the General Public. For more information call 215-895-ARTS or visit www.drexelplayers.com.
MPiRP is possible in part by a grant from the Samuel P. Mandell Foundation.
Urine Town, The Musical
Music by Mark Hollmann
Lyrics by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis
Book by Greg Kotis
A hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love, and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold due to a 20-year drought, which has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. Everyone must pay for one of our most basic needs. Called an “homage to and an outlandish spoof of the Brechtian theater of outrage and provocation,” Urinetown is an irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny.
• May 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, @ 8:00 pm
• May 6, 13 @ 2:00 pm