Auburn Theatre & Dance sets stage for resilience with 2024-2025 season

Charlotte Tuggle | 8/22/2024

Resilience: Elemental Stories of Strength and Character poster

The Auburn University Department of Theatre & Dance hopes to cultivate conversations about resiliency through elemental stories of strength and character in its upcoming season.

"As a university, community, state, nation and world, we are bombarded with new challenges daily. Making our way through the continual changes we face individually and collectively, we learn about ourselves and each other," said Chair Tessa Carr. "Questions of how we continue through difficulty, how we can thrive together and what it means to be a community that leans on and supports one another are the focus of this season's work."

The season will open Sep. 26 with "Wellesley Girl." Set in a future following environmental fallout, "Wellesley Girl" follows a small republic of citizens who must decide what do to with the last source of clean drinking water.

Theatre & Dance partnered with the Auburn University Water Resources Center, which develops water solutions and promotes good stewardship of water sources, for the production. After seeing the "Wellesley Girl" characters struggle with consequences of earlier generations’ actions around water quality and availability, audiences will have an avenue to engage with protecting our water.

Carr said the central themes of the season reflect the individual, community and nature.

"As theatrical makers, we are continually finding new ways to frame our storytelling mission and approach. This year, we thought about the words 'resilience' and 'elemental,'" Carr said. "These qualities of toughness and elasticity are necessary to achieve sustainability...for ourselves — physically, mentally, emotionally — and for our planet and our communities."

If "Wellesley Girl" is water, then "Ordinary Days" is fire. The second show of the season is a musical set in New York City's bustling metropolis as four individuals navigate love, loss and the search for connection. It explores how small acts of kindness can spark change in our everyday lives.

"Flying / Falling," the annual dance concert, continues the elemental theme by exploring the sensation of atmosphere, air and breath. The Auburn University Dance Ensemble's original performance will show how we rely upon and defy gravity.

"Orlando" and "Violet," which will premiere in 2025, represent flora and earth. "Orlando," based on Virginia Woolf's classic novel, explores themes of gender, identity and belonging. "Violet" will take audiences on a journey of joy, heartache and self-discovery through the Civil Rights Era.

Carr said the framing of the season within nature will help audiences answer questions about surviving in the face of adversity.

"The cycles and interconnectedness of nature — at times stormy, stressful, violent, and at other times gentle, quiet, healing — are analogous to our human relationships and experiences," Carr said. "We hope our elemental stories of strength and character inspire you toward continued and steadfast resilience."

Tickets are FREE for Auburn students. To see the schedule and buy tickets, visit the box office website.

Tags: Theatre and Dance Arts and Culture