Production Season

2023-2024 production season

Urinetown: The Musical

Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann
Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis
Directed by Shamus

April 11-14 & 18-21, 2024

Get tickets here!

 

Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann
Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis
Directed by Shamus

April 11-14 & 18-21, 2024

 

Past Productions:

At Rutgers–Camden, we have a long-standing history of staging diverse, significant works of theater for the benefit of our students and audiences. Here are some of our most recent productions:

The Triumph of Love

Pierre de Marivaux
Directed by Damon Bonetti
February 8-11, 2024 

 

At the heart of Marivaux and The Triumph of Love is LOVE. And all the baggage that comes with it: all of the joys, pleasures, and good things, but also the terrors, sadness, and heartbreak of it all, too. In Triumph, Léonide, our princess in disguise, puts men (and women) to the test pitting love against reason. How do they pass this test? This is what makes the comedy so beautiful, hilarious, and bittersweet. 

 

Camden Cabaret

December 7 – 10     
Thursday – Saturday at 7:30 pm    
 Sunday at 2:00 pm       

Black Box Studio

Musical theater students perform beloved Broadway tunes in an intimate setting.

Hedda Gabler

Written by Henrik Ibsen   
In a new version by Richard Eyre    
Directed by Kenneth Elliott
        
October 26-29     
Walter K. Gordon Theater 

Hedda Gabler is one of the most rivetingly complex characters in modern drama, often regarded as the female Hamlet, and Ibsen’s 1890 masterpiece consistently defies audience expectations.

 

Rent 

April 13-23

Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Kenneth Elliott 

Walter K. Gordon Theater 

The Moors 

February 9-12, 2023

By Jen Silverman
Directed by Damon Bonetti 

Black Box Studio 

Camden Cabaret: Classic Broadway 

December 8-11, 2022

Directed by Kenneth Elliott
Black Box Studio

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and
The Actor’s Nightmare

November  3-6, 2022

Two comedies by Christopher Durang
Directed by Paul Bernstein
Walter K. Gordon Theater

The Spitfire Grill

March  31- April 3, 2022

Directed by Ellie Mooney

Rutgers–Camden Theater celebrates spring with a heartwarming musical, The Spitfire Grill, opening on March 31. It tells the story of Percy Talbott, a feisty parolee who follows her dreams to a small town where she finds herself working at the local diner. It is an inspirational tale of redemption, perseverance, and family that The New York Times calls “a soul-satisfying work of theatrical resourcefulness.”

The show is directed and choreographed by Ellie Mooney, part-time lecturer of theater and dance; the musical direction is by Chris Burcheri, who regularly conducts the musicals at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre. The cast of Rutgers–Camden students is headed by sophomore theater major Taylor Eccles as Percy.

PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE

December 9-12, 2021

by William Shakespeare, Directed by Damon Bonetti

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, one of William Shakespeare’s rarely-performed romances, caps the fall theater season in the Walter K. Gordon Theater on the campus of Rutgers University–Camden. The production, presented by the Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts, runs from Thursday, December 9 to Sunday, December 11.
Bonetti is the co-founder and producing artistic director of Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, a Barrymore Award-winning theater company. He has acted and directed at many local theaters, including the Walnut Street Theater, The Lantern Theater, and the Delaware Theater Company. The cast of 15 Rutgers–Camden Students is led by Josh Louis of Voorhees as Pericles and Student Government Association President Sydney Johnson of Kinnelon as his wife, Thaisa. Their daughter Marina is played by Micah Addison of Burlington Township. The set designer is James Mobley, an Assistant Teaching Professor of Theater; the costume designer is Millie Hiibel, a Part-Time Lecturer of Theater; lighting is by Philadelphia designer Dominic Chacon.

 

Born Yesterday

October 21-24, 2021

The show’s plot, centered on political corruption, is as relevant today as it was when the show originally opened on Broadway in 1946. Harry Brock, a disreputable multi-millionaire junk dealer, arrives in Washington D.C. with his naïve girlfriend, Billie Dawn, to cut a crooked deal with a U.S. senator. With the help of an idealistic reporter, Paul Verrall, Billie wises up and fights back to end the corruption.

“What ultimately makes the play work is its optimism, the notion that informed citizens really can make a difference,” according to the director, Kenneth Elliott, an associate professor of theater and chair of Visual, Media and Performing Arts. “It is a joy to watch Billie’s journey from apathy to activism.”

The cast of 12 Rutgers–Camden Students is led by Shaheera Hussein as the ex-chorus girl Billie Dawn, Josh Louis as Harry Brock, and Keith Schlapffer as Paul Verral. Sean Tomasetto is Brock’s drunken lawyer. JaRell Johnson and Sydney Johnson play the corrupt senator and his wife.
The set designer is James Mobley, an assistant teaching professor of theater; the costume designer is Millie Hiibel, a part-time lecturer of theater.

The Student-Directed Summer Fest 

June 25 through 11:45 pm on June 27

The program consists of four one-act comedies: “3 AM Wake-up Call” by E. R. Schultz, directed by senior Rachel Aspen of Deptford; “Poison Control” by Rebecca Gorman O’Neill, directed by senior Chase Dannelly of Tuckerton;  “You’re In My Thoughts” by Scott Haan, co-directed by seniors Alexa Nieves of Sicklerville and Ranielle Rudica of Marlton; and “The Vent Button,” also by Scott Haan, directed by junior JaRell Johnson of New Brunswick. The production is produced by Doaa Ouf, a part-time lecturer in theater and a 2020 Rutgers­–Camden graduate who has directed three one-acts for the department in previous years.

“I’m happy to be part of bringing more theatre back to the world. This is the first time Rutgers is producing the one act festival in the summer and I think there’s something special to each of these four comedies.” said Ouf.

Costume design is by 2021 graduate Austin Ginsberg of Cherry Hill. Eilis Skamarakas of Bellmawr is the stage manager and Katia Tonczyczyn of Berlin is assistant stage manager.

Rutgers–Camden students in the cast include: Taylor Eccles of Colonia, Sean Tomasetto of Cherry Hill, Syd Johnson of Kinnelon, Josh Louis of Cherry Hill, Jennifer Calay of Philadelphia, and Sonñet Holley of Haddon Township. Two recent Rutgers–Camden alumni, James Ferrell of Camden and Hunter Smith of Medford Lakes, are also in the cast. The cast also features Rowan student Josh Rosenzweig of Deptford, and Illinois Wesleyan University student Ryan Domalewski of Randolph.

Anything Goes

April  22-25, 2021

Directed by Kenneth Elliott

“Anything Goes” is a rollicking shipboard romantic comedy with a sparkling score featuring classic tunes such as “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “You’re the Top.” The music and lyrics are by Porter, and the original book is by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay, and Russel Crouse. The new book is by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman.

The cast is picking up where they left off over a year ago. The show was slated to open at Rutgers–Camden in the spring of 2020, but was shut down just three weeks into rehearsal due to the pandemic. Most of last year’s cast has returned for this virtual production, filmed in front of a green screen on the stage of the Walter K. Gordon Theater.

“It’s been a real challenge to put this together while observing COVID-19 protocols,” says director Kenneth Elliott, an associate professor of theater and chair of the Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts. “It’s totally different than performing in front of a live audience, but it is still a great experience for the students. They get the opportunity to work in front of a camera and learn an entirely new skill set.”

The film crew is organized by Robert Emmons, an assistant teaching professor and head of the filmmaking program at Rutgers–Camden, staffed with students from his “Advanced Video and Film Production” class. Choreography is by Marissa Barnathan, a part-time lecturer in dance. Stefán Örn Arnarson, an assistant teaching professor and head of the music program, and Soyeon Bin, a part-time lecturer in music, are co-music directors. The myriad period costumes are by Millie Hiibel, a part-time lecturer in theater. Scenic elements and lighting are by James Mobley, an assistant teaching professor of theater. The stage manager is Regina Carson of Collingswood, a 2020 theater alumna.

The cast of 18 Rutgers–Camden students is led by Jenna Guy of Millville as Reno Sweeney, a glamorous evangelist turned tap-dancing nightclub chanteuse. Reno has a crush on Billy Crocker, a young Wall Street broker played by Cory Yhap of Franklin Township, but Billy is in love with debutante Hope Harcourt, played by Shaheera Hussein of Plainsboro. In turn, Hope is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, a wealthy Englishman played by Jarred Sokolowski of Berlin. The cast also includes James Dippold-Ferrell, a 2020 alumnus from Camden as Moonface Martin, “Public Enemy Number 13,” and Rachel Aspen of Deptford as his accomplice, Erma.

She Kills Monsters

February 11-13,  2021

She Kills Monsters is a comic adventure into an imaginary world of demon queens and lords of the underworld!  Agnes, an average cheerleader, is thrown into the world of cos-play and Dungeons and Dragons as she searches for her lost sister. This version of the play, specifically adapted for our current Zoom world, is full of visual inventiveness and dazzling sword play. She Kills Monsters is a funny and moving play about acceptance and understanding, friendship and heartbreak and learning that you have the power within yourself to fight those very real monsters that hold us back from being fully human.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

February 12-16, 2020

Directed by Damon Bonetti
Called home from university to find his life turned upside down, his mother remarried and his uncle on the throne, Hamlet must avenge his father’s murder but is paralyzed by the prospect. This classic tragedy of indecision is the story of the most famous, and perhaps the greatest character of western drama.

The Student-Directed One-Act Play Festival

December 5-8, 2019
Film, family, and felonies, this year’s Student-Directed One-Act Play Festival has it all—including the premieres of two student-written works.

List of Plays:
Film Appreciation
By David Susman

Directed by Doaa Ouf

The Dinner
By Starla Blatcher

Directed by Courtney Miller

Murder by Midnight
By Jeff Goode

Directed by Doaa Ouf

The Walk
By Matt Fulton

Directed by Hunter Smith

Top Girls by Caryl Churchill

October 30 – November 3, 2019

Directed by Paul Bernstein

Hilarious and haunting, Caryl Churchill’s feminist masterpiece, set in Maggie Thatcher’s England, is a wildly innovative play about a country divided by its own ambitions. Marlene has reached the pinnacle of success as the head of the Top Girls Employment Agency—but at what price?

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Bruce Norris

April 10-14, 2019

Music and Lyrics by William Finn
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Conceived by Rebecca Feldman
Additional Material by Jay Reiss
Originally directed on Broadway by James Lapine
Directed and choreographed by Ellie Mooney

 

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris

 

Fall 2018 – The Student Directed One-Act Play Festival

The Individuality of Street Lamps by Anna K. Gorisch
Directed by Doaa Ouf

The Lifeboat is Sinking by Shel Silverstein
Directed by Matt Giacomelli

Scheherazade by Emily Roderer
Directed by Brittany Onukwugha

Chow by Katrina Hall
Directed by Katrina Hall

Electric Roses by David Howard
Directed by Jenna Sharples

 

Frankenstein Fall 2018

Fall 2018 – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Adapted by Austin Tichenor

Directed by Damon Bonetti and Charlotte Northeast

 

Spring 2018 – Avenue Q by Jeff Whitty
Directed & Choreographed by Ellie Mooney

Watch videos of the cast in rehearsal!

Hunter Smith and Doaa Ouf:
Brittany Onu and Regina Carson:
Eric Zavadsky:
Matt Giacomelli:

 

Spring 2018 – Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo
Directed by Professor Damon Bonetti


 

Fall 2017 – The Student Directed One-Act Play Festival
Directed by Rutgers—Camden students Eric Zavadksy, Kimmie Starts, Kelsey Brown, John Patouhas, Jenna Sharples, and Hunter Smith

 

Fall 2017 – The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Professor Paul Bernstein

 

Proof - Spring 2017

Spring 2017 – Proof by David Auburn
Directed by Professor Damon Bonetti

 

12 Angry Jurors - Winter 2016

Winter 2017 – Twelve Angry Jurors – by Reginald Rose, Adapted by Sherman Sergel
Directed by Professor Paul Bernstein 

 

Fall 2016 – Little Shop of Horrors – Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Music by Alan Menken
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

Romeo & Juliet - Spring 2016

Spring 2016 – Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

Winter 2016 – The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute
Directed by Professor Damon Bonetti

 

Fall 2015 – The Student Directed One-Act Play Festival
Directed by Rutgers–Camden Students Alexis Cabrera, Bill Epstein, and Alex Scheinberg

 

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Directed by Jesse Bernstein

 

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Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

The Student Directed One Act Play Festival
Directed by Rutgers–Camden Students: Alexis Cabrera, Katrina Hall, Michael Hess, André Pajarillo, and Alex Scheinberg

 

Fall 2014 – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Professor Paul Bernstein

Filmic Design by Professor Robert A. Emmons Jr.

 

Fall 2014 – Hand Me Down the Silver Trumpet
A Red-Hot New Musical which celebrates the legacy of great African-American recording artists of the 1920s and 30s.
Directed and Written by Dr. Kenneth Elliott
Music Arrangement and Direction by Professor Stefán Örn Arnarson
Choreography by Sammy Reyes

 

[SlideDeck2 id=30919]Spring 2014 – Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen
Singing, Dancing, and Revelery inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

Musical Direction by Dr. Julianne Baird
Conducted by Prof. Stefán Örn Arnarson
Photo Credits: Bryan Park – Copyright 2014

 

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Winter 2014 – Nickel and Dimed by Joan Holden
Based on Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Eherenreich
Directed by Prof. Aaron Oster

 

You Can't Take It With You

Fall 2013 – You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

 

Actor's Nightmare 040913 (81 of 82)
Spring 2013 – The Actor’s Nightmare & Other Comedies by Christopher Durang
A Series of One Act Plays Directed by Rutgers–Camden Students Cooper Gorelick, Jake Hufner, & Sean Quinn
Faculty Advisor – Aaron Oster

 

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Winter 2013 – The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

Our Town resized (2012)
Fall 2012 – Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

 

Torvald and Nora

Spring 2012 – A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

Last Days of Judas Iscariot resized (2011)

Fall 2011 – The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

 

Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" - Spring 2011

Spring 2011 – Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

Fuddy Meers - Fall 2010

Fall 2010 – Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

 

kafkas-the-trial-rutgers-camden

Spring 2010 – Franz Kafka’s The Trial 
Directed by Prof. Paul Berstein

 

dracula

Fall 2009 – Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

one-flew-over-the-cuckoo-rutgers-camden

Spring 2009 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

 

tatuffe

Fall 2008 – Moliere’s Tartuffe
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

angels

Spring 2008 – Angels in America, Part I: Millenium Approaches by Tony Kushner
Directed by Dr. Kenneth Elliott

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Fall 2007

Fall 2007 – Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream 
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

Technical Direction & Design by Prof. James H. Mobley,
Filmic Depiction by Prof. Robert A. Emmons Jr.

Spring 2007 – The Importance of Being Earnest
Directed by Prof. Larry Biren
Technical Direction by Prof. James H. Mobley

Theater Program – Spring Festival: Student Works
(Original and Student generated theater works, musicians in concert,
some dance, some video, a surprise special guest, an alumni blast
from the past and more.)

Fall 2006 – The Madwoman of Chaillot
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

Spring 2006 – Theater Program – Spring Festival 
Ensemble Marathon

Spring 2006 – Once Upon a Mattress
Directed by Prof. Larry Biren

Fall 2005 – As You Like It 
Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

Spring 2005 – Theater Program – Spring Festival 
Ensemble Marathon

Spring 2005 – The Passenger List
Written and Directed by Prof. Paul Bernstein

Fall 2004 – Nunsense
Directed by Prof. Martin Dillon

Fall 2004 – A Slight Ache 
Directed by student Kyle Jakubowski (senior project)

Spring 2004 – Something’s Afoot 
Directed by Prof. Martin Dillon

Fall 2003 – Equus
Directed by student Mat Wright (RUT)

Spring 2003 – Noises Off 
Directed by Prof. Larry Biren

Fall 2002 – 110 In The Shade
Directed by Martin Dillon