Birmingham-Southern Theatre

Birmingham-Southern Theatre was a performing arts program and the primary activity of Birmingham-Southern College's Department of Theatre, comprised of undergraduate students enrolled in bachelor of arts programs in theatre arts and musical theatre, as well as students in other majors pursuing electives.

Before closing with the college in May 2024 the program usually staged four major productions and six student productions each year. BSC hosted a chapter of the Alpha Psi Omega honor society for theatre arts. The theatre benefitted from the BSC Arts Alliance support organization.

Productions

• 1947–1948: The Playboy of the Western World (John Millington Synge), Knight of the Burning Pestle (Francis Beaumont)
• 1948–1949: Alice in Wonderland (Henry Savile Clarke & Walter Slaughter), H.M.S. Pinafore(William Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan), The Rivals (Richard Brinsley Sheridan)
• 1949–1950: Ladies in Retirement (Reginald Denham & Edward Percy), Down in the Valley (Kurt Weill & Arnold Sundgaard)
• 1950–1951: Years Ago (Ruth Gordon), Family Portrait (Lenore Coffee & William Joyce Cowen), Pray for the Moon, The Desert Song (Sigmund Romberg, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Frank Mandel), Chocolate Soldier (Oscar Straus)
• 1951–1952
• 1952–1953: Liliom (Ferenc Molnár)
• 1953–1954: Amahl & the Night Visitors (Gian Carlo Menotti), Arsenic & Old Lace (Joseph Kesselring), Simple Simon (Guy Bolton, Ed Wynn, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers), The Enchanted Cottage (Arthur Wing Pinero)
• 1954–1955: The Corn is Green (Emlyn Williams), Queens of France (Thornton Wilder), The Indian Captive (Charlotte Chorpenning), King of Hearts (Joseph Stein, Jacob Brackman, Peter Link)
• 1955–1956: My Three Angels (Samuel & Bella Spewack), Dial M for Murder (Frederick Knott)
• 1956–1957:
• 1957–1958: See the Jaguar (N. Richard Nash), Brigadoon (Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe), The Chalk Garden (Enid Bagnold)
• 1958–1959: The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov), The Boy Friend (Sandy Wilson), A Visit to a Small Planet (Gore Vidal)
• 1959–1960: A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare), Caught Dead, Rashomon (Fay & Michael Kanin)
• 1960–1961: Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare), The Fantasticks (Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones)
• 1961–1962: Troilus and Cressida (William Shakespeare)
• 1962–1963: Crawling Arnold (Jules Feiffer), The Visit (Friedrich Dürrenmatt), The Imaginary Invalid (Molière), Ernest in Love (Anne Croswell & Lee Pockriss)
• 1963–1964: The Truth Syrup (Howard Cruse), A Pageant for Dermuche, One Way Pendulum (N. F. Simpson), Much Ado About Nothing (William Shakespeare), Peer?, Bastien and Bastienne (Wolfgang Mozart), The Tragedy of Tragedies (Henry Fielding)
• 1964–1965: Six Characters in Search of an Author (Luigi Pirandello), The Caretaker (Harold Pinter)
• 1965–1966:
• 1966–1967: Women of Trachis (Sophocles), Blood Wedding (Federico García Lorca), Endgame (Samuel Beckett)
• 1967–1968: The Sixth Story
• 1968–1969: Caucasian Chalk Circle (Bertolt Brecht), Opus I
• 1969–1970: The Land of Heart's Desire (William Yeats), The Dumb Waiter (Harold Pinter), Sing to Me through Open Windows (Arthur Kopit), Deathwatch (Jean Genet), Johnny America Comes Home, The Strangler, Under Milk Wood (Dylan Thomas), The New Tenant (Eugène Ionesco), Escurial (Michel de Ghelderode), Uncle Vanya (Anton Chekhov), Opus II, The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Molière)
• 1970–1971: Dracula (Hamilton Deane & John L. Balderston), The Rainy Afternoon (William Inge), The Man with the Flower in his Mouth (Luigi Pirandello), Maid to Marry (Eugène Ionesco), Aoi no Ue (Zeami Motokiyo), The Collection (Harold Pinter), The Changeling (Thomas Middleton & William Rowley), Thieves Carnival (Jean Anouilh), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard)
• 1971–1972: Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II), A Cry of Players (William Gibson), The Homecoming (Harold Pinter), ¡Cuba Si! (Terrence McNally), Othello (William Shakespeare), The Dance of Death (August Strindberg), The Madness of Lady Bright (Lanford Wilson)
• 1972–1973: Gianni Schicchi (Giacomo Puccini & Giovacchino Forzano), Cop-Out (John Guare), Charlie, The Death of Everymom (Arnold Powell), Marat/Sade (Peter Weiss)
• 1973–1974: The Devil and Daniel Webster (Douglas Moore & Stephen Vincent Benét), The Horse, Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck), Woyzek (Georg Büchner), Readers' Concert Theatre Tour of Alabama, The Doctor in Spite of Himself/The Flying Doctor (Molière)
• 1974–1975: Hamlet (William Shakespeare), The Marriage of Figaro (Wolfgang Mozart), The Rehearsal (George Villiers), The Playboy of the Western World (John Millington Synge)
• 1975–1976: The Empire Builders (Boris Vian), Mourning Becomes Electra (Eugene O'Neill), The Brothers Karamazov (Jacques Copeau & Jean Croue), The Bald Soprano (Eugène Ionesco), Candide (Leonard Bernstein & Richard Wilbur)
• 1976–1977: Jumpers (Tom Stoppard), The Merry Wives of Windsor (William Shakespeare), La Ronde (Arthur Schnitzler)
• 1977–1978: The Medium (Gian Carlo Menotti), The Misanthrope (Molière), Major Barbara (George Bernard Shaw)
• 1978–1979: Orpheus in the Underworld (Jacques Offenbach), The Bald Soprano (Eugène Ionesco), Crawling Arnold, Episode in the Life of an Author (Jean Anouilh), Cop-Out (John Guare), Chinamen (Michael Frayn), The Undertaker, Fumed Oak (Noël Coward), What the Butler Saw (Joe Orton), Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett), The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Molière)
• 1979–1980: Albert Herring (Benjamin Britten), The Stronger (August Strindberg), The Madness of Lady Bright (Lanford Wilson), Why Hannah's Skirt Won't Stay Down (Tom Eyen), Curse of the Starving Class (Sam Shepard), The Lady's Maid (Katherine Mansfield), Bringing it All Back Home (Terrence McNally), The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams), Landscape (Harold Pinter), Out at Sea (Sławomir Mrożek), Stop the World – I Want to Get Off (Anthony Newley & Leslie Bricusse), Slices, Birdbath (Leonard Melfi), Mrs Warren's Profession (George Bernard Shaw), The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year (John Guare), Thinking Aloud, The American Dream (Edward Albee), A Thousand Clowns (Herb Gardner), The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Molière)
• 1980–1981: Cosi fan Tutti (Wolfgang Mozart), A Slight Ache (Harold Pinter), Red Cross (Sam Shepard), Daylight/Nightlight, Talley's Folly (Lanford Wilson), Postcard from Morocco (Dominick Argento & John Donahue), Pantaglieze (Michel de Ghelderode), Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Eric Blau & Mort Shuman), The Magic Flute (Wolfgang Mozart), The Day They Let the Lions Loose (Emilio Carballido), Wrong Number, The Richest Girl in the World Finds Happiness (Robert Patrick), 'dentity Crisis (Christopher Durang), The Lion in Winter (James Goldman)
• 1981–1982: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (Tennessee Williams), Krapp's Last Tape (Samuel Beckett), Candide (Leonard Bernstein & Richard Wilbur), Side by Side by Sondheim (Stephen Sondheim), The Good Doctor (Neil Simon), Wait Until Dark (Frederick Knott), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (William Shakespeare), The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year (John Guare)
• 1982–1983: Confetti, Gianni Schicchi/Suor Angelica (Giacomo Puccini & Giovacchino Forzano), A Doll's House (Henrik Ibsen), Ladyhouse Blues (Kevin O'Morrison), The Apple Tree (Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick), Berlin to Broadway (Gene Lerner & Kurt Weill), A Taste of Honey (Shelagh Delaney), Snoopy! The Musical (Larry Grossman, Hal Hackady, Warren Lockhart, Arthur Whitelaw, Michael Grace), The Knack (Ann Jellicoe)
• 1983–1984: Sganarelle and Co., Monday After the Miracle (William Gibson), Ernest in Love (Anne Croswell & Lee Pockriss), Rashomon (Fay & Michael Kanin), August, August, August (Pavel Kohout), The Blood Knot (Athol Fugard)
• 1984–1985: Alice in Wonderland (Henry Savile Clarke & Walter Slaughter), Crimes of the Heart (Beth Henley), Othello (William Shakespeare), Charlotte Sweet (Michael Colby & Gerald Jay Markoe), Bye Bye Miss American Pie, Whose Life is it Anyway? (Brian Clark)
• 1985–1986: Godspell (Stephen Schwartz & John-Michael Tebelak), Vinegar Tom (Caryl Churchill), Amelia Goes to the Ball (Gian Carlo Menotti), Signor Deluso (Thomas Pasatieri), Introductions and Goodbyes (Gian Carlo Menotti), Extremities (William Mastrosimone), 'night, Mother (Marsha Norman), Mandragola (Niccolo Machiavelli)
• 1986–1987: Sand Mountain (Romulus Linney), Antigone (Sophocles), Confetti II Cabaret, Ladyhouse Blues (Kevin O'Morrison)
• 1987–1988: The Fifth Sun (Nicholas Patricca), Little Shop of Horrors (Alan Menken & Howard Ashman), The Telephone and the Consul (Gian Carlo Menotti), Children of a Lesser God (Mark Medoff)
• 1988–1989: Tracers (John DiFusco), Curtain Call (Keith Trezise), A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare), Jesus Christ Superstar (Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice)
• 1989–1990: Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? (John R. Powers, James Quinn, Alaric Jans), ...and the Rain Came to Mayfield (Jason Milligan), The Elixir of Love (Gaetano Donizetti & Felice Romani), Hedda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen), Our Town (Thornton Wilder)

Notable faculty

• Alan Litsey

References

• Harvey, Alec (April 16, 2024) "‘Try to Remember’: As Birmingham-Southern College prepares to close, alumni and faculty recall the theater program through the decades." By Alec Harvey - accessed April 17, 2024