Lewis & Clark College Theatre Department presents
2026 Theatre Thesis Festival
Theatre Thesis Festival is the creative culmination of our Majors’ work in the Theatre Department. All senior theatre majors are all enrolled in TH 450, Senior Seminar. The Seminar provides the academic context for a capstone experience that includes both a creative project and a written thesis.
Because we have five concentrations within the major, the Thesis Festival features a mixture of productions, presentations, and original play readings. Senior capstone experiences both “summarize” a student’s Theatre Department training and push it forward. All of them are writing theses that explore the theoretical and historical contexts of their creative work.
The planning for these projects extends over the course of senior year. Proposals for capstone projects are submitted early in the fall and are subsequently discussed, revised, and revised again. What you see in the Festival is the result of a year’s worth of planning and work. We are excited to showcase the variety of Departmental work – in directing, acting, devising, stage design, technical direction, and playwriting!
2026 Theatre Thesis Festival Schedule
Confessions of the Mad
April 22 & 24, 7:30pm
Lead Artist: Brodie S. Joseph
Confessions of the Mad is a play based upon three of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous works: The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Raven. Originally a radio drama, this stage adaptation follows Edgar Allan Poe himself as he visits a mental institution called Ravenswood Lunatic Asylum, so that he can interview the inmates there. He is hoping this will ignite his passion for writing and has chosen to seek out inmates so he hopefully can gain insight as to why murder happens. This is a story about mystery, memory, horror, murder, and madness.
Commencement
April 22 & 24, 8:30pm
Lead Artists: Samantha Knofler
Commencement is about how we, as humans, grieve in the aftermath of tragedy through different perspectives that often go ignored. After an atrocity, how are victims heard and how can we continue living when it feels as though everything is gone?
I Mourned for All of Spring
April 22 & 24, 9:30pm
Lead Artists: Jazz Buskin
“Any regrets?”
“The Shame.”
Bouncing between relationships, Spring’s story is about the vain attempts we make to find worth and identity through romance, and the sacrifices we make to negotiate who we are. I Mourned For All Of Spring is the fractured, disembodied nature of memory, exploring how we piece it together in retrospect in order to forgive our own humanity.
All About Adeline
April 23 & 25, 7:30pm
Lead Artist: Marlee S. Zimmer
Determined to control her surroundings in a worsening break from reality, Adeline Thomas-Portoco begins to envision her life as a stage show where everything from the set to the costumes to the dialogue of the characters must follow her “artistic vision.” Comedy, horror, drama or musical, one thing’s for sure: it’s All About Adeline. Join us for this outstanding piece which will be like nothing you’ve seen before!
Yerma
April 23 & 25, 8:30pm
Lead Artists: Josh Nguyen, Andrew Van Vorhees, Evelyn Gore, Marion Richardson-Beatty, and Bertie Mahoney
What happens when we refuse to let go of a dream? Adapted from Lorca’s 1934 Spanish tragedy, our Yerma thrusts the titular anti-heroine into the modern world and asks just how far we are willing to go to get what we want.
Phantasmagoria
April 24 3:00pm
Lead Artist: Ellie Schwartz
This is a play about storytelling. It is about how we make sense of the narratives of our lives; how we discover ourselves through the stories we tell; how the art we make reflects the world we live in. More than that, it’s about the people — the complicated, messy, brilliant people at the center of this story.
TICKETS ARE FREE but reservations are recommended.
Tickets can be reserved through our Online Box Office or at the Fir Acres Theatre Box Office one hour before the show.
