Playshop Theatre
On Sale Now: This Random World
The Myth of Serendipity by Steven Dietz
Interconnected lives, happenstance, and the tragi-comic potential of near-misses
March 20-23, 2025
For questions or to reserve by phone, contact Benjamin Bargar at the Box Office (814) 332-3414.
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The 2025-26 Playshop Theater Season
An Evening of One-Acts on Climate Change
By Climate Change Theatre Action
Produced by Michael Mehler
A global theatre festival exploring climate change. Allegheny College and Meadville will be among hundreds of communities that participate as a way to encourage local and global action.
September 19-20, 2025
High School Coven
By Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
Directed by Rachel Nicole Hoey
Uniting to get through the good, the bad, and homecoming, four high school girls form a coven to protect themselves from the challenges of high school.
November 14-16, 2025
Marie Antoinette
By David Adjmi
Directed by Mark Cosdon
A nation’s aristocracy is under siege; the population is hungry; vanity and good looks only take you so far. Vive la révolution!
March 27-29, 2026
On Stage Gallery
About the Playshop Theatre
The Playshop Theatre at Allegheny College was inaugurated by Alice Huntington Spalding in 1929 with her production of Dear Brutus in Arter Hall. In the intervening years, the Playshop has produced over 500 plays including classic works by Shakespeare, Molière, Shaw, Williams, O’Neill, Miller, Wilder, and Coward, contemporary playwrights such as Sam Shepard, Tom Stoppard, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wendy Wasserstein, Tina Howe, Tony Kushner, Caryl Churchill, and Paula Vogel, and musicals including The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Pirates of Penzance, and Carousel, as well as original works by faculty, students and visiting artists. In 2009 we moved into our new home in the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts. The Playshop season is now performed in the Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre.
Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre 
The award-winning Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre, featuring a 40-foot Proscenium stage with technical systems and architectural features designed to support professional-level learning, both on-stage and backstage.
The horseshoe shape of the theatre’s seating, along with its balcony, creates a closeness and synergy between audience and actor. And the technical aspects of the theatre (including the catwalk, lighting grids, and pipe grids) are innovatively exposed, providing a unique behind-the-scenes perspective to teachers, learners , and spectators alike.
The Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre on campus is named in the honor of Gladys Black, ‘54, a trustee of Allegheny College. In 2015 she received the Alumni Medal, the college’s oldest and most prestigious alumni award. Her generous financial support of the College directly touches the lives of countless students. She has been a generous supporter of the College’s general endowment fund. She funded the Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre in the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts in 2006. Earlier, she replaced seats in the Playshop Theatre in Alden Hall in 2001, donated a gift for renovating dormitories in 2000, and supports the Annual Fund every year. Gladys was a member of the President’s Society, Timothy Alden Council, and William Bentley Legacy Society.
Major or Minor in Theatre
Your love of theatre doesn’t have to end when the curtain lowers. Allegheny College offers a theatre major and minor.
Featured News
Year in Photos 2024
The 2024 year brought so many exciting and historic events to campus. We’re happy to share these visual highlights of the life and times at Allegheny College.
