Phantom Tollbooth

Northwest University

Directed by Chrystal Helmcke

Fall 2021

Here are Milo’s adventures in the Land of Wisdom, where he’s forced to think about many new things. Milo learns of the argument between King Azaz and his brother, the Mathemagician, whose disagreement over words and numbers has led to the banishment of Princesses Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason. Milo is dispatched to rescue the princesses from the Land of Ignorance.

Humbug, Tock, Milo, Rhyme, Reason, Azaz, Mathemagician, Ministers

Cinderella

Northwest University

Directed by Chrystal Helmcke

Spring 2020 - Canceled due to COVID-19

Here are Milo’s adventures in the Land of Wisdom, where he’s forced to think about many new things. Milo learns of the argument between King Azaz and his brother, the Mathemagician, whose disagreement over words and numbers has led to the banishment of Princesses Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason. Milo is dispatched to rescue the princesses from the Land of Ignorance.

As You Like It

Northwest University

Directed by Chrystal Helmcke

Fall 2019

Uncertain of their standing in court and fearing for their lives, Rosalind and Orlando are forced into exile in the Forest of Arden, only to become entangled in a beguiling game of love, lust, and mistaken identity. One of Shakespeare's great comedies, As You Like It subverts the traditional rules of romance, confusing gender roles, nature, and politics.

Denise, Ms. Le Beau, Charles, Jacques De Boys

Celia (Court & Country), Anna (Court & Country)

Rosalind (Court, Country, Wedding), Duke Fredericka

Fools

Northwest University

Directed by Chrystal Helmcke

Fall 2018

Leon Tolchinsky is ecstatic. He’s landed a terrific teaching job in an idyllic Russian hamlet. When he arrives, he finds people sweeping dust from the stoops back into their houses and people milking upside down to get more cream. The town has been cursed with Chronic Stupidity for two hundred years, and Leon’s job is to break the curse. No one tells him that if he stays over twenty-four hours and fails to break the curse, he too becomes stupid. But he has fallen in love with a girl so stupid, she has only recently learned how to sit down.

Snetsky, Lenya, Slovitch, Yenchna, Mishkin

The Tempest

Northwest University

Directed by Brittany Villars

Fall 2017

Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, uses his skill at controlling natural forces to cause the shipwreck of his old opponents, forcing them to seek refuge on the island where he and his daughter Miranda have been living in exile, and setting the stage for Miranda to fall in love with Ferdinand, the prince of Naples.

Prospero, Gonzalo, Antonio, Miranda, & Ferdinand

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Northwest University

Directed by Chrystal Helmcke

Spring 2017

Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm's-eve view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare's play. In Tom Stoppard's best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.

The Player, Tragedians, Guildenstern, & Rosencrantz

Guildenstern, Claudius, Gertrude, Tragedian, & Rosencrantz

Phantom Tollbooth

Cinderella

As You Like It

Fools

The Tempest

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Penn State Theoretical Projects