Chicago

Ladies and gentlemen, #LiveFromCookCountyJail: a very special performance brought you to by the ladies of Murderess’ Row. Hear their pleas and decide for yourself if they did it.

Purple Shorts 2019

Night 1: Jaywalking, When It Arrives, Why Am I Here

Night 2: Happy Accidents, Boundaries, Roommates the Musical

Jaywalking

If/Then

With unforgettable songs and a deeply moving story, If/Then is a fascinating, ambitious and original new musical. If/Then simultaneously follows one woman’s two possible life paths, painting a deeply moving portrait of the lives that we lead, as well as the lives that we might have led.

Elizabeth, a city planner, moves back to New York to restart her life in the city of infinite possibilities. When her carefully designed plans collide with the whims of fate, Elizabeth’s life splits into two parallel paths. If/Then follows both stories simultaneously, as this modern woman faces the intersection of choice and chance.

If/Then is a contemporary Broadway musical about living in New York today and all of the possibilities of tomorrow. With a powerhouse role for a leading lady and rich and complex supporting roles, this show celebrates dynamite talent and the power of great storytelling.

Purple Shorts 2018

Purple Shorts is Theatre Western’s annual one-act student-written play festival. Come bring your valentine! Go with friends! Or enjoy some kick-ass theatre by yourself! It’s an event everyone can enjoy!

• Evening at a Wartime Farmhouse
• Forks and Knives
• I Found My Friends, They’re In My Head
• Siblings, Friends We Don’t Choose
• Taxi
• The Plate Collector

Our Town

This meta-theatrical play tells the story of a small American town, Grover’s Corner, through the everyday lives of its citizens as they grow up, get married and discover what life is truly about.

A Chorus Line

Purple Shorts 2017

Purple Shorts is an annual student written, directed, produced and acted play festival. This is a wet/dry event and the perfect place to bring your Valentines’ date!

Twelve Angry Men

Twelve Angry Men is a legal drama about a jury that deliberates the guilt of a man on the basis of reasonable doubt. This show explores themes of prejudice, class, anonymity, and justice. This production of Twelve Angry Men will be implementing gender blind casting.

10% of ticket sales will be donated to Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto.

Spring Awakening

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

With the mischievous McMurphy as the newest addition to the ward of a psychiatric hospital run by the eerily stoic Nurse Ratched, this clash of hot head and cool collectedness will not go smoothly.

Into the Woods

Purple Shorts 2015

February 9:

Breaking and Entering My Heart

Rosenwood Alcoholic Support Group

Simon the Brave

February 10:

Hard Rocks

Happiness Only Real

That’s a Wrap

Play It Again, Sam

Allan Felix has a thing for Humphrey Bogart. What he doesn’t have is “Bogey’s” way with women. Bookish, insecure, and recently separated, Allan turns to his friends, and his number one leading man, to help him get back to the dating game. Despite his best efforts to channel Bogart’s “cool, calm and collected” suave, Allan’s awkward, neurotic, disheveled nature leads him to a string of hilarious encounters as he tries to work his charm on a bevy of beautiful dames. In the end what works, and on whom, surprises everyone, and proves that there may be more to finding love than just being Bogey.

Rent

Tickets: $15 adults, $12 students; available at Western Connections and at the door.

Purple Shorts: Love, Death and Shorts

This year’s Purple Shorts will feature shows ranging from passionate love to crimes of passion. Come for a night filled with comedy, suspense, and mystery!

Tickets: $10 for one night, $15 for both; available at Western Connections and at the door.

Boeing Boeing

Boeing Boeing is about a bachelor living in France who happens to have three flight attendant fiancées. A day of hilarity occurs when all three women’s schedules line up and the bachelor struggles to keep his ruse alive.

Tickets: $15; available online and at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800.

Xanadu

Xanadu the musical is a spin on (aka spoof of) the 1980s cult classic film of the same name. In the musical, a Greek muse, Clio, descends from Mount Olympus to Venice Beach, California in the 1980s to divinely inspire a struggling artist, Sonny, through the creation of a roller disco. But when Clio, disguised as an Australian roller girl named Kira, falls into forbidden love with the mortal Sonny, she risks eternal banishment to the netherworld.

Tickets: $15; available at Western Connections and at the door.

Do You Take the Browns

Between Two Armrests

Speed Round

Dear E

The Profession of Love

All Hail

Purple Shorts: Debriefed

Tickets: $10 per night, $15 for both nights; available at Western Connections and at the door.

Jerome: The Historical Spectacle

In the mid-nineteenth century a man who became known as Jerome was alleged to have been found on the shores of Baie Sainte-Marie, Nova Scotia, mute and missing both legs. He lived for over forty years with a local family. Many attempts were made to locate his relatives, with hopefuls rumoured to have travelled from as far away as Alabama and Milan, but when he died in 1912 the mystery of his background was still unsolved. The story of Jerome, the Mystery Man of Sandy Cove, has turned up in various collections of folk history over the years. A play centred on Jerome’s appearances as a sideshow curiosity.

Tickets: $20 adults, $15 students; available online and at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800.

Hard Candy

Legally Blonde

Omigod, you guys! Get ready for one of the biggest, brightest (and pinkest) musicals you’ll ever see! Boasting a large cast and crew representing all faculties at the University of Western Ontario, Theatre Western is proud to present its largest production to date, Legally Blonde: The Musical!

The musical tracks the exuberant Elle Woods as she follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School in a quest to win him back. What ensues is 190 minutes of non-stop energy, hilarity, athleticism and, perhaps, some unexpected social relevance!

Tickets: $12 students (in advance), $15 for others; available online, at InfoSource and at the door.

Starhole

Sexcapades

The Legend of the Christine Wedding

Clouds

Purple Shorts 2012

Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door; available at InfoSource.

The Butcher

My Religion Is You

Prodigal

Escape from Happiness

First produced in 1991, Escape from Happiness is the third and final of Walker’s East End Plays series which chronicles the hardships and mishaps of the dysfunctional Quinn family. In this black comedy, the characters grapple with the challenges of keeping their family together in the midst of their neighbourhood’s criminal scene, which is spiralling out of control.

Tickets: $15 general, $10 students; available online, at InfoSource, and at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800.

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change

This celebration of the mating game takes on the truths and myths behind that contemporary conundrum know as “the relationship.” Act I explores the journey from dating and waiting to love and marriage, while Act II reveals the agonies and triumphs of in-laws and newborns, trips in the family car and pick-up techniques of the geriatric set. This hilarious revue pays tribute to those who have loved and lost, to those who have fallen on their face at the portal of romance, to those who have dared to ask, “Say, what are you doing Saturday night?”

Tickets: $12; available at InfoSource and at the door.

Lucky Son of a Gun

Tickets: $10; available at InfoSource and at the door.

Matt’s Contract

Tickets: $10; available at InfoSource and at the door.

Dancing from the Ground

Tickets: $10; available at InfoSource and at the door.

Purple Shorts 2011

Tickets: $10; available at InfoSource and at the door.

The Inner Me

Tickets: $10; available at InfoSource and at the door.

A Mere Player

Tickets: $10; available at InfoSource and at the door.

Bed Springs, Kings and Scary Things

Tickets: $10; available at InfoSource and at the door.

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest is the hilarious adventure of two dashing young bachelors and the outrageous deceptions they find themselves in over love. In order to leave his dull country life behind, Jack visits his made-up brother Earnest in the city. In the city, Jack, with his playboy pal Algernon in tow, takes on the persona of Ernest and falls in love with Gwendolyn. Algernon, when learning that Jack leaves his beautiful young ward Cecily back in the country, visits the country pretending to be the brother that Jack always visits. Pandemonium ensues when these two would-be Ernests find themselves face-to-face and needing to explain who the real Ernest is to their new loves.

Tickets: students $10, general $15; available at InfoSource and the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Six young people, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser.

Tickets: Adults $15, students $10, available at InfoSource.

Purple Shorts: Exposed

A Student Written One-Act Play Festival

Monday, February 8th

• Ruthless (written and directed by John Vincent)
• Only When I Sleep (written and directed by Roya Hakami)
• Alone Again (written and directed by Patrick Barfoot)

Tuesday, February 9th

• Eau de Toilette (written and directed by Casey Conforzi)
• A Few Last Words Before I Say Goodbye (written and directed by Josh Litman)
• Untitled (written and directed by Justin Sahota)
• Stalled (written by Kierston Drier and directed by Jordan Brown)

Tickets: $7 per night. There will also be a limited number of tickets sold at the door, but get your tickets early because they are going to go fast!

Doors open at 9:30pm.

Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening was first performed in 1906 and was immediately labelled as obscene, offensive and radical. Indeed, the issues addressed were radical: teenage sex, suicide, abortion and masturbation. However, even more radical was the authentic and realistic way in which these issues were portrayed.

Now more than 100 years later, this daring depiction of teenage self-discovery is more relevant than ever. Spring Awakening is a vibrant and poignant story about a group of young teenagers coming of age despite their repressed and religious upbringings. In a world where adults hold all the cards, three school friends experience the exhilarating and turbulent journey into adulthood and embark on a voyage of personal discovery and sexual awakening.

The story is all at once sad, disturbing, and touchingly funny. Spring Awakening allows the audience to see sex, violence, puberty and great expectations through the eyes of youth.

Note: This show is rated 14+ due to mature subject matter.

Tickets: $15, $10 students. Available at InfoSource in the UCC Atrium and the Grand Theatre box office.

The Laramie Project

The savage murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in October 1998 left deep wounds in the psyche of Laramie, Wyoming. Soon after Matthew’s death, Kaufman and members of his Tectonic Theater Project made a series of visits to Laramie over an 18-month period, conducting hundreds of face-to-face interviews with the town’s citizens in order to create this piece. The words and voices of these people, including the college student who first discovered Matthew’s broken body, Matthew’s friends, teachers, the two young men responsible for his death, and Matthew’s father, make this a deeply moving and brutally realistic dramatic experience. This true story of hate, fear, hope, and courage touched and changed many lives and will do so for everyone who watches a performance of this theatrical masterpiece.

Tickets $15 or $10 for Western students, available at InfoSource on the Western Campus in UCC, through the Grand Theatre Box Office, or online from The Grand.