Dear Arts Patrons,

Welcome to this 2023–24 performing arts season production. The quality programming you are about to enjoy, and in which the university community takes so much pride, would be impossible without our friends, benefactors, and audience members. We are very pleased to have you join us.

This season is an expanded and eclectic mix of music, drama, music theatre, and stand-up comedy performed by outstanding artists ranging from nationally known acts to Viterbo students. The carefully crafted schedule reflects our dedication to upholding the legacy of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and their goal of sharing the wonder of the arts with everyone in the region.

To all Viterbo arts patrons, benefactors, sponsors, volunteers, artists, and students, thank you very much for your continued support.

“Pace e Bene”
Peace and all good

Rick Trietley
Viterbo University President

Welcome to the Viterbo University Conservatory for the Performing Arts. We’re so glad you’ve joined in this shared experience of live theatre and music. There’s nothing else quite like it.

This season promises a tapestry of emotions, stories, and melodies, from the enchanting glamour of 42nd Street to the quirky brilliance of Bat Boy: The Musical, and the soul-stirring magic of Godspell.

We’re pleased to bring you new works from some of the most current voices in American theatre. In She Kills Monsters, Obie-award-winner Qui Nguyen offers up a genre-bending “Dungeons and Dragons” romp that can make you laugh even when you’re not supposed to. Tar Beach by Tammy Ryan drops us into 1977 on a New York City rooftop where an overstressed electrical grid leads to a city-wide blackout and the loss of innocence.

Feel the warmth of the holidays with the music of A Viterbo Christmas: The Holly and The Ivy, blending timeless carols and modern classics to launch the season. And in February, mark your calendars for the jazz-inspired romantic short opera, Later That Same Evening.

Thank you for joining us on this artistic journey as we explore new worlds, challenge perspectives, and create memories that last long after the final curtain.

Rick Walters
Executive Artistic Director
Conservatory for the Performing Arts

When I was first telling friends and family that I was directing a new play called Tar Beach, my mother-in-law reflected on how she remembered her mother (who was born and raised in Queens) talking about “going to Tar Beach” when she was a kid. Memories of my time living in Queens came flooding back as well.

Memories. Moments captured in time. In the stage directions for the Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams writes, “memory…is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details, others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart.”

We get to explore this moment in time from Reenie’s perspective, her memory. It could be a coming-of-age story, and also a loss of innocence story, or a story about a family enduring hardship…or maybe it’s just the summer of 1977. Whatever this story is, with pieces omitted, exaggerated, and everything in between, it lives in Reenie. These moments are hers.

I’ve been watching a lot of Disney’s Inside Out with my toddler as of late, and in that movie, we see the formation of many of the main character’s “core memories” (the memories that give them their personality). I like to think that the moments and memories contained in Tar Beach are some of Reenie’s core memories. As we watch this 14-year-old child navigate and learn about the world around her, we know that these moments will inevitably stay with her and shape her into the woman she will become.

As you watch this story unfold, what memories are seated upon your heart? How are you transported back in time? And as you look back and listen to the moments in your life, what are some of the core memories that have shaped you?

I’ll leave you with the words of the playwright, Tammy Ryan, “While there is darkness in this story, there is love and humor woven throughout. Fight the darkness.” May we all fight the darkness of our memories.

Brittany Bara