Theater
Columbus State offers Theater classes for students seeking to expand their horizons, fulfill a prerequisite, or prepare for additional study in acting and production. All the world's a stage, and theater training can be part of a well-rounded education.
We also present a full slate of plays throughout the year: Every performance is free to students and the public!
Theatre Columbus State 2026-27 Season
A Year of Comedy, Drama, and Music
Fools
By Neil Simon
Directed by Frank Barnhart
November 18-21, 2026, at 8pm, November 19 matinee at 2pm
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 24 hours and fails to break the curse, he too becomes stupid. Will Leon break the curse, especially now that he’s fallen in love with a girl in the town? Time will tell in this comic fable by the award-winning playwright Neil Simon.
Indecent
By Paula Vogel
Directed by Sonda Staley
April 21-24, 2027, at 8pm, April 22 matinee at 2pm
Indecent, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, is a deeply moving play inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance – a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. Indecent charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it.
Album
By David Rimmer
Directed by Frank Barnhart
July 21-24, 2027, at 8pm, July 22 matinee at 2pm
Divided into eight scenes, which span their years at Martin Van Buren High School, the play chronicles the coming of age of two teenaged couples during the turbulent sixties. The language is frank, but unfailingly funny, as the four struggle with impending adulthood and their awakening sexuality. The action ranges from summer camp to senior prom, with the popular music of the period.