A great way to get involved on campus is to join one of our student theater organizations or support their shows and events. Here you will find the five main student theater organizations, learn what they’re about, and see what they have planned.
Deep End
Deep End student theater is a group that sees itself as having two roles, one as a production company and the other as an educational organization.
Deep End student theater is one of the largest organizations on campus and is looking to do five productions this year. No dates for productions are presently set, but keep your eyes out for posters advertising shows appear a little later in the semester. Deep End also hosts theater workshops, monologue workshops, and audition workshops as well as a number of other theater-related events. Anyone can join and act, or even apply to direct a production. Meetings are bi-weekly on Tuesdays from 5 to 6 p.m. in the green room of the Theater Building.
Alpha Phi Omega
Alpha Phi Omega (APO) is a service organization that does not do any theater productions but instead engages with the theater community more broadly.
APO is working on creating a textbook library for the theater department. APO also collaborates with the Northfield Arts Guild, fundraises, and does theater and arts-based service projects. Anyone can join and apply to be a board member.
POC Ole Theater
POC Ole Theater is, in the words of their Presence description, “a space for BIPOC students to gather and empower one another in creating theater artworks and spaces that represent their identities, beliefs, and backgrounds.”
POC Ole Theater is hosting events and looking for new recruits as well. “This is Us” will be the first production of the fall, followed by another show centered around Black hair. Any BIPOC Ole can join this org, which is still looking for people to audition.
Myswyken Theater Company
Myswyken Theater Company is a selective student theater company at St. Olaf wherein the members audition and, if accepted, remain in the company for their entire time at the college. They produce multiple shows a year and plan to adapt Dr. Seuss’ “How The Grinch Stole Christmas!”— in a show entitled “Grinch!”— in December.
Myswyken is also looking to do other events this year, including a campus scavenger hunt in late October or early November. Although this organization has already had its required auditions, students are encouraged to come and support their events.
The Muse Project
The Muse Project is a student theater organization that seeks to explore gender presentation and break down the gender binary with their theater productions.
Muse typically produces one show a semester. 2021’s fall show, “Circle Mirror Transformation,” is in Holland 502 on Nov. 5.
The show, written by American playwright Annie Baker and directed by Thomas Bryant ’22, follows five members of a drama class at a community center in Vermont.
While St. Olaf’s Theater and Lyric Theater departments produce many wonderful shows, there is also a wealth of activity in the student theater community, giving way to a number of excellent opportunities to both create and enjoy theater on campus!
