Fall 2021
The Grand Inquisitor
In collaboration with Iowa City Book Festival and University of Iowa Libraries’ “Dostoevsky at 200” exhibit.
October 21 – 31, 2021
University of Iowa Main Library Gallery
Dostoyevsky’s chilling parable about life, religious faith, and the stories that hold our society together. A monologue of urgency and intensity adapted from The Brothers Karamazov.
Spring 2022
by Mat Smart
Directed by: Adam Knight
February 4 – 20, 2022 (previews run January 27 – February 3)
On the night Apollo 15 lands on the moon, a draft dodger steals home to Eden Prairie, Minnesota from Canada. He risks arrest to deliver a message to a young woman from his high school class. This beautifully etched play by the writer of The Agitators challenges notions of our own bravery and the true cost of freedom. Learn more…
What’s Going On?: a 1971 Cabaret
Curated by: Chris Okiishi & Patrick DuLaney
February 25 & 26 @ 7:30 pm in the West Family Lobby!
This first cabaret in our new space salutes to music of 1971 to accompany the play Eden Prairie, 1971. Featuring an all-star group of local singers, including Mia Gimenez, Anthony Hendricks, Carrie Houchins-Witt, Kristin Behrendt DeGrazia, and many others will bring their considerable talents to interpreting over a dozen songs from this era in our brand-new lobby – fit for cabarets! Learn more…
The Niceties
by Eleanor Burgess
Directed by Curtis M. Jackson
March 11 – 27, 2022
Academia is the new battlefront. Zoe, a black student at a liberal arts college, is called into her white professor’s office to discuss her paper about slavery’s effect on the American Revolution. What begins as a polite clash in perspectives explodes into an urgent debate about race, history, and power. Learn more…
Trouble Is… A Musical Cabaret
Curated by: Chris Okiishi & Patrick DuLaney
March 18 & 19 @ 10:00pm in the West Family Lobby!
Our next cabaret will accompany the play The Niceties–a two character tour de force focusing on identity, academia, and in particular racial identity. The cabaret will continue this conversation in words and song featuring several local artists including The Niceties actor Crystal Marie Stewart, singer/actors Anthony Hendricks and Jessie Shaw, up-and-coming songwriter and performer Kalvin, and a special appearance by vocalist and Mayor of Iowa City Bruce Teague. Come join us for an unforgettable evening! LEARN MORE…
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
by Dave Malloy
April 22 – May 8, 2022
The Iowa premiere of an Obie-Award winning “electropop opera” based on a scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. A bold, ambitious, and celebratory piece of theatre to mark Riverside’s first season in its new home. LEARN MORE…
Curated by: Chris Okiishi & Patrick DuLaney
May 1 & 2 @ 7:30pm in the West Family Lobby!
To see, or not to see? There is no question! Come to the cabaret, and help us launch our exciting summer production of Henry V with some of the finest vocalists in the corridor! We promise laughter, beauty and even (a little) history! Be there or beheaded!! LEARN MORE…
The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged
by Jessica Bedford, Kathryn MacMillan, Charlotte Northeast, and Meghan Winch
May 12 – 29, 2022
A fun, funny, and fast-paced romp through the masterpieces of Jane Austen. Three nimble actors take on all of Austen’s beloved heroines, friends, and love interests—and her incisive social satire—in just 80 minutes. Emma, Elinor, Mr. Darcy, and more. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that an audience in possession of high spirits must be in want of a ticket to this big-hearted comedy that will delight Janeites and newcomers alike.” This piece comes to RT via Tiny Dynamite, a very cool Philadelphia company!