Southeastern Louisiana University will soon begin its fall 2025 semester and with it comes new faces, fresh opportunities and an exciting lineup for the university theatre’s mainstage season. A total of four shows will take center stage during the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters.
Dr. Anne-Liese Fox, theatre instructor at SLU, said, “We are not skipping a beat and we have four exciting productions lined up for the 2025-2026 Mainstage season. It is going to be a thrilling time.”
Premiering first in the mainstage lineup is author and playwright Rob Florence’s “Katrina’s Path.” Running from Wednesday, Oct. 22-Saturday, Oct. 25, “Katrina’s Path” is a collection of standalone monologues portraying seven New Orleanians and their experiences before, amid and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the breaking of the levees.
“Katrina’s Path” was first produced at the University of New Orleans and would later be published by Original Works Publishing in 2007. Florence’s play was the first published play about Hurricane Katrina and was a regional finalist in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Florence, who received his master’s in playwriting at the University of New Orleans in 2008, is also a representative of the Dramatists Guild and a co-founder of the Gulf Coast Playwrights. Other works from Florence include “Burn K-Doe Burn!” and “Holy Wars.”
Carter Cortez, SLU’s Theatre Society (APO) Vice President, says “Katrina’s Path promises to be a deeply emotional and challenging production — the kind of show that truly pushes actors, which I always appreciate.”
Next on the mainstage lineup is “Winds of Change: Truth, Power and Blood An Evening of Modernist Drama” curated by Southeastern instructor Chad Winters, and set to run from Wednesday, Nov. 19-Saturday, Nov. 22.
“Winds of Change” is a collection of scenes and monologues from early modern drama and its most influential playwrights, such as John Steinbeck and Tennessee Williams.
The third production in the limelight is Howard Ashman’s “Little Shop of Horrors” which will run from Friday, March 13-Saturday, March 14 and from Friday, March 20-Saturday, March 21.
The iconic and critically acclaimed musical follows a flower shop assistant named Seymour, who happens upon a peculiar, bloodthirsty plant, and is tasked with making sure it stays fed.
Directed by both Southeastern alumnus and instructor Jeff Polito, “Little Shop of Horrors” is a co-production with the Columbia Theatre and Southeastern’s Department of Music and Performing Arts.
The finale for Southeastern Theatre’s mainstage season is Inkslinger Winner Bella Poynton’s “The Appliance Department,” showing from Wednesday, April 29-Saturday, May 2.
“The Appliance Department” is about two store robots who yearn to be purchased and brought to a loving home, until a new model arrives and sparks a rebellious dream of freedom.
Every year, Southeastern Theatre hosts an international playwriting contest where the winning playwright receives a fully produced production as part of the mainstage season.
Poynton’s prize-winning play is “touching and humorous as it asks ethical questions of human consciousness and our limits of human empathy,” according to Fox.
For more information on the upcoming theatre performances, visit the Southeastern Theatre page.
