Annie Russell Theatre Announces 2025-26 Season

The 2025–26 season marks 93 years for the historic Annie Russell Theatre, one of two venues featuring student artists from the Rollins theatre and dance department. There’s nothing dusty about their year ahead.

“These titles span centuries,” shares theatre professor Marianne DiQuattro, “from a Greek tragedy first performed over 2,500 years ago to a world premiere of a new play about Eatonville’s own Zora Neale Hurston. Our season is bold, with textured storytelling and song and dance on the Annie Russell Theatre stage all year long.”

Subscription packages are on sale now and range from $56 to $70, giving audiences the opportunity to opt in or out of an “R-rated” title. The theatre and dance department offers many more year-round programs to the community, including the student-directed Sally K. Series, the New Playwrights Series, shows from Rollins Improv Players, and a spring dance concert. For more information, visit the Annie Russell Theatre’s website or call the box office at 407-646-2145.

Iphigenia in Aulis

By Euripides | Transadapted by Anne Washburn

September 25–28, 2025

A live band performing original songs. A chorus of contemporary dancers. It’s a Greek classic unlike any you’ve seen before. An angry nation seethes and a great army thirsts for blood, but their battle ships are stuck in Aulis. For Gen. Agamemnon, there’s a way forward to glory: “kill your daughter, Iphigenia.” Only then will the gods be satisfied and ignite the winds. Iphigenia and her mother, Clytemnestra, arrive in Aulis to a plan in motion— sacrifice the child, win the war.

Let the People Sing

By Conner Chaumley ’26, Yasmine Hudson ’27, and Max Payton ’27 with Marianne DiQuattro

November 13–16, 2025

It’s 1933, and Zora Neale Hurston is in Eatonville, ready to present a musical revue written alongside her ensemble of Black performers. A professor at Rollins has invited the show to campus—not to the newly built Annie Russell Theatre but to the Rec Hall. While evidence remains of the event—a program, letters, a breathless review in the student paper—much is undiscovered. Until now. Let the People Sing invites audiences to reckon with our shared history and hear Hurston’s voice ring out, finally, from the stage of the Annie Russell.

Expressions Dance Concert

December 5–6, 2025

Expressions is an eclectic program featuring a wide variety of dance styles, including tap, jazz, contemporary, musical theatre, and more. With student, faculty, guest choreographers, and more than 50 dancers representing nearly every major on campus, Expressions is an invigorating display of artistry and a feast for the senses.

POTUS (Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive)

By Selina Fillinger

February 12–22, 2026

Get ready for a wild, sharp, and riotous R-rated comedy in POTUS. In this fast-paced political satire, seven brilliant women aim to avoid catastrophe despite the bumbling ineptitude of the men and systems that surround them. This contemporary farce is a witty, fearless ride through the high-stakes absurdities of leadership. If you’re up for vulgarity and adult themes, this title is a side-splitting and searing celebration of the fabulous and fuming women holding it all together.

Anastasia: The Musical

Book by Terrence McNally | Music by Stephen Flaherty | Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

April 16–19, 2026

Loosely based on the animated film, Anastasia: The Musical follows Anya, a young woman with a mysterious past struggling to survive in post-Revolution Russia. When Anya meets two affable conmen, she sets off to discover who she is. Carried by an enchanting score, we travel from the glum streets of St. Petersburg to a lavish 1920s Parisian opera house. This work of historical fiction brings a legend to life with heart, opulence, and intrigue. The message echoes across a century: No matter where life takes you, you can always find your way home.