Miriam Ellis International Playhouse

The UCSC International Playhouse  started in 2001 as a somewhat "wild UCSC" experiment; it has  thus far presented almost 100  theater pieces--ranging from classic and traditional works, to examples  of somewhat experimental contemporary dramatic expression. The name change occurred in 2013, when thanks to the ceaseless and untiring efforts of then Cowell Provost Faye Crosby, and community member, Faye Alexander, who recruited a long list of donors, and due to the great generosity of Marieke and Jeff Rothschild, the Playhouse became fully endowed. Thus far, the languages that have been represented in programs include Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese. Latin, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian and Spanish, all with English supertitles. Original presentations have been created by Language faculty and their students, a Japanese musical, and a Russian comic piece, were  two of the most successfully conceived and performed. Works from the Japanese 12th century Kyögen  school, deftly interpreted by Sakae Fujita and her hard-working students, gave us many comedic and pleasurable moments. Students trained diligently to capture the stylized modes of movement  and linguistic expression demanded of the genre, rarely performed in the US.except by visiting troupes, generally touring major cities. From the rich domain of theatrical llterature of the past, MEIP has offered works in Spanish, French, Chinese, and Russian, as well as Japanese. On occasion, directors in German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and French have adapted appropriate short stories or works from other literary genres, for their students to interpret dramatically.

Cowell College, Stevenson College and the Department of Languages and Applied Linguistics will present the 20th season of the Miriam Ellis international Playhouse (MEIP XX), May 15, 16, and 17, 2020 at 8:00 PM in the Stevenson Event Center at UCSC.

Several fully-staged theater pieces in different languages (TBA), with English supertitles, performed by Language students and directed by their instructors.

No admission charge; parking in adjacent lots is $5.00.

Check regularly for more information.

Coming soon a catalog of past performances, including videos and photos of the performances, will be found here. 

Learning a language through practice and performances of plays has proven to be more effective than just practicing the language in a classroom. Click here to learn more about other students' experiences and find out if such a learning environment is the one for you!

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to contact us!

If you have any questions or wish to find out more information.

Learn how the Playhouse came to be and how the performances are put forth for non-French speakers. Click here to read more!