Playwright Sarah Ruhl came to Washington University Wednesday, April 3, to meet the cast of “In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)” and to lead the Performing Arts Department’s annual Helen Clanton Morrin Lecture. Ruhl, author of the play, sat down with Wash. U.

Do you like lesbians? How about quiche? What about hilarious and beautifully written plays? Whatever your answers to those questions, “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” is playing at the Wash. U. Co-op on Friday, March 29 and Saturday, March 30. The show is being put on by student theater group Thyrsus.

Wash. U.’s Performing Arts Department is proud to present its new program held at the Primary Stages Theater in New York City. Performing Arts Department playwright-in-residence Carter Lewis says that the program has been in the works for the past year, but now it is finally ready for student enrollment. It offers courses that extend far beyond Wash. U.

Funny, sad, beautiful, undressed. It might be everything you’d ever want out of a theatrical performance. There’s dancing, singing, near-nudity, sex, love, laughter, drinking, pot, drugs—and even chocolate.

The Performing Arts Department’s production of “Cabaret,” an eccentric musical set in a raunchy nightclub in 1930s Berlin, was successfully stirring in its first round of performances at the Edison Theatre last weekend.

“All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players.” That famous, ubiquitous line is from William Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy “As You Like It,” the final show in the Performing Art Department’s (PAD) series of performances this year.

When most people think of a play, they also think of a theater with a stage. In its latest production, Thyrsus, Washington University’s oldest student theater group, does not accept this traditional view. This weekend, Thyrsus will put on an original play, “Somebody Important,” at the Eliot Hall Loading Dock on Snow Way.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” may date to the 1590s, but the Performing Arts Department’s latest production of Shakespeare’s classic is as fresh as ever. All elements of the show contribute to a magical experience, as the audience travels to Fairyland and back. Make every effort to see “Dream” this weekend; even an ass would not miss it.

If the writers of “That ’70s Show” and “Glee” were to collaborate, “9 to 5,” an exercise in camp at the Fox Theatre until Feb. 20, would emerge. Dolly Parton, a lead in the original 1980 movie, provides the music and lyrics.

With the cast of Glee and their catchy show tunes springing to the spotlight, it seems odd that out of Washington University’s many a capella groups, not one has focused on Broadway show music—until now. A new a capella group, GhostLights, came together in the spring of last year and its members are dedicated to singing exclusively songs from the theater.