Wheaton College Arena Theater

About Us
Arena Theater has been producing quality theater at Wheaton College since 1972. Our program is small and ensemble-driven, with students from many different majors participating.
Our Plays
Arena Theater produces a three-play, twenty four performance Season each year in our 140 seat black box space in Jenks Hall. Offerings are chosen with a goal of giving our students and audiences a wide variety of experiences in style. We regularly include classics (Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen, Chekhov) and musicals, alongside the very best current plays from around the world. To supplement our own highly qualified design team, each year we employ exciting set, lighting, and costume designers from Chicago’s professional theater.
Our Curriculum
While we offer a complete curriculum in theate, there is no theater major at Wheaton College. Instead, students wishing to have a strong undergraduate theater education choose either to minor in theater (an attractive and popular option for students pursuing another major on campus) or to work toward a Communication major with a theater emphasis.
Our Core Group
Our theater ensemble, Workout, is the functioning core of the theater at Wheaton. Students in Workout build, act, and staff our three-play Season. Workout ranges in size from 30 to 40 students and meets together twice a week for an hour and a half. This unique group has built a deep tradition of excellence, preparing students for engaged lives in and and beyond the world of theater.