It’s easy to see and appreciate the performing art of a theater production at Slippery Rock University. All eyes are on the actors at a show. But behind the scenes is another world to experience. Contributors outside of the dozen or so cast members outnumber those on stage by about 2 to 1. And it’s not all technical work and following a script — there’s what Rebecca Morrice calls “creative problem-solving.”
“Whether it’s the props, costumes, sound and lighting or the actors, they’re all helping tell a story,” said Morice, professor of theatre and department chair. “Every bit of what we do is unique problem-solving. Sometimes it’s solving through design, sometimes it’s through performance. You can be handed a script, and it can be interpreted in a million different ways, so it all depends on the story that we’re trying to tell as a group.”
The SRU Theatre Department typically produces about four shows per academic year. In April 2025, SRU presented “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” which was directed by Burton Tedesco, SRU assistant professor of theatre, and adapted from a popular 2003 mystery novel about a 15-year-old boy who is a brilliant mathematician with behavior difficulties and social challenges.
The story epitomizes how the cast and crew, comprised of students and some faculty and staff, must think like they’re solving a math problem but also be creative and unconstrained by the script, guidelines or expectations of the world. Like the boy, they make the story work for them.
