It’s that time of year. With everyone soon returning to LSU, there’s a group of students and professors getting ready for more than just exams and readings.

The LSU School of Theatre announced its 2025-2026 season lineup in March, and though it is still summer, directors, designers and actors are preparing for their next performances.

Here’s everything to know about the shows this school year.

Mainstage shows

On LSU’s main stage, “The Courtship of Winifred Edwards,” written by Maggie Smith, is the season opener. It’s a show set in America in the 1890s following the union of two families as Anthony Tailor tries to win the affections of Winifred Edwards. The show will run from Oct. 2 to 12.

There’s another show set for April, but it has yet to be announced.

Swine Palace shows

Swine Palace, a professional theater company that collaborates with LSU students, has two shows scheduled this season.

For fans of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” it’s always great to get to see the Bennet family again. “Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberly,” written by Margot Melcon, stands as a sequel to the beloved story, as Mary, the introverted middle sister, tries to find love and purpose. The show runs Nov. 6 to 16 in the Reilly Theatre.

“The Totality of All Things” by Erik Gernand follows a teacher and her students that run the high-school newspaper as they cover anti-gay hate crimes in their small Indiana town, bringing conflict to their doorstep.

Special events

Near the end of the year, the School of Theatre has created a tradition of showcasing performances and art that don’t get highlighted as much. The School of Theatre’s Dance Concert and Physical Theatre Showcase will be in the Shaver Theatre on May 1 and 2. The Take Film Festival, an annual student film festival that will be in the Shaver on May 3.

Lab shows

One of the most special parts of LSU Theatre is the lab show program allowing students to create fully student-produced shows throughout the year. All taking place in the studio, LSU theater students get to showcase what they have.

The first show for this year is called “Night, Mother.” Written by Heather Isaacks, this Pulitzer Prize=winning play is about a woman named Jessie and her mother. After her divorce, the loss of her father and numerous other misfortunes, Jessie resolves to kill herself. The play follows her as she prepares for that dark end. “Night, Mother” will run between Oct. 7 to 12.

“World Builders” by Johnna Adams is the second show on the schedule. It’s a play that focuses on Max and Whitney, two schizophrenic patients in a drug trial. Because of their condition, they have delusions that create complex inner worlds that they retreat into. After meeting during the trial, they begin to fall in love, and together they try to decide if they can leave their worlds behind. “World Builders” runs Oct. 28 to Nov. 2.

The next show is “I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire,” written by Samantha Hurley. It’ll be directed by Ricardo Mendoza, a theater performance senior at LSU. This will be his first time directing.

“I’m Gonna Marry Tobey Maguire” has gotten quite popular online because of its premise and comedy. The show is about Shelby, a fangirl that kidnaps Tobey Maguire in order to marry him.

Mendoza learned of the show and fell in love with it while he was studying abroad with LSU in Edinburgh. He went to London to see it.

“It was literally in a basement. It was super immersive and cool,” Mendoza said.

At one point in the show, Maguire interacts with the audience; it happened to be Mendoza chosen that night.

Mendoza didn’t want to stop at seeing the show. He took it to the student organization Undergrad Theatre Alliance’s book club, and one of the first things they did was read the script. For Mendoza, it was a test run for what would be this show.

Mendoza was also able to talk to Hurley, who authored the show and works in Chicago with a theater company founded by two LSU alumni.

Mendoza previously worked on the show “God Gun,” which was produced by LSU Improv, which he is now the president of. From that, Mendoza gained the experience needed to create a student run show, and he said one of the most important things he’s learned is to use social media as a tool.

He gave a bit of a hint that there will be on-campus marketing to really grab people’s attention, as well as quite a bit of social media intrigue.

Mendoza said one of the challenges for the show is surprisingly that the space is too big; the Studio Theatre is very different from a basement.

“I’m trying to find ways to make the space more claustrophobic, and make it so that you genuinely feel like you’re trapped… so people are like, okay, this is a high stakes situation,” Mendoza said.

Another thing he hopes to focus on is developing the show beyond comedic points.

“It’s brimming with comedy,” Mendoza said, “but I want to find the points where you can bring it down and find the truth in the characters.”.

“Hand to God,” written by Robert Askins, will be one of the spring shows. It is a show that discusses religion, connection and life in a different way. It follows Jason after the death of his father as he joins the puppet ministry at his Church. “Hand to God” opens Feb. 24 and closes March 1.

The show’s director Ethan Hood, a senior film major, said his personal history with christianity let him gravitate towards the show.

“I was raised in the church but have since stepped away,” Hood said. “Since the play takes place in a church, and I really liked the story, I felt I was the right person to adapt this script.”

Hood said he feels confident about directing the show because of his experience directing a different one in February.

“All of my distress was soothed during the production of it,” Hood said. “I hope that many people are able to come and see this, as I think the show will help people navigate the feelings of negative thoughts and actions when they come to light.”

The final show of the season for the Lab Series is “Two Sisters and a Piano” by Nilo Cruz. This play follows sisters under house arrest in Havana in 1991. The show examines themes of politics and art and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

For anyone interested in learning more about the School of Theatre or to buy tickets to any of the upcoming shows, its website has all that information.