Loyola Fine and Performing Arts Announces 2026–27 Season Inspired by Jesuit Ideal Magis

CONTACT 
Casey Vanwormer
Audience Services Manager
Cvanwormer@LUC.edu

CHICAGO—Loyola University Chicago’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts (DFPA) proudly announces its 2026–27 season, Legacy and Magis, a year of bold storytelling, artistic excellence, and creative action inspired by the Jesuit ideal of magis, the pursuit of greater depth, integrity, and responsibility in service of others.

Throughout the season, students will engage with the work of artists and activists, past and present, exploring how the performing arts can illuminate injustice, strengthen community, and inspire meaningful change. From classical satire and contemporary devised theatre to groundbreaking Black feminist poetry, dance, and musical theatre, each production invites audiences to consider how legacy shapes our present and how art can help build a more just future.

Last season, DFPA welcomed over 10,000 attendees to its performances and exhibitions. Ticket prices range from $10 to $30 for the general public; $10 to $25 for Loyola faculty and staff; and $7 to $12 for Loyola students.

Theatre and Dance

• …And It is the People Who Should Wield It
  

  The season begins with an original, collaboratively devised production created by Loyola students and director Kelly Howe. Drawing on the principles of Forum Theatre developed by Augusto Boal, the ensemble will investigate a social justice issue—or intersecting issues—that directly impact their lives and communities. Rather than ending when the curtain falls, each performance becomes an interactive forum in which audience members become “spect-actors,” stepping into the action to imagine, test, and rehearse possibilities for change.
  (September 24-27, Underground Laboratory Theatre)

• Tartuffe

  Molière’s timeless comedy remains startlingly relevant. Tartuffe follows a charismatic fraud who cloaks greed and manipulation in the language of religious devotion, exploiting faith to gain power, wealth, and influence over an unsuspecting family. With razor-sharp wit, the play exposes hypocrisy, challenges audiences to recognize the abuse of authority, and asks enduring questions about truth, accountability, and the dangers of unquestioned power.
  (October 22-November 1, Newhart Family Theatre)

• Legacy in Motion

  Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Loyola’s Dance Program, this year’s annual dance concert honors the vision that brought dance to the University and the enduring commitment to art in service of others established by founding director Sandra Kaufmann and generations of faculty, students, and alumni. Through works that explore transformation, resilience, strength, and care, Legacy in Motion reflects on the embodied histories that have shaped the program while looking confidently toward its future. The concert celebrates a vibrant artistic community whose creative passion continues to engage the world with hope and purpose.
  (November 19-22, Newhart Family Theatre)

• for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf
  More than fifty years after its premiere, Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking choreopoem remains as urgent as ever. Through poetry, music, movement, and the voices of seven women identified by colors, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf confronts racism, sexism, violence, love, loss, and healing with extraordinary honesty and beauty. This powerful production centers the experiences of Black women while celebrating resilience, sisterhood, and the transformative power of telling one’s own story.
  (February 18-28, Newhart Family Theatre)
• Alice by Heart
  Inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this poignant musical follows Alice Spencer as she shelters beneath London during the Blitz of 1941. Faced with the impending loss of her best friend, Alfred, Alice escapes into an imagined Wonderland where fantasy and reality intertwine. At its heart, Alice by Heart is a story about grief, resilience, and the communities we create through shared stories. It reminds us that imagination can sustain hope even in humanity’s darkest moments.
  (April 15-25, Newhart Family Theatre)

Music Series  

Through the music series, student musicians come together in various ensembles throughout the year to celebrate live music across genres, beginning with the Family Weekend Concert on September 26. Details, such as featured composers and setlists, will be announced on social media @lucmusicprogram as they drop.

Exhibitions in the Ralph Arnold Gallery

Expanding the season beyond the stage, exhibits in the Ralph Arnold Gallery are always free admission. Exhibitions change throughout the year. Highlights include:

• Fallible Fictions: New Work by Lilly Allan + Catherine Kammerer
  Ralph Arnold Gallery is pleased to present Fallible Fictions, an exhibition featuring new work created by DFPA recent alumni Lilly Allan and Catherine Kammerer. The exhibition examines interdisciplinary approaches that integrate drawing, material experimentation, textiles, natural dyes, and sculptural installation. Overlapping concepts across the two artists’ work involve abstraction, imaginative forms, craft-based techniques, and life cycles and forces observed in nature.
  (September 10-October 3, 2026; Opening Reception September 10, 5-7 p.m., in conjunction with FNAR Fest; Artist Talk September 17 at 5 p.m.)
• Latin American Art II Exhibition (Untitled)

  Later this fall, students in Latin American Art II: Modern & Contemporary Latin American & LatinX Art & Architecture will curate a public exhibition of works by artist Carina Yépez. Through original research, interpretive writing, and exhibition design, students will create an experience that invites audiences into Yépez’s exploration of identity, ancestry, memory, and community.

  (December 1-5, 2026)

Tickets to all Department of Fine and Performing Arts events can be reserved at artsevents.luc.edu or by calling the box office Monday-Friday 4-6 p.m. at 773-508-8400

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About Loyola University Chicago
Founded in 1870, Loyola University Chicago is one of the nation’s largest Jesuit, Catholic universities, recognized for its academic excellence, commitment to community engagement, and leadership in sustainability. A Carnegie R1 research institution, Loyola leverages its status as one of an elite group of universities with the highest level of research activity to advance knowledge that serves communities and creates global impact. With 15 schools, colleges, and institutes—including Business, Law, Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences—Loyola operates three primary campuses in the greater Chicago area and one in Rome, Italy, that provide students a transformative, globally connected learning experience. Consistently ranked among the nation’s top universities by U.S. News & World Report, Loyola is a STARS Platinum-rated institution that is ranked as one of the country’s most sustainable campuses by The Princeton Review and has earned distinctions from AmeriCorps and the Carnegie Foundation for its longstanding record of service and community engagement. Guided by its Jesuit mission and commitment to caring for the whole person, Loyola educates ethical leaders who think critically, act with purpose, and strive to create a more just and sustainable world. 

About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments, 31 interdisciplinary programs, and 7 interdisciplinary centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”