In the fall of 1966, a group of Rock Valley College students approached Rueben Johnson, the acting Dean of Community Services, with the idea of creating a theatre program.
They chose to perform "Finian’s Rainbow," a production that addresses overcoming racial barriers through hard work and a touch of magic.
Michael P. Webb) 1991: West Side Story, Shenandoah, & A Chorus Line (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 1995: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The New Pirates of Penzance, & Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 1997: Guys & Dolls, Children of Eden, & The Sound of Music (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2000: Godspell, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, & Hans Christian Andersen, The Storyteller's Story (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2004: Show Boat, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Hot Mikado, & Seussical (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2005: Oklahoma!, Jesus Christ Superstar, Disney's Beauty & the Beast, & Chess (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2006: Cats, State Fair, Miss Saigon, & Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2007: Peter Pan, Disney's Geppetto & Son, Jekyll & Hyde, & Ragtime (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2008: Jonah- An Old Testament Yarn, The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors, & Thoroughly Modern Millie (Dir.
by Michael P. Webb) 2011: The Phantom of the Opera, After Dark, The Drowsy Chaperone, & Hairspray (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2012: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Little Women, Into the Woods, & 9 to 5: The Musical (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2013: Starlight Express, Xanadu, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, & Les Misérables (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2015: Mary Poppins, The Last Five Years, Memphis, & Young Frankenstein (Dir.
Michael P. Webb) 2017: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Peter and the Starcatcher, Sister Act, & Godspell (Dir.
Christopher D. Brady) 2018: Shrek the Musical, Jane Eyre, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, & Anything Goes (Dir.
Christopher D. Brady) 2019: Mamma Mia!, West Side Story, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dir.
Hannah R. Sleger) 2020: No season due to the Covid-19 pandemic 2021: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Dir.
Richard Raether), You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Once Upon a Mattress, & Little Shop of Horrors (Dir.
Rebecca Jensen) 2023: The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Dir.
These performances are done on the Ray Castle Stage, which is rebuilt every year in the east lawn next to the Bengt Sjostrom Theatre.
This black box theatre has come to be known as “The Cabin” and is reserved for productions performed in the fall and winter.
These productions are referred to as “traditions.” List of Tradition performances and directors 2018: A Charlie Brown Christmas (Dir.