[4] The first play produced on the university campus was Rachel Crothers' Mary the Third in the summer of 1934, followed by Sophocles' classic tragedy Antigone in the winter of that same year.

[5] In 1948, a permanent theatre structure was constructed on campus by adapting an abandoned camp theatre building left over from a deactivated United States Air Force base, and Dr. John Newfield was hired to serve as the first professional director of the new University Playhouse.

[17] UMKC Theatre also regularly stages productions in Studio 116, a blackbox performance space located within same building.

[18] The current chairperson of UMKC Theatre is Professor Tom Mardikes, who has served as chair of the department since 2001.

In the early 1980s, the University of Missouri-Kansas City was granted the authority to offer the only Master of Fine Arts degrees in theatre in the State of Missouri.