From left to right: University of Mary Washington students Rob Willcox ’26, Benjamin Kline ’28 and Emmy Beach ’26 star in ‘Dial M for Murder,’ onstage through Sept. 28 at duPont Hall’s Klein Theatre. Tickets available at www.FredTix.com. Photo by Geoff Greene.
Senior Isabella Ellenberger pinned a pair of zig-zagged curtains to make them stand out onstage, while sophomore Trevor Meyer steamed the last of the wrinkles from a pair of shiny pajama pants in the costume shop a floor below.
The students, both University of Mary Washington theatre majors, were putting the finishing touches on the first production of the 2025-26 UMW Theatre season, which opens tonight.
Dial “M” for Murder – a suspense-filled cat-and-mouse tale of mystery, greed and betrayal – débuts with a pay-what-you-can performance and runs through Sunday, Sept. 28, in duPont Hall’s Klein Theatre. Put on by Mary Washington’s top-ranking theatre program, it’s the first in the four-show season, which runs through spring and also includes a musical, a dark comedy and a Shakespearean classic.
“The season is planned with an eye toward great stories, meaningful opportunities for our students and a variety of productions sure to engage audiences,” said Department of Theatre and Dance Chair Marc Williams. “Audiences can expect to experience stories that will delight and challenge them in unexpected ways.”
Landing on The Princeton Review’s Top 25 list of college theatre programs for the third consecutive year, UMW’s program was the only one in Virginia to make the cut, in the education services company’s 2026 edition of “The Best 391 Colleges,” coming in at No. 15. Read more.