Shorter schedule, more training — EVSC Summer musical production to mirror professional ‘summer stock’

WNIN | By Tim Jagielo

Published March 6, 2026 at 5:40 PM CST

Summer Musical Director Robert Hunt for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, talks to the media about the rebranded Summer Musical Company, Thursday, March 5 at the Academy for Innovative Studies High School (AIS) stage. The 2026 program is featuring a shorter schedule, an open-to-all format, and more realistic professional production experience.

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation has announced the summer theater production for 2026 — ‘Titanic the Musical,' to be performed at UE’s Shanklin Theater

University of Evansville students perform "Into the Woods" in 2024 at Shanklin Theatre. The next EVSC Summer musical will take place in the same space.

Normally, the summer musical production lasts up to eight weeks, with students sticking to distinct roles within the production.

But in 2026 everything is happening in an intense two-week period this summer, with lots of cross training, said Director Robert Hunt.

“We're really teaching the students the way the theater functions in the professional world, and certainly by concentrating it the time down it's really incredible what one can learn in such a short amount of time out in the professional world.”

Hunt referred to the production as “Summer Stock,” which can mean a summer production that reuses “stock” costumes and sets.

Instead of the Old National Events Plaza, “Titanic the Musical” will be held at Shanklin Theater of the University of Evansville. This will ease technical aspects of the production.

“Their technical elements are already in house,” he said. “Part of the work in the previous years was getting all the instrumentation and all of the lights and all of the sound equipment that we needed in space. But that's already there.”

Shanklin Theater features a “thrust stage,” with audiences on three sides of the stage.

Hunt said they chose the play after they met with students interested in joining a summer production, to make it a better fit for them. Everyone interested can find a space in the production.

Hunt said these changes came after a re-evaluation of the 38-year old program.

“We're rebranding it the Summer Musical Company, and it provides the opportunity for students to participate in a structure that is borrowed from the professional world,” Hunt said. “I come from the professional world, and my early experiences in theater were this type of process, which is a two week summer stock basically.”

The production is for students from eighth through 12th grade. Many will be from EVSC but can be from the surrounding area as well. The performances will be in mid-June.

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The 'thrust stage' of the University of Evansville's Shanklin Theatre allows audience viewing on three sides.