Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society


The Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society of Georgetown University is the oldest continuously running collegiate theatre troupe in the United States. Today, the Society is one of four theatre groups on the Georgetown campus and is entirely student-run. The group continues to provide an opportunity for students to develop artistic, technical, and administrative skills, while performing high-quality theatre in its 174th season.
Mask and Bauble produces three main stage shows annually, including the Donn B. Murphy One-Acts Festival, which focuses on student-written work. All shows are directed, produced, designed, and performed by students.

History

Mask and Bauble was founded in 1852 as The Dramatic Association of Georgetown College, staging its first show, Pizarro, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, on February 27, 1853. World War I priorities caused a suspension of its performances, and after the war the group was revived with the new name of Mask and Bauble. The society was the first of its kind to use female actresses in 1922, as female roles were previously filled by male actors. It formally accepted female members in 1934.
During this time the Society had a close relationship with the Roosevelt White House, with Eleanor Roosevelt as a society patron. During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, student technicians from the group assisted with the technical aspects of some of the nation's first televised presidential press conferences. This intimate relationship with the White House was nurtured by the society's faculty adviser, Donn B. Murphy, who also served as theatrical adviser to Kennedy and Johnson. Murphy served until 1976, although he remained involved with Georgetown theatre. The Society's annual playwright contest and one acts festival bears his name, and promotes student-written plays.

Today

Mask and Bauble performs in Poulton Hall's Stage III, on the Georgetown campus. This theater space, part of the university, was occupied by students from the group over spring break in 1975. Unsatisfied with the university's commitment to theater, they squatted in what was previously Room 57, and built a makeshift theater they named Stage Two. The university forced this to be taken down, but built the group a small theater in Poulton Hall, which became Stage III. Stage One was then converted into the scene and costume shop. While the club's alumni were very active in raising money to build Georgetown's new Davis Performing Arts Center, the society and other student groups have been restricted from using the center's main theatre due to their insistence on maintaining student, rather than faculty, direction. In 2009, Mask & Bauble co-produced Caroline, or Change with the Black Theater Ensemble and the Department of Performing Arts on the main stage of the Davis center, making it the first student directed play on the Gonda Stage.

Production history

2025-2026
2024-2025
2023-2024
  • Night of Musical Scenes
  • John Proctor Is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower
  • DBMOAF: featuring Note to Self by Malina Brannen, Rewriting by Caitlin Frazier, and The Ultraview by Anastasia Kelly
  • Pippin by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson
2022-2023
  • Night of Musical Scenes
  • Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
  • DBMOAF: featuring A Sure Thing by Hiruni Herat, Is There Life On Mars by Sarah Soriano-Martin, and Melpomene By Another Name by Nick Giotis
  • Into the Woods by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim
2021-2022
  • Machinal by Sophie Treadwell
  • Beyond the Lights
  • Violet by Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley
  • DBMOAF: featuring Grand Courses by Nick Giotis, Duty Free As A Way of Coping by Anjali Britto, and Huelga by Catherine Shonack
2020-2021
2019-2020
2018-2019
2017-2018
2016-2017
  • An American Daughter by Wendy Wasserstein
  • Wind Me Up, Maria!: A Go-Go Musical by Natsu Onoda Power and Charles "Shorty Corleone" Garris
  • DBMOAF: featuring Victimology by Rachel Linton and The Gun by Grayson Ullman
  • Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner
2015-2016
2014-2015
2013-2014
2012-2013
  • The History Boys by Alan Bennett
  • DBMOAF: featuring Spiritual Ecstasies
  • Polk Street by T. Chase Meacham
  • Spring Awakening by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater
2011-2012
2010-2011
2009-2010
2008-2009
  • 12 Angry Men
  • Raised in Captivity
  • The Foreigner
  • DBMOAF: featuring Witness
  • Jekyll and Hyde
2007-2008
  • Hamlet
  • All in the Timing
  • Black Comedy
  • DBMOAF: featuring In the Mind of a Great Man
  • Cabaret
2006-2007
2005-2006
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • The Shape of Things
  • The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek
  • DBMOAF: featuring Chemistry
  • Urinetown
2004-2005
  • Aunt Dan and Lemon
  • The Love of the Nightingale
  • Cloud 9
  • DBMOAF: featuring Triptych and Diamonds are a Boy’s Best Friend
  • Assassins

    Alumni

  • John Guare: American playwright, best known for The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation
  • Eileen Brennan: American film, television, and stage actress
  • John Barrymore: American stage and film actor
  • Jack Hofsiss: Director, best known for The Elephant Man
  • Antonin Scalia: Supreme Court Justice
  • Bradley Cooper: American film and television actor