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South Dakota State University Theatre and Dance’s fall 2025 musical production of “Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story” has been selected to be presented at the 58th annual Region 5 American College Theater Festival Conference in Rochester, Minnesota, on Jan. 20.

The production, with book, music and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff, was one of four selected to be presented at the conference from a seven-state region. Last year’s production of “Fuddy Meers” by David Lindsay-Abaire marked the first SDSU production ever selected for the festival.

“We are thrilled and honored to be invited to the festival for two consecutive years,” said Jim Wood, associate director of the School of Performing Arts. “It seems that SDSU is developing a strong tradition of activities reaching the playoffs back-to-back.”

To help defray the costs of taking the production to Rochester, a one-night-only fundraising performance of the show will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Fishback Studio Theatre in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center on the SDSU campus. All tickets will be $15 and can be purchased online or two hours prior to curtain at the center, starting at 5 p.m. Seating will be limited to 175.

“We were notified almost immediately after the show that we were being held for consideration, so we saved the scenery, costumes — everything,” said Wood, who also directed the production. “Then we had to wait until finals week to find out. Everyone was so excited when we finally got the word that we were going. When classes start in January, we have four days to get the set back up and practice for the tour — it’s going to be a crazy, exciting week.”

The American College Theater Festival is a national theater program involving 18,000 students annually from colleges and universities across the country. Since its inception, the festival has given more than 400,000 college theater students the opportunity to have their work critiqued, improve their dramatic skills and receive national recognition for excellence. More than 16 million theatergoers have attended approximately 10,000 festival productions nationwide.

In January and February, eight regional conferences showcase the finest regional productions, offer workshops and celebrate students’ work. The seven states comprising Region 5 include Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story” was produced on the SDSU campus this past November, when two festival responders came to see the production and gave a response to the cast, designers and crew after the performance. The responders then made a recommendation to the regional selection committee, which met Dec. 14 to decide which productions to invite.

“The responders who came to our original production were very enthusiastic about our show and had wonderful comments, which really solidified our confidence in our work,” cast member Jacob Stevens said. “Except for Jim, Melissa and Jamison, this show was put together entirely by students. The responders really affirmed that we are getting solid training at SDSU.”

To prepare the show for traveling to the conference, the team will practice setting up and tearing down the set and rehearsing with a new accompanist. Jamison Gross, a 2023 graduate of the School of Performing Arts, served as music director and pianist during the original run but is unable to play for the festival due to another job. Anna DeGraff will jump in to play for the festival performances.

“We are really grateful that Dr. DeGraff is willing to step in for the short turnaround. She has coached many of our vocalists, so she already has a great relationship with the cast and will fold in seamlessly,” Wood said. Since it has also been a couple of months since the last performance, the company planned one more performance in the Fishback Studio Theatre to help raise funds to offset the cost of taking the production to Rochester.

“We are taking 32 students and five faculty, plus renting a truck to take the set down, so this will be quite the undertaking,” Wood said. “It’s not often that I make a sports analogy, but this is the theater equivalent of making it to the playoffs.”

While the original production at SDSU was met with good reviews, student cast members are excited to have the chance to perform the show again — especially to an enthusiastic crowd of theater students and faculty.

“It means so much to me. Not only because it was my first college production, but because of what we were able to turn it into. As we worked on it, it became much more than just the script or source material, and every aspect is meticulously thought out,” cast member CJ Richards said. “This show has helped me tremendously throughout my first semester in making friends and getting myself out there. I've made connections from this show that will last a lifetime, and it has made the transition to college much easier for me. It has given me an outlet from my studies that helps me get the most out of both my major and theatre. I'm really looking forward to showing off all the amazing things the production team has put together for this show.”

“Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story” is a musical love story detailing the bond between Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, the infamous "thrill killers" of the 1920s who committed one of the most infamous and heinous crimes of the 20th century.

The show contains mature language, themes of murder, child harm, psychological manipulation, obsessive and abusive relationships, and mature sexual themes.

The production is directed by Wood, artistic director of SDSU Theatre and Dance and was assistant directed by Lewhat Tesfaldet. Melissa Hauschild-Mork served as intimacy coach.  Members of the cast include CJ Richards, Jacob Stevens, Noah Larson and Nick Forster. The production team includes Alex Raether, Reilly Sazdoff, Thomas Alpers, Nick Teal, Samantha Clark, Mollie Moore, Journey Johnson and Dontaevian Aldridge.