Under the directorship of Rev. John J. Walsh, S.J. from 1951 to 1965, the Marquette University Players evolved from an extracurricular pastime for students interested in the performing arts to a major, professional program that earned national and international recognition.  Dozens of Walsh's students became noted actors, directors, dancers, and performing arts teachers.

The exhibit is arranged as several galleries featuring photographs from various Players' performances, including Annie Get Your Gun (1958), Seventeen (1958), and Saint Joan (1961).  Walter S. Sheffer, Milwaukee-area photographer and Players’ documentarist, created the photographs.  An additional gallery gives visitors a backstage pass to the Teatro Maria, the home of the Players from 1955 through 1973.  A chronology of Father Walsh's productions, portrait, and audioclip exerpt from a speech by Walsh, titled "The Value of Theatre in Our Lives."

The physical archives of the Marquette University Players are available in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives.  They contain performance announcements and programs, hundreds of production photographs, and newspaper reviews of performances.  They date from the Players’ beginnings in 1925 to the present day.  An online descriptive inventory of the Marquette University Players collection is available. 

The newest online exhibit is part of an ongoing project to present selective digital highlights from the collections; earlier exhibits feaature St. Katharine Drexel, Kateri Tekakwitha, and Dorothy Day.