In the years since, the theater has been the home to a variety of campus performing groups ranging from The Blue Curtain Players, The Bronze and Blue Review, and The Orchesis Dancers in the early years to today’s popular and acclaimed performing arts program. A number of famous personalities have performed or lectured in the theater over the years: comedian W.C. Fields, aviator Amelia Earhart, poet Robert Frost, opera singers Jussi Bjoerling and Lauritz Melchior, dancer/choreographer Agnes De Mille and, in recent years, writers William Saroyan, James Dickey and M.B. Tolson, big band leader Stan Kenton, The Alvin Ailey Dance Company; country artist Jimmy Dean, opera singer Martina Arroyo, jazz legend Clark Terry, and concert pianist Valery Kuleshov – Silver Medalist at the 1998 Van Cliburn Piano Competition. The university’s Broadway Tonight series has hosted national tours of Broadway musicals and concerts featuring artists including: The Lettermen, Patti Page, Sandi Patti, Shirley Jones, Betsy Palmer, Tom Troupe, Betty Garrett, pianists Roger Williams and Pearl Kaufman and John Astin. Summertime brings the StrawHat Music Theatre productions and the Annual Summer Ice Cream and Watermelon Band Festival held on the front lawn of the theatre.
On the theatre’s interior walls, beneath layers of paint, are murals commissioned in 1934 by the Public Works of Art Project which were painted by the famous Pawnee-Creek artist, Acee Blue Eagle.

The building has undergone a series of renovations over the years including the installation of cushioned theater seating, carpeting, modern restrooms, lighting and sound system upgrades, and, on the building’s sixtieth anniversary, central heat and air conditioning were added for the fist time ever. The scene shop, crossover/storage, dressing rooms and multipurpose additions added approximately 5000 square feet to the facility in 1997.