The Dix Hills Stage That Once Tested Shows for Investors Now Showcases Its Own Students

"The future of Broadway is at Five Towns." Five Towns College prints that line under its listing for A Chorus Line, which opens November 19 on the main stage at 305 North Service Road. It reads like a slogan. The college's own figures make it sound closer to a description of how the place works.

The main stage has raked seating for almost 500 people and a rated capacity of 658. In Fall 2024, the college enrolled 547 undergraduates and 49 graduate students, or 596 in total. The theater can legally hold more people than the whole school enrolls. When a student production fills the house, most of the seats go to people from outside the college, and many of them are people from the surrounding area.

The room's first job was selling a show to backers

The building was marketed for years as the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, or DHPAC. For a while it served the commercial theater industry more than the college's students. In June 2010, Newsday reported that Tony-winning producer Stewart F. Lane was staging a world premiere there, A Moment in Time. He had conceived it as a possible Broadway-bound show and used the 500-seat house as a full-scale workshop for co-producers and investors. Lane told Newsday the production also gave Five Towns students acting and backstage work next to professionals.

The stage also hosted outside talent. In March 2012, Newsday listed a DHPAC appearance by radio personality Dennis Elsas, who talked about his career and his interviews with rock legends.

The college now calls the venue the Five Towns College Performing Arts Center. Its Fall 2026 calendar is built around the school's own productions, with guest and professional musicians appearing alongside students in some of the December concerts. The building's purpose has moved from proving a show to people with money toward proving performers to people with seats.

A college built around this kind of room

That shift fits the institution that owns the building. According to Long Island Business News, Stanley and Lorraine Cohen founded Five Towns in 1972 in a 7,000-square-foot church basement in Merrick. It moved in 1982 to a 30,000-square-foot former elementary school in Seaford and later to its 40-acre campus in Dix Hills. The same report described Five Towns as the first college in New York to offer programs in sound recording technology and contemporary music. It also named Wyclef Jean, Maroon 5's Adam Levine and guitarist Joe Satriani among the people who attended.

David Cohen, the founders' son, started working at the college in 1987 and was named president in 2016. An August 2026 LIBN profile credits him with expanding academic offerings and building modern residence halls and film studios. At a school this size, the performing arts center is where the performance programs show their work to the public.

Two theaters, two very different nights

The fall theater season uses two rooms, and the room changes the experience.

Godspell opened the season in the smaller Studio Theatre on October 24 and 25. Next in that space is Sam Shepard's Buried Child, which the college describes as a dark comedy about "the homecoming of a wayward son returning to the family farm." The play won the Pulitzer Prize. A studio staging puts the audience close to the actors, and Shepard's family drama is written for that kind of closeness.

A Chorus Line then moves to the main Performing Arts Center for four performances. The college's listing highlights Marvin Hamlisch's score, including "What I Did for Love," "I Hope I Get It" and "One," and says the production features its Musical Theatre students. The show is about dancers auditioning for a spot in a Broadway line. Here it is performed by students who are training for that same kind of audition.

Each listed price is a base ticket plus a $1 platform fee: $15 plus $1 for adults and $12 plus $1 for seniors and children. A Chorus Line lists a senior price but no child price. Five Towns students and faculty are listed at $0 with an FTC email address. Every listing carries a no-refund policy, so a family should settle on its date before it buys tickets.

December is when the music program performs

The calendar turns from theater to music after Thanksgiving. Three concerts fall within five days in early December. Jazz Night combines student ensembles, faculty artists and guest musicians. On those nights, a $16 ticket also pays for professionals playing alongside the students they teach. That arrangement is close to what Stewart Lane described in 2010, now set up by the college for its own program.

The season ends with a DMA Recital on Friday, December 18, at 4:30 p.m. A doctoral recital at that hour suits someone with an open afternoon who wants to hear the most advanced work the college's music program produces.

Getting from the Expressway to your seat

The address and the building name can trip up first-time visitors. A few practical details:

• Address: 305 North Service Road, Dix Hills. An older Town of Huntington page lists 350 North Service Road. Use the college's 305 address when you set your GPS.
• Tickets: Tickets are sold online in advance through the link on each show's listing on the college's Performing Arts Center page.
• Parking: The college describes campus parking as ample.
• Entry: Visitors need a Visitor's Pass to enter the main building. Leave a few minutes for it before curtain.
• Which room: Check whether your listing says Studio Theatre or Performing Arts Center. This fall, Buried Child is in the studio and A Chorus Line is on the main stage.

Dinner before the show

The theater has a new nearby option for dinner this fall. Max Carballo moved his Bay Shore food truck, Taquero Mucho, into a storefront at 15 E. Deer Park Road. Greater Long Island reported that the restaurant keeps the truck's Mexican menu and adds dishes such as lobster tails and short ribs. It is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closed Mondays. That covers every theater date this fall and the Wednesday and Friday concerts, but not the Monday, December 7, symphony.

Taquero Mucho also started on wheels and grew into a permanent spot in Dix Hills. A 7:30 curtain leaves time for an early dinner there before driving over to the service road.

Prices, curtain times and restaurant hours can change, so check the Five Towns box office and the restaurant before you go. Buried Child opens Thursday, November 5, and the last A Chorus Line matinee is Sunday, November 22, at 3 p.m.

At Kenny Calderon, we keep track of what is on the calendar close to home, because a theater down the road is part of what a Dix Hills address is worth. If your Dix Hills home has you wondering what it might be worth today, request a free home valuation and we'll give you a clear, local read on your property.