McFarlin Auditorium first opened in 1926 as a chapel on the SMU campus. Since then, the building’s purpose has evolved, although it continues to serve its function as envisioned by former SMU president Charles Selecman: “a place where we can have our friends from the community and elsewhere gather together on great occasions.”
Over the years, those great occasions have included commencement, graduation, and the Willis M. Tate Lecture series. The McFarlin stage has also seen international dance companies and nationally celebrated vocalists, comedians, and bands. In fact, so many boldface names have performed at McFarlin—Harry Connick Jr., Sheryl Crow, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, and Martin Luther King are only a handful—that there is an entire page dedicated to those famous performers on the McFarlin Auditorium website. May that tradition live on.