Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Falstaff decides to fix his financial woe by seducing the wives of two wealthy merchants. The wives find he sent them identical letters and take revenge by playing tricks on Falstaff when he comes calling. With the help of their husbands and friends, the wives play one last trick in the woods to put Falstaff's mischief to an end.

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-plays/merry-wives-windsor/

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

In one of the most famous of literary love quadrangles, A Midsummer Night’s Dream tells the tale of Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander, and Helena; four misguided lovers whose journey into the woods lands them in even more trouble, as members of the fairy kingdom decide to use them as veritable pawns in their own love games. Against the backdrop of the wedding of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta, and the fiery battle of wills between the Fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania, the four lovers are challenged by magic and trickery to finally work out what love is all about.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/450/a-midsummer-nights-dream

Give Me Credit, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

No abstract provided.

Mr. Pim Passes By, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

In A. A. Milne's comic novel, Mr Pim Passes By, chaos prevails when the absent minded Mr Pim calls in to see George Marden, owner of Marden House. George is a fine upstanding citizen and a stickler for doing the right thing. He has a devoted wife, Olivia, and is ward to his somewhat flighty niece, Dinah. Quite innocently, Mr Pim upsets the equilibrium of the Marden household when he casually announces that he’s recently seen an ex-convict from Australia, named Telworthy. This character sounds awfully like Olivia’s first and supposedly deceased husband and if he's really still alive, …

Sanity Takes A Holiday, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

No abstract provided.

Out Of The Frying Pan, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Three young men and three young women share an apartment in all innocence; they are would be stage folk and they are doing this for economic security. Their apartment is immediately above that of a Broadway producer who is about to cast a road company. They rehearse the play but how can they get him upstairs to see it? It happens that the producer is an amateur chef and, right in the middle of a culinary concoction, he runs out of flour. He comes upstairs to borrow a cup. At last the kids have him and they aren't going to …

Many Mansions, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

No abstract provided.

Dark Victory, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Judith Traherne is a Long Island socialite whose life is spent in frivolous, hedonistic pastimes. She indulges in alcohol and cigarettes, and enjoys horse riding. She experiences dizziness and headaches, and after an uncharacteristic riding accident, she is referred to a specialist, Dr. Frederick Steele. Steele is in the midst of closing his New York City office in preparation of a move to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he plans to devote his time to brain cell research. He reluctantly agrees to see Judith, who is initially antagonistic towards him. She shows signs of short-term memory loss, but dismisses these and other …

Peg O' My Heart, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Peg, a poor Irish girl living in New York, becomes an heiress by the death of her uncle, and is called to England to be reared by an aritocratic aunt. She is like a duck out of water in these surroundings, but she wins her way and also a worthy Englishman named Jerry. An early 20th-century long-running Broadway hit that featured Laurette Taylor in a star-making performance as 'Peg'.

https://www.samuelfrench.com/p/4425/peg-o-my-heart

Some Call It Love, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

No abstract provided.

Fashion, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

A milliner turned respectable wife of high society, Mrs. Tiffany urges her daughter Seraphina to snag a husband of particular grace and class, the “Count” Jolimaitre, and to ignore the poet Twinkle except as a recipient of patronage. Jolimaitre is a fraud, and recognized as such by the maid Millinette, but nevertheless assumes all the affections of a fashionable gentleman in order to further his interests, much to the chagrin of Adam Trueman, a Yankee, who eschews both Mrs. Tiffany and Jolimaitre from the first introductions – or lack thereof. Trueman attempts to set things straight by confronting Mr. Tiffany, …

Big Brother, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

No abstract provided.

The House On The Sand, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

No abstract provided.

The Laziest Man In The World & Suppressed Desires, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

The Laziest Man in the World by Carl Webster Pierce

This little comedy shows how two burglars are cleverly outwitted by the laziest man in the world.

Suppressed Desires by Susan Glaspell

Henrietta's obsession with psychoanalysis leads to a completely off-the-wall interpretation of a dream and very nearly to divorce before the absurdity of the situation is realized.

The Witching Hour, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Jack Brookfield, a professional gambler, in whose rooms the play opens, is believed by his friends to be possessed of an extraordinary personal magnetism. It is said that this gift is shared by his sister, Mrs. Campbell and her daughter Viola. The interior decorations of Brookfield’s magnificent house have been planned by Clay Whipple, who is in love with Viola. On seeing that a rival of his is talking earnestly to her at the opera, he proposes to her and is accepted. He kills a man accidentally at the house of Jack Brookfield, and is charged with murder by Frank …

Lady Windermere's Fan, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde.

The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband is having an affair with another woman. She confronts him with it but although he denies it, he invites the other woman, Mrs Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball. Angered by her husband's supposed unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere decides to leave her husband for another lover. After discovering what has transpired, Mrs Erlynne follows Lady Windermere and attempts to persuade her to return to her husband and in the course of this, Mrs Erlynne is …

Barter, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

In Barter we have portrayed a New Testament theme with the utmost respect and vividness. It is a very pathetic human story, evolving around the great betrayal of Judas and made to play its way across a stage already set for the greater drama of Calvary. The author shows how love and respectability are bartered for power and place at the very time that the life of Christ is being bartered for mankind. --Irish Catholic

http://library.providence.edu/spcol/drama/files/original/f25d137a6557ff1436f8380baba7b4e0.pdf

Much Ado About Nothing, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was approaching the middle of his career. The play was included in the First Folio, published in 1623.

By means of "noting" (which, in Shakespeare's day, sounded similar to "nothing" as in the play's title, and which means gossip, rumour, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the altar on the erroneous belief that she has been unfaithful. At the end, Benedick and Beatrice …

Nightmare, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

A three act farce written by Roger Wheeler.

Merry Wives Of Windsor, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Falstaff decides to fix his financial woe by seducing the wives of two wealthy merchants. The wives find he sent them identical letters and take revenge by playing tricks on Falstaff when he comes calling. With the help of their husbands and friends, the wives play one last trick in the woods to put Falstaff's mischief to an end.

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-plays/merry-wives-windsor/

The Rivals, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Set in fashionable Bath, The Rivals centers around the complicated relationship between Lydia Languish and Captain Jack Absolute. The Rivals satirizes the social expectations of courtship and marriage among the upper classes, while also exploring themes of honor and the role of women in the eighteenth century.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/8526/the-rivals

She Stoops To Conquer, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

A round of mistaken identities stir up the hilarity for this quick-paced, rowdy farce that has kept audiences laughing for more than two centuries. Tony Lumpkin directs two lost-in-the-night Londoners to the squire's country home they search for--but impishly tells them it's an inn. Since Marlow, one of the young men, seeks to court the squire's daughter, it results in pickle after delicious pickle as he treats the squire (his prospective father-in-law) and the squire's daughter (his future wife) as an innkeeper and barmaid. The squire is perplexed at being ordered about like a servant, and Marlow indignant at the …

East Lynne, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Lady Isabel Carlyle, a beautiful and refined young woman, leaves her hard-working lawyer-husband, Carlyle, and her infant children to elope with an aristocratic suitor, Francis Levison, after wrongfully suspecting and becoming jealous of her husband's friendship with Barbara Hare. However once abroad with Levison she realises he has no intention of marrying her, despite her having borne their illegitimate child. He deserts her, Lady Isabel is disfigured in a train accident and the child is killed. Following this Isabel is able to take the position of governess in the household of her former husband and his new wife allowing her …

Robin Hood, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

This classic children’s tale of Robin Hood and his followers is charming and delightful for children of all ages. Set in England’s Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood, with the help of his childhood sweetheart, Maid Marion, and his band of merry men “rob from the rich” (the evil Sheriff of Nottingham) and “give to the poor.” Action that both adults and children will enjoy abounds in this wonderful parable of goodness over evil.

As You Like It, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

We celebrate the best of Shakespeare with laughter...music...dances...romance...comedy at all levels. The story of how the banished Duke, Rosalind, Orlando and others find happiness through love is one of the most delightful of all Shakespearean tales. The wit of the clown, Touchstone, the philosophy of "All the world's a stage...", the music of "It was a lover and his lass...", the earthy needs of the country people, the romantic honesty of young lovers in tune with nature...all can be found in As You Like It.

Kempy, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

A snobbish authoress impulsively marries a young plumber who comes to fix her pipes when he regales her with praise about her book.

https://www.samuelfrench.com/p/4440/kempy

Icebound, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

The Jordan family is in their farm in Veazie, Maine in October 1922. They await the reading of the will by Judge John Bradford of the family matriarch who has just died. Much to the family's dismay, the farm and all of the money has been left to a distant cousin, Jane Crosby. Jane has been told that she is to take care of the legal trouble of the young son of the family, Ben. Ben had left because he accidentally burned a neighbor's farm. Ben begins a flirtatious relationship with Nettie, the adopted daughter of Emma Jordan.

Wikipedia contributors. …

Clarence, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

The father of a quirky family, the Wheelers, hires an ex-soldier, Clarence, as a handyman. Clarence falls for the family's governess, Violet. Mrs. Wheeler suspects that Violet and her husband are carrying on, and Mrs. Wheeler begins to develop an attraction to Clarence. Hubert Stem, Mr. Wheeler's avaricious private secretary, one day shows Mr. Wheeler an article about Charles Short, an army deserter, and insists that Clarence is in actuality Charles Short.

Wikipedia contributors. (2018, July 19). Clarence (1922 film). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:54, August 14, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clarence_(1922_film)&oldid=851070063

Nothing But The Truth, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Is it possible to tell the absolute truth even for twenty four hours? Bob Bennett, the hero of Nothing But the Truth accomplishes that feat to win a bet he made with his partners, his friends, and his fiancee. The scenes in which Bob is forced to answer embarrassing questions and tell the literal truth are hysterical. The situations increase in humor to the point where the audience can hardly resist joining the cast in this popular comedy.

https://www.samuelfrench.com/s/4851/nothing-but-the-truth

Twelfth Night, Otterbein University

1907-1958 Productions

Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centers on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) falls in love with Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with the Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a man. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion, with plot elements …