Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Top Girls, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1993-1994 Season

Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It is about a woman named Marlene, a career-driven woman who is only interested in women's success in business. In the famous opening scene, she hosts a dinner party for a group of famous women from history. As the play unfolds we find Marlene has left her 'poor' life, and illegitimate child with her sister Joyce, in order to tread the path to 'success'. The play is contemporary and examines the role of women in society and what being a successful woman means.

I Hate Hamlet, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance

1993-1994 Season

Set in John Barrymore's old apartment in New York City - at the time, the author's real-life home - the play follows successful television actor Andrew Rally as he struggles with taking on the dream role of Hamlet, dealing with a girlfriend who is keeping a firm grip on her chastity, and playing host to the ghost of John Barrymore, who, clothed as Hamlet, has come back to earth for the sole purpose of convincing Rally to play the part. Real estate agent Felicia Dantine convinces Rally to stay in the apartment and hold a seance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Hate_Hamlet

1993 - 1994, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

The Boys Next Door, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1993 Summer Theatre

Set in the Boston area, it deals with four men with various mental disabilities who live in a group home. It takes place over roughly a two-month period and consists of brief vignettes about the men's lives. The play provides a humorous commentary on the men's lives, taking a surprising turn as Barry's father comes to visit and as Jack (their caretaker) accepts a new job. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_Next_Door_(play)

Nunsense Ii, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1993 Summer Theatre

The Little Sisters of Hoboken, those humble nuns with a touch of show biz flair, return in style with NUNSENSE II: THE SECOND COMING. Presenting a high-spirited and zany “Thank You Program” for their many supporters, the sisters sing and dance their way across the Mount St. Helen’s stage, which is already dressed for the Hoboken Music Society’s upcoming production of The Mikado.

http://www.tamswitmark.com/shows/nunsense-ii/

The Marriage Of Bette & Boo, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992-1993 Season

This is a memory play—a child’s coming to terms with his parents’ life story. It’s effectively Durang’s Glass Menagerie. And it deals with many of his pet issues: the seeming impossibility of relationships, the contradictions of the Catholic Church, the search for order and meaning in a chaotic and often cruel existence.

https://www.masquers.org/AcrobatDocuments/shows/2011/betteandboo-notes.pdf

Big River, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992-1993 Season

Based on Mark Twain's classic 1884 novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it features music in the bluegrass and country styles in keeping with the setting of the novel. Britain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_River_(musical)

The Royal Family, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992-1993 Season

The story is a parody of the Barrymore family of actors, with particular aim taken at John and Ethel Barrymore. The character Tony Cavendish, a heavy-drinking womanizer, represents John Barrymore. Julie Cavendish is the prima donna Broadway star Ethel Barrymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Family_(play)

All My Sons, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992-1993 Season

Joe Keller, a successful businessman, lives comfortably with his wife, Kate, and son, Chris, in a suburban American neighborhood. They have only one sadness in their lives – the loss of their other son, Larry, who went missing in World War II. After three years, Kate still clings to the hope that her son is alive. https://www.shmoop.com/all-my-sons/summary.html

The Masque Of Beauty And The Beast, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992-1993 Season

A fanciful tapestry of the theatrical enchantment retelling the ageless fairy tale for audiences of children of all ages, this production is a favorite of college drama programs. Magic is created on all levels in this stunning verse play filled with sprightly dialog, delightful and varied characterizations, and a brilliantly theatrical handling of the story. https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/the-masque-of-beauty-and-the-beast

Lend Me A Tenor, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992-1993 Season

It is the biggest night in the history of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company. The world-famous tenor, Tito Merelli, “Il Stupendo,” is to perform his greatest role, Otello, at the ten-year anniversary gala season opener. https://www.bard.org/study-guides/synopsis-lend-me-a-tenor-the-musical

1992 - 1993 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

The Passion Of Dracula, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992 Summer Theatre

Play follows Jonathan Harker, Dr. Seward and Professor Van Helsing on their quest to save the beautiful Wilhelmina from the clutches of a smart and sexy Count Dracula. https://www.theatreinchicago.com/the-passion-of-dracula/2786/

The Heidi Chronicles, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992 Summer Theatre

The plot follows Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than twenty years later. The play's main themes deal with the changing role of women during this time period, describing both Heidi's ardent feminism during the 1970s and her eventual sense of betrayal during the 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heidi_Chronicles

Play It Again, Sam, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1992 Summer Theatre

The play is about a recently divorced film magazine writer, Allan Felix, who is trying to restart his romantic life. Eventually he falls in love (and has a brief affair) with Linda, the wife of his best friend, Dick. During the course of the play, he repeatedly seeks advice from the ghost of his idol, Humphrey Bogart, but eventually decides that he needs to be himself rather than imitating Bogart. Telling Linda that the right thing for her to do is to return to her husband, Felix quotes the famous lines that Bogart delivers to Ingrid Bergman in the last …

Talking With..., Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991-1992 Season

The play is composed of eleven ten-minute monologues, each featuring a different woman who talks about her life. The play includes the pieces, "Fifteen Minutes," "Scraps," "Clear Glass Marbles," "Audition," "Rodeo," "Twirler," "Lamps," "Handler," "Dragons," "French Fries," and "Marks."

The play deals with the personal ordeals of each of the female characters. Many of them are very touching; a few are even intensely emotional. However, there is also the very comical. Even the funny ones, however, have an underlying depth to them that gives a sensitive insight into each of the characters involved.The ladies cover a wide spectrum of life …

Into The Woods, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991-1992 Season

Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Griimm and Charles Perrault fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from "Little Red Riding Hood,", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Rapunzel", and "Cinderella", as well as several others. The musical is tied together by a story involving a childless baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family (the original beginning of The Grimm Brothers' Rapunzel), their interaction with a witch who has …

The Tempest, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991-1992 Season

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–1611, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skillful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to cause his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to believe they are shipwrecked and marooned on the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio's …

Nunsense, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991-1992 Season

Five of the 19 surviving Little Sisters of Hoboken, a one-time missionary order that ran a leper colony on an island south of France, discover that their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God, accidentally killed the other fifty-two residents of the convent with her tainted vichyssoise they were off playing bingo with a group of Maryknolls. Upon discovering the disaster, Mother Superior had a vision in which she was told to start a greeting card company to raise funds for the burials.

Heidi, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991-1992 Season

Heidi is a fresh and delightful play of the Swiss Alps. Heidi is one of the happiest characters in all literature to present before children. Lucille Miller's play depicts her vividly as a winning and personable little girl who is full of fun and mischief but whose influence is nevertheless wholesome and good. Her scenes with the calm uncle and with the Sesemann family are especially dramatic and make an eloquent appeal to every heart. The play follows the book closely, retaining all the well-loved episodes that keep this story eternally alive in the hearts of children. https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/heidi-hb2000

Rumors, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991-1992 Season

Rumors, is a madcap, slamming door farce set in a large home located just outside of New York in the year 1988. The characters are arriving as guests at a 10th Anniversary Dinner. The first couple to arrive discovers that one of their hosts (Charley) has apparently attempted suicide...unsuccessfully. Charley’s wife, Myra, is nowhere to be found and neither are the servants. Through the course of the show, the audience never meets Charley or Myra. As more guests arrive, there are cover-ups, deceptions, mistaken identities, and a lot of huge laughs.

1991 - 1992 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Uncommon Women & Others, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

Uncommon Women and Others (1977), is the first play by noted 20th-century American playwright Wendy Wasserstein. Alumnae of Mount Holyoke College (Wasserstein's alma mater) meet for lunch one day in 1978 and talk about their time together in college. The play is thus a series of flashbacks to the 1972-1973 school year as seven seniors and one freshman try to "discover themselves" in the wake of second-wave feminism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncommon_Women_and_Others

Man Of La Mancha, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or of Don Quixote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_La_Mancha#Synopsis

Much Ado About Nothing, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

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 …

Good, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

Good is an award-winning play in two acts written by British playwright Cecil Philip Taylor. Good has been described as the definitive piece written about the Holocaust in the English-speaking theatre. Set in pre-war Germany, it shows how John Halder, a liberal-minded professor whose best friend is the Jewish Maurice, could not only be seduced into joining the Nazism, but step-by-rationalised-step end up embracing the final solution justifying to his conscience the terrible actions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_(play)

Charlotte's Web, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

This exciting, musical version of Charlotte's Web brings a new dimension to E.B. White’s beloved classic. All the enchanting characters are here: Wilbur, the irresistible pig who desperately wants to avoid the butcher; Fern, a girl who understands what animals say to each other; Templeton, the gluttonous rat who can occasionally be talked into a good deed; the Zuckerman family; the Arables; and, most of all, the extraordinary spider Charlotte who proves to be a “true friend and a good writer.” With music and lyrics by Charles Strouse (Annie, ‘Bye, ‘Bye Birdie) and book by Joseph Robinette (national award-winning children’s …

A Streetcar Named Desire, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

This celebrated American drama, which earned both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, ranks as one of the greatest in our theatre. A savagely arresting drama. Streetcar is one the those rare plays familiar to all. Primitive, graceful and poetic, the play reveals to the very depths the character of Blanche DuBois, a woman whose life has been undermined by romantic illusions, which lead her to reject so far as possible the realities of life with which she is faced and which she consistently ignores. The pressure brought to bear upon her by her sister, …

Fool For Love, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

Fool for Love is a play written by American playwright and actor Sam Shepard. The play focuses on May and Eddie, former lovers who have met again in a motel in the desert. The play premiered in 1983 at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, where Shepard was the playwright-in-residence. The play was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool_for_Love_(play)

Evita, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

Evita is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics and book by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and eventual death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evita_(musical)