Acting Commons^™

Brighton Beach Memoirs, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance

2016 Summer Theatre

Brighton Beach Memoirs is the first play in Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical comedic Eugene trilogy, which also includes Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound. The story of Brighton Beach Memoirs follows a 15-year-old boy named Eugene Jerome as he grows up in 1937 Brooklyn. stageagent.com/shows/play/2119/brighton-beach-memoirs

2016 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Fiddler On The Roof, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2015-2016 Season

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Jews and Orthodox Christians live in the little village of Anatevka in the pre-revolutionary Russia of the Czars. Among the traditions of the Jewish community, the matchmaker arranges the match and the father approves it. The milkman Reb Tevye is a poor man that has been married for twenty-five years with Golde and they have five daughters. When the local matchmaker Yente arranges the match between his older daughter Tzeitel and the old widow butcher Lazar Wolf, Tevye agrees with the wedding. However Tzeitel is in love with the poor tailor Motel Kamzoil …

Exploring Femme Fatale Through Lady Macbeth, Tori Hidalgo

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

I performed the role of Lady Macbeth at a common hour presented to Otterbein University’s Department of Theatre and Dance students. The concept involved presenting a cut of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that highlighted the development of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship. In scripting and performing this adaptation, I sought to fully incorporate my body into my acting style and to expand and apply my knowledge of the femme fatale archetype to a well known literary character: Lady Macbeth. Another goal of this project was to determine how and if the femme fatale fits into feminist ideologies.

Is He Dead?, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

2015-2016 Season

This play was written by Mark Twain in 1898 and first published in print in 2003. The play focuses on a fictional version of the great French painter, Jean-François Millet, as an impoverished artist in Barbizon, France who, with the help of his colleagues, stages his death in order to increase the value of his paintings, and afterwards dresses as a woman to keep his secret safe. Combining elements of burlesque, farce, and social satire, the comedy relies on such devices as cross-dressing, mistaken identities, and romantic deceptions to tell its story, which raises …

Middletown, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2014-2015 Season

Will Eno’s Middletown, or maybe more appropriately, Everytown, is a very insightful look at the alienation, loneliness and subtle despair that lives at the edges of contemporary life. It also examines the accumulation, and effects, of the small and seemingly insignificant moments of our lives, that in an instant can change our lives.

Much Ado About Nothing, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2015-2016 Season

The friends include Don Pedro, a prince who is a close friend of Leonato, and two fellow soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a clever man who constantly makes witty jokes, often at the expense of his friends. Don John, Don Pedro's illegitimate brother, is part of the crowd as well. https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/muchado/summary/

Rent, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2015-2016 Season

This musical, set at the dawn of the 1990s, follows a group of New Yorkers as they struggle with their careers, love lives and the effects of the AIDS epidemic on their community. Mark,an aspiring filmmaker, and Roger (Adam Pascal), an HIV-positive musician, scramble for money to pay rent to their landlord and former roommate, Benny (Taye Diggs). Meanwhile, their friend Tom (Jesse L. Martin), a professor, has fallen for Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), who is slowly dying of AIDS. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294870/plotsummary

2015 - 2016 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

The All Night Strut!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2015 Summer Theatre

The All Night Strut! moves through the Depression, World War II and the post-war boom in a two-act musical celebration of the 1930s and '40s, filled with jazz, blues, bebop and American songbook standards. Weaving together the work of legendary songwriters such as Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Loesser, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Cab Calloway and the Gershwins, the story moves through time and place to highlight a slick slice of yesteryear and capture a beloved American era.

https://www.mtishows.com/the-all-night-strut

The Nerd, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2015 Summer Theatre

Set in Terre Haute, Indiana in late 1979, The Nerd centers on the hilarious dilemma of a young architect who is visited by Rick Steadman, a fellow ex-GI whom he has never met but who saved has life after he was seriously wounded in Vietnam. Willum is delighted when Rick shows up unexpectedly at his apartment on the night of his thirty-fourth birthday party. However, Rick's awkward manner and inappropriate behavior throw the occasion into shambles. It turns out that Rick is a stupid nerd who overstays his welcome with a vengeance.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/2064/the-nerd

Clybourne Park, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2015 Summer Theatre

Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, Clybourne Park is a razor-sharp satire about the politics of race. In response to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, playwright Bruce Norris set up Clybourne Park as a pair of scenes that bookend Hansberry’s piece. These two scenes, fifty years apart, are both set in the same modest bungalow on Chicago’s northwest side that features at the center of A Raisin in the Sun. The first scene takes place before and the second scene takes place after the events of A Raisin in …

2015 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Into The Woods, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2014-2015 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 Greeks: The Murders, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2014-2015 Season

No abstract provided.

Sweet Charity, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2014-2015 Season

Charity Hope Valentine always tries to look on the bright side of life, despite working in a rundown dance hall and contending with a seemingly endless run of bad dates. Determined to find love, Charity falls for suave actor Vittorio Vidal, but their romance is all too brief. However, when Charity finds herself stuck in an elevator with the reserved Oscar Lindquist, it turns out that she may have finally met her match.

2014 - 2015 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Dames At Sea, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2014 Summer Theatre

When talented young hopeful Ruby arrives in New York City with nothing but a pair of tap shoes in her suitcase, she is determined to break into show business. She stumbles into the cast of troubled show “Dames at Sea”, in which broke and pessimistic producer Hennesey is terrorized by Mona Kent, the aggressive, seductive, and surprisingly shady leading lady. Dames at Sea is a light, bright, and hilariously tuneful homage to the glamorous and hopeful movie musicals of the 1930s. https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/2374/dames-at-sea

The 39 Steps, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2014 Summer Theatre

Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have the intriguing, thrilling, riotous and unmissable comedy. The show hurtles a notorious fugitive and a spellbound blonde from a London music hall north by northwest to Scotland’s most remote highlands. Will they save Britain from a den of devious spies? A cast of four actors plays over 150 characters in this fast-paced tale of an ordinary man on an extraordinarily entertaining adventure. The 39 Steps contains every single legendary scene from the award-winning movie — including the chase on the Flying Scotsman, …

The Fantasticks, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2014 Summer Theatre

Whimsical, poignant, and romantic, The Fantasticks is an allegorical story that focuses on two young lovers, their meddling fathers, and the journey we all must take through adolescent thrills, the growing pains of hurt and betrayal, the highs of passion, the challenges of distance, and the agonies of heartbreak to discover how to truly love. The Fantasticks is a gem of the American musical theatre. Featuring timeless classics like “Try to Remember” and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” this simple and beautiful ensemble piece is as beloved and as timely as it was when it opened over 50 years ago. https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/1377/the-fantasticks

The Full Monty, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013-2014 Season

Six unemployed steelworkers in Buffalo, New York are miserable. They have no cash and no prospects. Meanwhile, they catch their wives and other women going crazy over male strippers. The six men then set out to make some quick cash showing off their "real man" bodies by becoming a team of male strippers. As the guys work through their fears, self-consciousness and anxieties they find strength as a group and overcome their inner demons.

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/2441/the-full-monty

The Importance Of Being Earnest (2014), Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013-2014 Season

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. It's the story of two bachelors, John 'Jack' Worthing and Algernon 'Algy' Moncrieff, who create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. www.importanceofbeingearnest.co.uk/synopsis/

Dance 2013: Once Again, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013-2014 Season

No abstract provided.

Speed-The-Plow, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013-2014 Season

Speed-the-Plow is another of Mamet's business plays, this one exploring the relationship between business and art. Bobby and Charlie are film producers who are considering greenlighting the script for a prison buddy movie that they believe will be a huge blockbuster. Bobby has been reading an apocalyptically spiritual novel that has deep meaning, but Charlie points out that this book would never make a great movie. After the temp, Karen, leaves the office, Charlie bets Bobby that he cannot get her into bed. When she returns, Bobby asks her to read the novel and give him her thoughts later. That …

Les Misérables, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013-2014 Season

One of the world’s most iconic and longest-running musicals, Les Misérablestells the story of Jean Valjean, a former convict who spends a lifetime seeking redemption. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France and the aftermath of the French Revolution, this timeless story of intertwined destinies reveals the power of compassion and the quiet evil of indifference to human suffering. As Valjean’s quest for a new life carries him into Paris and to the barricades of the Student Revolution, he is hunted by Inspector Javert and the ghosts of his past. Amidst a battle for the soul of Paris, he …

Little Shop Of Horrors, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013 Summer Theatre

Little Shop of Horrors is a delectable sci-fi horror musical with an electrifying 1960s pop/rock score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.

Seymour Krelborn is a meek and dejected assistant at a floral shop who happens upon a strange plant, which he affectionately names “Audrey II” after his crush at the shop. Little does he know that this strange and unusual plant will develop a soulful R&B voice, a potty mouth, and an unquenchable thirst for HUMAN BLOOD.

As Audrey II grows bigger and meaner, the carnivorous plant promises limitless fame and fortune to Seymour, as long as he continues …

Boeing Boeing, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013 Summer Theatre

A hit comedy similar in vein to Shakespeare’s comedies of merry misadventures and mistaken identities, Boeing Boeing tells the exploits of French bachelor Bernard and his lovely female flight attendants. Three flight attendants, to be exact, from three different countries: and they all believe they’re engaged to Bernard! In the past, Bernard has been able to juggle these women due to his detailed timetable of his fiancés’ flight schedules. When the situation changes and all of the women end up at his apartment on the same day, Bernard (with help from his bewildered friend Robert) struggles to keep them from …

Almost, Maine, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2013 Summer Theatre

A woman carries her heart, broken into nineteen pieces, in a small paper bag. A man shrinks to half his former size, after losing hope in love. A couple keep the love they have given each other in large red bags, or compress the mass into the size of a diamond. These playful and surreal experiences are commonplace in the world of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine, where on one deeply cold and magical Midwinter Night, the citizens of Almost -- not organized enough for a town, too populated for a wilderness -- experience the life-altering power of the human …

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012-2013 Season

No abstract provided.

After The Fall, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012-2013 Season

In the early stages of a new love, paralyzing memories of past relationships haunt Quentin, a liberal New York attorney who questions his own ability to truly connect with the women in his life. Arthur Miller’s most personal and autobiographical play, After the Fall, unflinchingly tackles the emotional brutality that can unfold within a marriage, against a national backdrop of McCarthyism and the commodification of celebrity. In doing so, Miller unravels the political complications in personal relationships while exposing the personal consequences of big-issue politics.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/5665/after-the-fall