Acting Commons^™

Spring Awakening, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012-2013 Season

Based on Frank Wedekind’s groundbreaking and controversial play (once banned in Germany), Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s brilliant rock score and searingly emotional book take the story of sexual awakening, youth revolt, and self-discovery into a new century. It’s 1891, and grown-ups hold all the cards. Headstrong Melchior and naive Wendla stumble into each others’ arms, passionate and curious, while anxious Moritz struggles to live up to the stringent expectations of society. With only each other for guidance, this group of young men and women travel the fraught and rocky path of adolescence, discovering their bodies, their minds, and themselves …

Noises Off, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012-2013 Season

Michael Frayn's Noises Off takes a fond look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss, and passionate affairs turn every performance into a high-risk adventure. This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance, and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run. Frayne gives us a window into the inner workings of theatre behind the scenes, progressing from flubbed lines and missed cues in the dress rehearsal to mounting friction between cast members in the final performance. Brimming with slapstick comedy, Noises …

Something's Afoot: A New Murder Mystery Musical, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012 Summer Theatre

Something's Afoot is a murder mystery musical that spoofs detective stories, mainly the works of Agatha Christie, and especially her detective novel And Then There Were None (a.k.a. Ten Little Indians). The play involves a group of people who are invited to the lake estate of Lord Dudley Rancour, When the wealthy lord is found dead, it's a race against the clock to find out whodunnit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something%27s_Afoot

Barefoot In The Park, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012 Summer Theatre

What happens when two very different people fall in love? Paul likes to wear his gloves in the winter and Corie wants to walk barefoot in the park. Mix in the crazy neighbors upstairs, Victor Velasco, who "wears Japanese kimonos and sleeps on rugs" and Corie's mother who "wears a hairnet and sleeps on a board" and expect some complications. Set in 1963, Barefoot in the Park captures the tension between the freedom of the burgeoning 60's and the conventions of the waning 50's. Corie and Victor are pre-hippies, attuned to their libidos and their desire for freedom and adventure. …

Circle Mirror Transformation, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2012 Summer Theatre

A sharply funny new play by emerging playwright Annie Baker, Circle Mirror Transformation follows five people through a summer of "creative drama" in their small town's adult acting class. Led by their bohemian acting coach, the five experiment with harmless theatre games that unexpectedly lead to poignant discoveries about themselves and each other. At turns, surprisingly funny and subtly insightful, this revealing play reminds us why theatre is the most human of all arts.

Carnival!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2011-2012 Season

Lili, a lonely orphan, is enchanted with a traveling carnival troupe. She finally gets to join the troupe and ends up working with the puppet act. Meanwhile, both the puppeteer, Paul, and the magician, Marco the Magnificent, have fallen in love with Lili. The two men engage in a fierce rivalry for Lili’s affections. In the end, Lili chooses Paul and they live happily ever after.

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/2440/carnival

August: Osage County, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2011-2012 Season

Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best New Play, August: Osage County centers around the Weston family, brought together after their patriarch, world-class poet and alcoholic Beverly Weston, disappears. The matriarch, Violet, depressed and addicted to pain pills and “truth-telling,” is joined by her three daughters and their problematic lovers, who harbor their own deep secrets, her sister Mattie Fae and her family, well-trained in the Weston family art of cruelty, and finally, the observer of the chaos, the young Cheyenne housekeeper Johnna, who was hired by Beverly just before his disappearance. Holed up in the …

A Doll's House, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2010-2011 Season

Ibsen's A Doll's House is a revolutionary classic. The play was integral in establishing realism as a theatrical form, and continues to be a provocative portrayal of a woman suffering in a man's world.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/2344/a-dolls-house

Born Yesterday, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2010-2011 Season

In Garson Kanin’s pointed and hilarious Born Yesterday, personal and political oppression is exposed and outwitted in the intellectual rebirth of the iconic “dumb blonde”, Billie Dawn, who ultimately stands up to Harry Brock’s violent intimidation and shuts down his shady bid for governmental cooperation. https://stageagent.com/shows/play/4838/born-yesterday

Don't Dress For Dinner, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2010 Summer Theatre

Don’t Dress For Dinner centers around Bernard and Jacqueline, a not-so-happily married couple, both of whom are having extramarital affairs. As Jacqueline prepares to go out of town to visit her mother, Bernard invites his mistress and Robert, his best friend (and also Jacqueline’s lover, unbeknownst to Bernard), over for the weekend. He’s even hired a Cordon Bleu chef to cater the evening. Jacqueline discovers Robert is coming to town and cancels her trip, causing Bernard to panic. When Robert arrives, Bernard asks him to pretend Suzanne is Robert’s mistress. Robert mistakes the chef (Suzette), for Bernard’s mistress (Suzanne), producing …

2010 - 2011 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2010 Summer Theatre

An eclectic group of sixth-graders arrives at the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, each eager to win for very different reasons. Sweet and shy Olive brings only her best friend (the dictionary) with her to the bee; bold and hyperallergic speller William Barfee uses his “magic foot” to propel him to greatness; former champion Chip is struggling with his burgeoning puberty; easily distracted Leaf is unconvinced that he’s smart enough to be a challenger; overachiever Marcy is disappointed by her consistent success; and politically aware Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre only wants to impress her gay dads. In hilarious, touching, and catchy …

Pippin, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2009-2010 Season

As told by a traveling troupe of actors led by the cunning and charming Leading Player, Pippin is the story of a young prince, heir to the throne, who is searching for his own “corner of the sky.” Pippin returns from university certain that he will find a fulfilling purpose in life. As encouraged by the Leading Player, Pippin dabbles in bloody battle, licentious and lusty sexual entanglements, and saavy political maneuvers, only to discover that true happiness is more complicated than he thought. With infectious tunes by Stephen Schwartz and classic choreography from Bob Fosse, Pippin is both …

Dead Man's Cell Phone, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2009-2010 Season

While at a café, a man dies. But his cell phone will not stop ringing. The woman at the next table, Jean, picks up the cell phone and ends up stuck in the middle of all his troubles, meeting his widow Hermia, his mother Mrs. Gottlieb, and his mistress. In the course of meeting all these people, she ends up falling in love with the dead man’s brother, Dwight. The dead man himself, Gordon Gottlieb, eventually tells his last moments himself.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1810/dead-mans-cell-phone

You Can't Take It With You, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2009-2010 Season

Grandpa Vanderhof and his wacky family, the Sycamores, have been happily living their zany lives in his house by Columbia University in New York for many years. This family (and their friends) are a madcap group of eccentrics, marching to the beat of their own drum, with pride and joy. Their hobbies include collecting snakes, building fireworks in the basement, writing a myriad of plays that never get published, and taking ballet lessons. Things like stress, jobs, and paying taxes to the government are for other people, not for them! But when practical young Alice Sycamore becomes engaged to her …

Babes In Arms, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2009-2010 Season

One of the quintessential “Hey, let’s put on a show” musicals, which boasts one of the most beautiful scores ever written, by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, including such timeless standards as “The Lady is a Tramp”, “Where Or When”, “My Funny Valentine”, and “I Wish I were In Love Again”.

A group of teenagers are left to their own devices as their parents leave for the summer to hit the vaudeville circuit. However, problems arise when the local sheriff vows to send them to a work farm unless they prove their mettle. Within two weeks, the group pushes forward …

2009 - 2010 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

The Last Night Of Ballyhoo, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2009 Summer Theatre

The Last Night of Ballyhoo takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1939. Gone with the Wind is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta's elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. Events take several unexpected turns as the characters face where they come from and are forced to deal with who they really are.

https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=2480

Altar Boyz, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2009 Summer Theatre

Altar Boyz is the hilarious story of a struggling Christian boy-band trying to make it big in New York City. Five talented heartthrobs from Ohio do their best to spread the word of God through pop music. However, can they resist the temptations of the Big Apple? The show is presented in real time as a concert, the last concert of their national "Raise the Praise" tour.

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/2422/altar-boyz

Don't Talk To The Actors, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2009 Summer Theatre

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The best laid plans go awry when the cast and crew of a Broadway-bound play resort to manipulation, diva-like behavior, and chaotic abandon to get what they want. Fledgling playwright Jerry Przpezniak and his fiancee are a couple of Buffalo greenhorns suddenly swept up in the whirlwind of New York's theater scene when Jerry's play is optioned for the big money, ego-driven world of Broadway. It's a young playwright's dream, but the crazy characters and dilemmas they encounter are the things theatrical nightmares are made of.

https://www.playscripts.com/play/1869

Nine, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008-2009 Season

Guido Contini, famous Italian film director, has turned forty and faces double crises: he has to shoot a film for which he can't write the script, and his wife of twenty years, the film star Luisa del Forno, may be about to leave him if he can't pay more attention to the marriage. As it turns out, it is the same crisis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_(musical)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008-2009 Season

First published as a book by Ken Kesey in 1962, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was inspired by Kesey's job as an orderly at a veteran's hospital and by the 1960s counterculture movement touting such themes as freedom, rebellion and fearlessness.It's the classic anti establishment tale of one man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist system.

Dance 2009: To Each His Own, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008-2009 Season

No abstract provided.

An Absolute Turkey, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008-2009 Season

Georges Feydeau, master of farce, displays all his tricks of the trade in this witty, seamless and acutely funny play. An Absolute Turkey was a West End hit following its London premiere at the Globe Theatre in 1993. https://www.samuelfrench.com/p/9770/an-absolute-turkey/

Smokey Joe's Cafe, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008-2009 Season

Smokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll and rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiver and Mike Stoller.

2008 - 2009 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

My Way: A Musical Tribute To Frank Sinatra, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008 Summer Theatre

No abstract provided.

Proof, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008 Summer Theatre

The play concerns Catherine, the daughter of Robert, a recently deceased mathematical genius and professor at the University of Chicago, and her struggle with mathematical genius and mental illness. Catherine had cared for her father through a lengthy mental illness. https://www.lewisfamilyplayhouse.com/pdfs/blackbox/Proof_character_descriptions.pdf

Indian Blood, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2008 Summer Theatre

The play takes place in the mid-1940s. 16-year-old Eddie blames his tendencies towards bad behavior on his "Indian blood," as he's been told there's a Seneca Indian somewhere in his family tree.

Peter Pan, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2007-2008 Season

An adaptation of J. M. Barrie's story about a boy who never grew up. The three children of the Darling family receive a visit from Peter Pan, who takes them toNever Land, where an ongoing war between Peter's gang of rag-tag runaways and the evil Pirate Captain Hook is taking place. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046183/plotsummary