Acting Commons^™

A Man For All Seasons, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968-1969 Season

A Man For All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt based on the life of Sir Thomas More. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.

The plot is based on the true story of Sir Thomas More, the 16th-century Chancellor of England, who refused to endorse King Henry VIII's wish to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon, who did not bear him …

The Subject Was Roses, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968-1969 Season

Timmy Cleary returns home from his service during World War II. While he seems to vindicate himself in his father's eyes for surviving the war, his drinking and cursing disturb his mother. Though his parents, John and Nettie, seem to be happy, the peace proves to be a facade. Soon old emotional wounds and unresolved marital problems resurface. Caught in the middle, Timmy feels responsible for their squabbling, but can see no way to resolve their problems.

The Subject Was Roses. (2016, October 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:46, September 1, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Subject_Was_Roses&oldid=747012293

Peter Pan, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968-1969 Season

Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.

Peter Pan. (2017, August 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:33, September 1, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Pan&oldid=798044874

Cry Of Dawn In Dark Babylon

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1968 performance of Cry Dawn in Dark Babylon by P. W. Turner.

From the playbill: “According to the author, this is a play about death, the Resurrection and the Church. It is a true story, based on his own experience as a pastor in an industrial parish in England.”

Performed by the Taylor Religious Drama Company. It was second of three projects developed by the class for the semester.

The Happy Time, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968 Summer Theatre

Young Robert "Bibi" Bonnard grows up in Ottawa, Ontario with his parents, Jacques and Susan , and his roving rogue of a grandfather, Grandpere. Across the street is his uncle, amiable drunkard Louis, who ignores the complaints of his hard-working dressmaker wife Felice and her worries about the future of their daughter Yvonne. Louis agitates about meeting his prospective son-in-law, Alfred Grattin, a teetotaler bank clerk who wishes to marry Yvonne. Next-door neighbour and schoolmate Peggy O'Hare (Marlene Cameron) has a crush on Bibi, but he is as yet too young to understand.

The Happy Time. (2017, March 5). In …

Antigone, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968 Summer Theatre

Jean Anouilh's play Antigone is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name (Antigone, by Sophocles) from the fifth century B.C. In English, it is often distinguished from its antecedent by being pronounced similarly to its original French form [ɑ̃tiɡɔn], approximately on-tee-GONE.

The play was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre de l'Atelier on February 6, 1944, during the Nazi occupation. Produced under Nazi censorship, the play is purposefully ambiguous with regard to the rejection of authority (represented by Antigone) and the acceptance of it (represented by Creon). The parallels to …

Barefoot In The Park, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968 Summer Theatre

Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The play premiered on Broadway in 1963 and starred Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. The play was made into a film in 1967, also starring Redford, and Jane Fonda.

Corie and Paul Bratter are a newlywed couple. For their first home, they live in an apartment on the top floor of a brownstone in New York City. During the course of four days, the couple learns to live together while facing the usual daily ups-and-downs. Corrie wants Paul to become more easy-going: for example, to run "barefoot in the …

American Dreams & Zoo Story, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968 Summer Theatre

The American Dream - The story of one of America's most dysfunctional families, it is a ferocious, uproarious attack on the substitution of artifical values for the real values- a startling tale of murder and morality that rocks middle-class ethics to its complacent foundations.

The Zoo Story - A harrowing depiction of a young man alienated from the human race- a searing story of loneliness and the desperate need for recognition that builds to a violent, shattering climax. Together, these plays show men and women at their most hilarious, heartbreaking, and above all, human.

(https://www.amazon.com/American-Dream-Zoo-Story/dp/0452278899)

Once Upon A Mattress, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1968 Summer Theatre

Due to an unhappy curse, King Sextimus is unable to speak. Meanwhile, his terror-of-a-wife, Queen Aggravain, has taken over control of the kingdom. Most importantly, in an attempt to keep Prince Dauntless single, she has decreed that only the princess that can pass her test may marry her son. Further, no one else in the kingdom may marry until Prince Dauntless does. Lady Larken and Sir Harry are extremely disturbed by this fact since Lady Larken is now pregnant with Sir Harry's baby. Luckily, Sir Harry is able to find an amazing princess, Winnifred the Woebegone. She instantly catches the …

Carousel, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967-1968 Season

The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He attempts a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the well-known songs "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone".

The Crucible, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967-1968 Season

The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692/93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government ostracized people for being communists. Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

The play was first performed at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, …

The Wizard Of Oz, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967-1968 Season

No abstract provided.

Waiting For Godot, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967-1968 Season

It has been said Waiting for Godot, with destructive intent, that it is a drama in which absolutely nothing happens. "And does that seem a small accomplishment?" we should ask. This is precisely what is so fascinating about Waiting for Godot: that nothing happens. It is a lucid testimony of nothingness. But while we are left cold by many dramas of intrigue in which a great deal happens, this "nothing happens" of Waiting for Godot keeps us in suspense. These men who are bored cast us out of our own boredom; their boredom produces our catharsis, and we …

The Merchant Of Venice, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967-1968 Season

The Merchant of Venice is a 16th-century play by William Shakespeare in which a merchant in Venice must default on a large loan provided by an abused (Jewish) moneylender. It is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1599. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for Shylock and the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech. Also notable is Portia's speech about "the quality of mercy".

The Merchant of Venice. (2017, June …

The Philadelphia Story, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967 Summer Theatre

The Philadelphia Story is a 1939 American comic play by Philip Barry. It tells the story of a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and an attractive journalist.

Take Her, She's Mine, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967 Summer Theatre

A father is overprotective toward his teenage daughter as she leaves home to go to college and study abroad in Paris.

Take Her, She's Mine. (2017, June 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:05, June 14, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Take_Her,_She%27s_Mine&oldid=783721960

The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967 Summer Theatre

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is a 1957 play by William Inge about family conflicts during the early 1920s in a small Oklahoma town. It was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1958 and was made into a film of the same name in 1960.

The drama centers on Rubin Flood, who loses his salesman job. While searching for a new job, he must deal with his wife, Cora, who shuns intimacy and mistakes his joblessness for stinginess, his shy daughter who prepares for her first dance and his pre-teen son who runs to …

Rhinoceros, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967 Summer Theatre

Rhinoceros (French original title Rhinocéros) is a play by Eugène Ionesco, written in 1959. The play was included in Martin Esslin's study of post-war avant garde drama, "The Theatre of the Absurd", although scholars have also rejected this label as too interpretatively narrow. Over the course of three acts, the inhabitants of a small, provincial French town turn into rhinoceroses; ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure who is initially criticized in the play for his drinking, tardiness, and slovenly lifestyle and then, later, for …

The Fantasticks, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1967 Summer Theatre

The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play The Romancers (Les Romanesques) by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud. The fathers hire traveling actors to stage a mock abduction, so that Matt can heroically seem to save Luisa, ending the supposed feud. When the children discover the deception, they reject the arranged love match and separate. Each then gains disillusioning experiences of the real world, …

Brigadoon, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1966-1967 Season

Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. Songs from the musical, such as "Almost Like Being in Love", have become standards. The story involves two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon.

The original production opened on Broadway in 1947 and ran for 581 performances. It starred David Brooks, Marion Bell, Pamela Britton, and Lee Sullivan. In 1949, Brigadoon opened at the …

Our Town, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1966-1967 Season

Our Town is a 1938 metatheatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens.

Throughout, Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is performed without a set on a mostly bare stage. With a …

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1966-1967 Season

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a Broadway play that debuted at the Little Theatre on West 44th Street, New York City, on October 31, 1912. Based on the stories by the Brothers Grimm, it was produced by Winthrop Ames who had written it under the pseudonym "Jessie Braham White." The play met with favorable reviews and became the basis for the 1916 film, Snow White.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1912 play). (2016, August 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:38, June 12, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1912_play)&oldid=737081172

Brecht On Brecht, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1966-1967 Season

Brecht on Brecht is not a play; it is more a portrait of Bertolt Brecht, made up from selected writings by the playwright-poet. In 1963, George Tabori assembled poems and selections from plays and arranged them in a thematic order to resemble Brecht's own life experiences. This was essentially the script for Brecht on Brecht.

The Master Builder

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1966 performance of The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen.

The Master Builder tells the story of Halvard Solness, the master builder in a small Norway town who meets a young woman whom he made advances on early in life and takes into his home.

This show was performed by the Faculty Readers reader’s theater.

As You Like It, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1966-1967 Season

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio, 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility.

As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy traveller Jaques who speaks many of Shakespeare's most …

Spoon River Anthology, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1965-1966 Season

Spoon River Anthology was originally conceived, adapted, and directed by Charles Aidman, who also acted in the original Broadway production. He reports a keen interest in the book of poetry as a student at Indiana University. While working as an actor at the Theatre West, a workshop on the west coast, he began experimentation with a script that eventually led to a presentation of the completed production under the auspices of the UCLA Theatre Group. The Broadway production opened in September, 1963, to rave reviews and after a successful engagement toured throughout the United States.

The Madwoman Of Chaillot, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1965-1966 Season

Jean Giraudoux wrote "The Madwoman of Chaillot" during 1942-43. Since Paris was then occupied by the Germans, Giraudoux, who was living quietly there and would never have permitted a play of his to be performed during the Occupation, put it aside with the prophetic note on its fly-leaf: "To be performed Oct. 17. 1945" - this was at a time when no one could foresee when, if ever, the Nazis would be driven out of France. They were driven out in August, 1944 (by which time Giraudoux had died); peace came in August 1945. Thus the author's estimate of the …

Hansel And Gretel, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1965-1966 Season

Hansel and Gretel is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister kidnapped by a cannibalistic witch living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children escape with their lives by outwitting her.

Hansel and Gretel. (2017, May 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:28, June 14, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hansel_and_Gretel&oldid=781024641

The Servant Of Two Masters, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1965-1966 Season

No abstract provided.

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

1964-1965 Season

The Importance of Being Earnest is the most renowned of Oscar Wilde’s comedies. 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. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure. The elaborate plot ridicules Victorian sensibilities with some of the best loved, and indeed bizarre, characters to be found on the modern stage.