Acting Commons^™

Otherwise Engaged, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1980 Summer Theatre

Simon’s sole desire is to sip his brandy and listen to Wagner's Parsifal. His solitude is challenged as he parries attacks from a peckish brother, an aggressive seductress, a mysterious visitor and others. His dazzling wit and haunting detachment escalates laughter to an ultimate shocking climax.

The Princess And The Pea And Other Fairy Tales, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1980 Summer Theatre

The Strolling Players performing The Princess and the Pea and other classic fairy tails for the Otterbein College Children's Theatre.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1980 Summer Theatre

A revival of this bawdy musical hit. It is madcap farce at its best. Based on the Roman play by Plautus this modern adaptation with music and lyrics by Tony Award winner Stephen Sondheim combines the hilarious nonsense of vaudeville with a variety of musical memorables such as Comedy Tonight and Everybody Ought to Have a Maid. Laughs for the entire family!

Bedroom Farce, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1980 Summer Theatre

Broadway hit comedy about three London couples retiring to the romantic privacy of their own bedrooms. Their loving coupling goes awry when a fourth twosome invades all three beds creating hilarious havoc in a series of marital misunderstandings and inaccurate accusations.

And They Dance Real Slow In Jackson, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979-1980 Season

In Jackson, a small town in rural Indiana, Elizabeth Ann Willow lives with her father and mother. Crippled at birth with polio, Elizabeth Ann is confined to a wheelchair and must wear leg braces, which cuts her off from the other children and prevents her regular attendance at school. Although she tries to reach out and make friends, Elizabeth Ann is increasingly isolated from and then taunted by the others, whose small-town prejudices are reinforced by a polio scare, of which Elizabeth Ann is a chilling embodiment.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/445082.And_They_Dance_Real_Slow_in_Jackson_

Guys & Dolls, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979-1980 Season

The Department of Music and dance area join us to highlight May Day week activities. Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Combine a “floating crap game,” the Save-A-Soul Mission ladies of Times Square with music like “Luck Be a Lady,” “Take Back Your Mink,” “A Bushel and a Peck” and “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat” for one of the best musicals ever! Definitely for the entire family.

The Comedy Of Errors, Otterbein University

1979-1980 Season

One of Shakespeare’s most popular farces! First you take a set of twins; then, you add another. Season lightly with a nagging wife and a bumbling bureaucracy, add plenty of mistaken identity and the resulting comedic confusions and you have an engaging mixture that will provide laughter the entire evening. For the entire family.

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979-1980 Season

Set in the home of a professor in a small college, an evening of “fun and games with George and Martha” is the shattering and memorable drama that proclaimed Edward Albee one of America’s greatest playwrights. Scorching, scalding, laugh provoking, revealing and completely engrossing theatre at its best.

Sleeping Beauty, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979-1980 Season

The story of a princess cast under a magic spell to sleep for 100 years, who can be awakened only by the kiss of a brave prince. To be presented in a fully staged musical version in Cowan Hall for children of all ages.

The Miracle Worker, Otterbein University

1979-1980 Season

The inspiring story of Helen Keller’s miraculous release from the silent world of the blind and deaf through the strong-willed determination of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, is one of the most successful and warmly admired displays of the modern stage. Otterbein’s entry in the American College Theatre Festival. For the entire family.

Harvey, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979 Summer Theatre

The six foot rabbit, Harvey, will prowl the summer stage again in this revival of the Mary Chase classic. Elwood P. Dowd and his mystical sidekick will make appearances at Charlie’s Bar, debutant parties, and eventually an asylum, bringing good cheer and laughter to all who follow.

Hay Fever, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979 Summer Theatre

Noel Coward’s superb farce comedy, filled with typical repartee and dazzling wit. The story concerns an ultra-Bohemian family who live a free sort of life. The novelist, his actress wife and their two spoiled children each invite guests for a summer weekend and the resulting “fever” is the basis for an evening of laughter.

The Runner Stumbles, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979 Summer Theatre

An exciting and powerful new drama that has enjoyed great regional theatre and New York success (now before the cameras). This story of repressed passions centering around a priest and a nun, told in a courtroom through flashbacks, provides an evening of intensely moving and absorbing theatre.

The Boy Friend, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979 Summer Theatre

A revival of this witty and musical comedy spoof of the 1920's that won the Theatre an Overseas Tour to entertain American soldiers in 1964. A tuneful and affectionate valentine to the innocence and wild abandonment of the Charleston, black bottom, hip flasks and short skirts. Hit songs (Julie Andrew's first big hit) include "Won't You Charleston With Me" and "It's Never Too Late to Fall In Love."

Cactus Flower, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1979 Summer Theatre

Broadway hit comedy about a bachelor dentist who stays happily single by reporting he is married! All is well until he falls in love - and needs to produce a “wife.” His secretary-nurse agrees to help and when she changes her uniform for a dress the transformation and confrontations produce surprising results — and laughter!

How The Other Half Loves, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1978-1979 Season

How the Other Half Loves is a 1969 play in two acts by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is a farce following the consequences of an adulterous affair between a married man and his boss’s wife and their attempts to cover their tracks by roping in a third couple to be their alibi, resulting in a chain of misunderstandings, conflicts and revelations.

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

Brigadoon, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1978-1979 Season

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.

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

Vanities, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1978-1979 Season

Vanities is a comedy-drama stage production written by Jack Heifner. The story centers on the lives and friendship of three Texas cheerleaders starting from high school in 1963, continuing through college as sorority sisters in 1968, and ending with the dissolution of their friendship in 1974 New York as their interests and livelihoods change and they are no longer as compatible with one another as they had been in their school days.

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

A Christmas Carol, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1978-1979 Season

No abstract provided.

Hedda Gabler, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1978-1979 Season

Hedda Gabler focusses on the frustrated existence of its title character, exploring core issues of power, control, and social expectation. Bored and restricted by her middle-class environment, Hedda plays out her own fantasies and psychological games with those nearest to her to an ultimately costly end.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/5638/hedda-gabler

A View From The Bridge, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1976-1977 Season

The play is set in 1950s America, in an Italian American neighborhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It employs a chorus and narrator in the character of Alfieri. Eddie, the tragic protagonist, has an improper love of, and almost obsession with, Catherine, his wife Beatrice's orphaned niece, so he does not approve of her courtship of Beatrice's cousin Rodolfo.

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

Born Yesterday, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1976 Summer Theatre

An uncouth, corrupt rich junk dealer, Harry Brock, brings his showgirl mistress Billie Dawn with him to Washington, D.C. When Billie's ignorance becomes a liability to Brock's business dealings, he hires a journalist, Paul Verrall, to educate his girlfriend.

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

6 Rms Riv Vu, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1976 Summer Theatre

6 Rms Riv Vu derives its title from shorthand used by real estate agents in classified advertising. In this case, a six-room apartment with a view of the Hudson River, located on Manhattan's Riverside Drive, serves as the comedy-drama's setting. Paul Friedman is a married advertising copywriter, Anne Miller is a discontented housewife, and the two meet when they respond to a New York Times listing for the available unit. They discover the door has been locked accidentally, trapping them inside, and a connection slowly develops as they begin to share the details of their respective lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_Rms_Riv_Vu

Sleeping Beauty, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1976 Summer Theatre

Sleeping Beauty is a classic fairy tale which involves a beautiful princess, a sleeping enchantment, and a handsome prince.

Of Thee I Sing, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1976 Summer Theatre

The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform. When he falls in love with the sensible Mary Turner instead of Diana Devereaux, the beautiful pageant winner selected for him, he gets into political hot water.

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

Tobacco Road, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1976 Summer Theatre

In desolate farm country in Georgia, the profitable tobacco crop has given way to cotton plantations, but poor planting practices have depleted the soil. The Lester family were once sharecroppers, but are now poverty-stricken and unable to cope with the bleak life they face.

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

Showboat, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1975-1976 Season

When it comes to music on the Mississippi river, the Cotton Blossom show boat is the place to go. When musical main attraction Julie Laverne and her husband are suddenly forced to leave the show, Cotton Blossom owner Andy Hawks' own daughter, Magnolia, takes center stage. She soon falls madly in love with roguish gambler Gaylord Ravenal, and the two leave the Cotton Blossom on a honeymoon -- only to enter into a tumultuous marriage.

Blithe Spirit, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1975-1976 Season

Skeptical novelist Charles Condomine invites self-proclaimed medium Madame Arcati to his home for a séance, hoping to gather material for a new book. When the hapless psychic accidentally summons the spirit of Condomine's late wife, Elvira, his home and life are quickly turned into a shambles as his wife's ghost torments both himself and his new bride, Ruth.

Hamlet (1976), Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1975-1976 Season

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is home from school to mourn the death of his father, King Hamlet, who has died two months earlier. Hamlet is disgusted by the marriage of his newly widowed mother, Queen Gertrude, to his Uncle, King Hamlet's brother, Claudius, who now has the throne. https://www.hartfordstage.org/stagenotes/hamlet/synopsis

Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1975-1976 Season

No abstract provided.