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Eccentric: Writing Through The Lens Of Empathy, Steven M. Blacksmith

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In this essay, I detail my growth as a writer through different periods of empathic learning. I examine my childhood struggle to understand many common emotions and the ways in which I began to logically dissect and replicate them in life and in art. I further delve into this examination through my discovery of comedy and the lifelong process of understand the deep connections humans make with humor. I then discuss how my understanding of empathy allowed me to write my dissertation play, The Eccentrics, and create a world in which empathy among the characters can be a catalyst …

Chicago, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2019-2020 Season

Set in Jazz-age Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_(musical)

Smoke On The Mountain, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

2019 Summer Theatre

n this delightful tale of the Sanders Family Singers, the audience is invited to go back to 1938 and pull up a pew for an evening of more than two dozen songs, many of them vintage pop hymns. The more-or-less devout members of the family don’t just sing, but also have hilarious stories, which are delivered despite the mild protestations of the Reverend Oglethorpe.

The Mousetrap

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.

Performed April 26-28 & May 3-5, 2019 at the Mitchell Theatre.

The Mousetrap is a classic murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. Set in the remote Monkswell Manor, the story begins as a group of strangers is stranded by a snowstorm. The guests include a newlywed couple, a retired army major, an architect, a mysterious foreigner, and a stern magistrate. Tensions rise when they learn that a murderer is among them, and a police sergeant arrives to investigate. As secrets are revealed and suspicions grow, the play builds …

Metamorphoses

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman.

Performed February 22-24 and March 1-3, 2018 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Called by Time the “theater event of the year,” Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses brings Ovid’s tales to stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water, Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change. Nominated for three 2002 Tony Awards, including “Best Play,” Metamorphoses earned Zimmerman a Tony for “Best Direction of a Play.”

Dance 2018: Gloriously Grimm, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2018-2019 Season

No abstract provided.

The Launch 2018: A Senior Cabaret, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2018-2019 Season

The senior Acting and Musical Theatre Majors will take their final bows on the Fritsche Theatre stage in this 90 minute program of songs, dance, scenes, and monologues. See performances from some the students' favorite productions, including Thoroughly Modern Millie, Dreamgirls, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Rumors, My Fair Lady, and Hamilton!

Arcadia, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1998-1999 Season

The Underlying theme throughout the show is Classicism vs. Romanticism. The Classic ideals of balance and intellect, seen in Greek Geometry and the ordered universe, become challenged by the emotion and chaos of the Romantic World. The tensions that two completely conflicting philosophies create drive Arcadia forward, making a potentially academic play fun and exciting to watch.

Macbeth...The Tragedy Of, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2018-2019 Season

A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth

Big Fish, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2018-2019 Season

When Edward Bloom becomes ill, his son, William, travels to be with him. William has a strained relationship with Edward because his father has always told exaggerated stories about his life, and William thinks he's never really told the truth. Even on his deathbed, Edward recounts fantastical anecdotes. When William, who is a journalist, starts to investigate his father's tales, he begins to understand the man and his penchant for storytelling.

The Amish Project

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of The Amish Project by Jessica Dickey.

Performed September 13-16, 2018 at the Mitchell Theatre. This was the 2018 Jason Francis Memorial Scholarship Show.

The Amish Project is a powerful and thought-provoking play by Jessica Dickey that explores the fictionalized aftermath of the real-life 2006 West Nickel Mines Amish School shooting. The play delves into themes of forgiveness, compassion, and community resilience in the face of tragedy. It portrays the complex emotional journey of the Amish community as they navigate their grief and the necessity of forgiveness to heal and survive.

The Taming Of The Shrew, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1985-1986 Season

A ribald, raucous, rowdy look at the eternal “battle of the sexes.” The beautiful Catherine has acquired a reputation as “Kate the Curst” because she apparently does not like the kind of potential suitors encouraged by her father. Enter the swashbuckling but roguish adventurer, Petruchio, who wants both Catherine and her dowry. The father happily agrees to the match and the resulting “battle” ends up as one of Shakespeare's most famous love matches.

Snoopy!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2018 Summer Theatre

The musical sequel to YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN – deserves each of its three exclamation points. Based on the beloved Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schulz, the show sparkles with wit and warmth as it depicts life as seen through the eyes of Schulz’s unforgettable characters.

Thoroughly Modern Millie, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2017-2018 Season

The year was 1922 and to live in Manhattan meant, for many, an era of wild optimism, carefree abandonment of antiquated social constraints and for women, unprecedented advancement in how they were perceived by those around them. Everything was lovely and in this age of liberated sensibilities, our heroine, Millie Dillmount enters with just such a need to rewrite her personal narrative. Thoroughly Modern Millie is, to me, a valentine to optimism and a love letter to love itself.

Thom C. Warren, Director

Why We Must Die So Young: The Story Of The White Rose Martyrs

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of Why We Must Die So Young: The Story of the White Rose Martyrs by William Gebby.

Performed February 23-25, 2018 at the Mitchell Theatre.

During the darkest days of WWII, a handful of German college students distributed thousands of anti-Nazi leaflets and worked toward unifying resistance across Germany. They called themselves the White Rose, and their faith drew them to engage in a fight that would cost them their lives. William Gebby’s brand new play celebrates the lives of these brave young people who would not and will not be silent. The TU …

Dance Concert: Move Me, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

2017-2018 Season

No abstract provided.

Cyrano De Bergerac

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of Cyrano de Bergerac, based on the translation written by Anthony Burgess of the play written by Edmund Rostand.

Performed November 10-12, 17-19, 2017 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Dashing, proud, and romantic, Cyrano is one of the most memorable figures in theatre history. Known throughout Paris for his unmatched bravery and the charm of his verse, poet Cyrano de Bergerac has one problem—his enormous nose. During an age of gallant musketeers and extravagant lifestyles, this beautiful soul is damned by his marred appearance. Not one to give up, Cyrano joins forces with the handsome …

Adding Machine: A Musical, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

2017-2018 Season

Mr. Zero is the eternal "little man," shallow yet possessing some dignity, who murders his boss when he learns that, after twenty-five years of being a bookkeeper, he is to be replaced by an adding machine. Condemned to death despite his piteous stream-of-consciousness appeal to the jury, he is executed and appears next in the Elysian Fields, where he meets and enjoys a brief idyll with Daisy, his deceased co-worker, whose love he had secretly desired.

http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_a/addingmachine.html

Damn Yankees, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2016-2017 Season

The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball. It is based on Wallop's novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant.

When The Rain Stops Falling

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of When the Rain Stops Falling by Thornton Andrew Bovell.

Performed February 24-26, March 3-5, 2017.

It’s 2039. A fish falls from the sky and lands at Gabriel’s feet. Where did it come from? Gabriel’s estranged son decides to visit for dinner. What does he want? To know about his past? Gabriel barely knows his own past. From 1959 to 2039, from London to Australia, When the Rain Stops Falling follows the fragmented history and mystery of Gabriel’s family and the falling fish.

Top Girls, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2016-2017 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.

The Launch: A Senior Cabaret, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2016-2017 Season

A showcase of performances by seniors with special guest Lindsay Nicole Chanbers '02

Dance 2016: The Goddess, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2016-2017 Season

No abstract provided.

The Crucible, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2016-2017 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 persecuted people accused of being communists. _{^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible}}

Antigone

Taylor Theatre Playbills

Taylor Theatre presents Sophocles’ timeless tragedy “Antigone,” translated and directed by Joe Ricke.

Performed September 29-October 2, 2016 at the Mitchell Theatre.

In this story, the bold yet cursed princess Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, chooses to confront her unmovable uncle/king about his decision to dishonor her brother by refusing his burial. Her choice to defy him shocks the entire city of Thebes. Ultimately, all concerned, including the audience, are forced to wrestle with the relationship of divine law to human laws.

This striking production, translated and directed by Joe Ricke, explores this universal question in the ancient context …

The Addams Family, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2016-2017 Season

We have drawn inspiration for this rendering of The Addams Family from Charles Addams' original cartoons. We were fascinated by the challenge of taking a two dimensional world and extending it into three dimensional reality.

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

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 …

Rabbit Hole

Taylor Theatre Playbills

Taylor Theatre presents Rabbit Hole by David-Lindsay-Abaire.

Performed February 19-21, 26-28, 2016 at the Mitchell Theatre.

As improbably funny as it is heartbreaking, this story of a family in crisis won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Becca and Howie had the perfect life—a great marriage, a beautiful house, and a lovely son. But after a tragic accident, the couple faces the challenges of surviving great loss and making a life with the family that remains.

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.