Dance Commons^™

The Merchant Of Venice, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2005-2006 Season

In the melting pot of Venice, currency opens many doors. A multicultural metropolis, Venice welcomes its arms to all – so long as they come prepared for the brutality of the business of trade. Young Bassanio wants to take a gamble for brilliant Portia, the wealthy heiress of Belmont. He is willing to risk all he has to win her hand, but all he has is not enough. In need of extra money to make a proper suit, Bassanio enlists the help of his merchant friend, Antonio, who takes out a loan from Jewish money lender, Shylock, on his behalf. …

Jesus Christ Superstar, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2004-2005 Season

Jesus Christ Superstar tells the story of biblical Jesus in the final days leading up to his crucifixion. A rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, the musical has no spoken dialogue and is sometimes considered a modern rock-opera. Loosely based on the Gospels, Superstar focuses on the personal conflicts between Jesus, his disciples, the people of Israel, and the leadership of Rome. Special attention is played to the relationship between Judas Iscariot and Jesus, as well as Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene. The musical is unique among biblical retellings in that it focuses on both Judas’ struggle …

The Women Of Lockerbie, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2004-2005 Season

A mother from New Jersey roams the hills of Lockerbie Scotland, looking for her son's remains that were lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the U.S. government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane's wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim's families. The Women of Lockerbie is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely …

The Dinner Party, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2004-2005 Season

The Dinner Party is the 31st play by Neil Simon. The action revolves around a French dinner party that is hilariously chaotic. Six people, who do not know one another, have been invited to dine in a fancy Parisian restaurant. There is an air of mystery in this comedic play, because the diners do not know why they have been brought together. As it turns out, the dinner is about their damaged relationships and whether or not they can reconcile.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1604/the-dinner-party

The Ugly Duckling +2, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2004-2005 Season

No abstract provided.

Violet, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2004-2005 Season

Set in 1964 in the Deep South during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, Violet follows the growth and enlightenment of a bitter young disfigured woman. In hopes that a TV evangelist can cure her, she embarks on a journey by bus from her sleepy North Carolina town to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Along the way, she meets a young black soldier who teaches her about beauty, love, courage and what it means to be an outsider.

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/1787/violet

The Music Man, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2003-2004 Season

When Harold Hill, a traveling con man, arrives in River City, he convinces the locals to start a band by purchasing the uniforms and instruments from him. His intention is to flee as soon as he receives the money. Librarian Marian Paroo suspects Harold is a fraud, but holds her tongue since her moody brother, Winthrop, is excited about the band. As Harold begins to develop feelings for Marian, he faces a difficult decision about skipping town.

Medea, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2003-2004 Season

Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the "barbarian" kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason.

Dance Concert 2004: Broadway Babies, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2003-2004 Season

No abstract provided.

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

2003-2004 Season

A View from the Bridge tells the story of Eddie Carbone, a Brooklyn longshoreman, whose incestuous love for his niece drives him to his own destruction. Playwright Arthur Miller first heard the story while doing research in Red Hook, Brooklyn for a totally different project. https://www.shmoop.com/view-from-the-bridge/

School House Rock Live!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2003-2004 Season

No abstract provided.

The Butter And Egg Man, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2003-2004 Season

The play's title, of course, is Broadwayese of the moment—a generic name for all those gentlemen who come trustingly to Gotham with bankrolls, bent upon either reckless expenditure or equally reckless investment. — From the dust jacket for the first edition of The Butter and Egg Man (Boni & Liveright, 1926)^[

Kiss Me, Kate, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2002-2003 Season

Egotistical leading man, director, and producer Fred Graham is reunited with his ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi, when the two are forced to play opposite one another in a new production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. The battle of the sexes continues onstage and off, as it becomes clear that, as much as this couple profess to hate each other, they are also still in love. Alongside their bickering liaison, the show’s supporting actress, Lois Lane, supports her gambling boyfriend, Bill, as he attempts to evade the the clutches of local gangsters. Throw in a number of cases of mistaken …

The Laramie Project, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2002-2003 Season

The Laramie Project is a play by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. “On November 14, 1998, members of Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie, Wyoming, and conducted interviews with the people of the town.” The Play is “edited from those interviews, as well as from journal entries by members of the company.” (The Laramie Project, "Introduction") The Play is about the town of Laramie, its citizens, and their reaction to Matthew Shepard’s murder.

A Guy, A Girl, And Gershwin!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2002-2003 Season

No abstract provided.

Scapino!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2002-2003 Season

Rave reviews from every critic on Broadway! With the first line of the play, we plunge into the situation as Octavio cries, "I am lost! I am ruined! What am I to do? My world is crumbling around me. Disaster after disaster!" Into this comes Scapino who states, "The good Lord has blessed me with quite a genius for clever ideas and inspired inventions which the less talented, in their jealousies, call deceits and trickery!" At one point, with the girl's father hiding in a huge sack, Scapino pretends to be a Japanese waiter shouting, "Ah so—Kung Fu—there is something …

The Miracle Worker

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2002 performance of The Miracle Worker by William Gibson.

The Miracle Worker is based on the autobiography of Helen Keller.

The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2002-2003 Season

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a hilarious, interactive whodunit mystery musical that allows the audience to enter the action and become the ultimate detectives. The show is based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel of the same name. In small town of Chesterham, England, the young and charming Edwin Drood has been mysteriously murdered. But by whom? His leering romantic rival, John Jasper? The infamous purveyor of opium and vice, Princess Puffer? The mysterious Landless twins, newly arrived from Ceylon? Or someone else even more dastardly and villainous? Dickens passed away before he was able to reveal the culprit. Rupert …

The Secret Garden, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2001-2002 Season

When young Mary Lennox loses her parents to a cholera outbreak in India, she is sent to live with her uncle, hermit Archibald Craven, who lives in an imposing, secluded manor on the British heath. Inside the haunting house upon the hill, Mary finds a reclusive, long-suffering collection of souls. Surrounded by spirits from the past, who both warn and welcome her, determined Mary begins to peel away the layers of sadness that cover the house and the garden, showing us the power that “one small girl” can have when she “wants things to grow.”

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/1435/the-secret-garden

Ctrl + Alt + Delete, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2001-2002 Season

Tech whiz kid Eddie Fisker joins forces with a new technology leader to create what amounts to a billion dollar house of cards. Surrounded by corporations that remember books as “little paper websites” and remind each other of various characters from the Muppets, the two try to survive the shockwaves, real and imagined, that threaten to topple their new product’s success.

https://www.broadwayplaypub.com/the-plays/ctrl-alt-delete/

The Mikado, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2001-2002 Season

Since its premiere in 1885 at the Savoy Theatre in London, The Mikado (or The Town of Titipu) has become one of the most-performed pieces of musical theatre in history. As with many of Gilbert and Sullivan’s productions, the show satirizes aspects of Victorian Britain’s politics and aristocracy; in The Mikado, however, the duo cleverly cloaked these criticisms behind a charming story set not in Britain, but in exotic Japan. Nanki-Poo, the son of the Mikado (the Japanese emperor), has fled in disguise to avoid marrying a much older suitor, and to find and marry his own beloved, the …

Book Of Days, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2001-2002 Season

When murder roars through a small Missouri town, Ruth Hoch begins her own quest to find truth and honesty amid small town jealousies, religion, greed and lies. This tornado of a play propels you through its events like a page-turning mystery.

https://www.samuelfrench.com/s/13099/book-of-days

A Midsummer Night’S Dream, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2001-2002 Season

In one of the most famous of literary love quadrangles, A Midsummer Night’s Dream tells the tale of Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander, and Helena; four misguided lovers whose journey into the woods lands them in even more trouble, as members of the fairy kingdom decide to use them as veritable pawns in their own love games. Against the backdrop of the wedding of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta, and the fiery battle of wills between the Fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania, the four lovers are challenged by magic and trickery to finally work out what love is all about.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/450/a-midsummer-nights-dream

Oklahoma!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2000-2001 Season

The first collaboration of famed partners Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Oklahoma! set the American musical theatre standard. Set in Western Indian Territory just after the turn of the 20th Century, the spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the backdrop for the love story between Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a beautiful farm girl. The road to true love is anything but smooth, but there is no doubt that these two romantics will succeed in making a life together. As the road to romance and the road to statehood converge, Curly and Laurey are poised …

Our Country's Good, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2000-2001 Season

A leading London critic describes it as "highly theatrical, often funny and at times dark and disturbing, it sets an infant civilization on the stage with clarity, economy and insight [as] it relates the true story of the first theatrical performance in Australia." In June 1789 in the penal colony that was later to become the city of Sydney, a marine lieutenant decides to put on a play to celebrate the king's birthday. He casts the play with the English convicts who populate this distant Australian prison camp. Few of them can read, let alone act, and the play is …

Charlotte's Web, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2000-2001 Season

This exciting, musical version of Charlotte's Web brings a new dimension to E.B. White’s beloved classic. All the enchanting characters are here: Wilbur, the irresistible pig who desperately wants to avoid the butcher; Fern, a girl who understands what animals say to each other; Templeton, the gluttonous rat who can occasionally be talked into a good deed; the Zuckerman family; the Arables; and, most of all, the extraordinary spider Charlotte who proves to be a “true friend and a good writer.” With music and lyrics by Charles Strouse (Annie, ‘Bye, ‘Bye Birdie) and book by Joseph Robinette (national award-winning children’s …

Blood Brothers, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2000-2001 Season

Set in Britain, Willy Russell's Blood Brothers tells the story of fraternal twins who are separated at birth. One brother is raised in a family of great privilege and one brother is raised in poverty. Even with their different socioeconomic backgrounds, the two boys end up becoming best friends -- until a misunderstanding leads to a tragic end.

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/1640/blood-brothers

Ginger, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1999-2000 Season

No abstract provided.

West Side Story, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1999-2000 Season

A musical in which a modern day Romeo and Juliet are involved in New York street gangs. On the harsh streets of the upper west side, two gangs battle for control of the turf. The situation becomes complicated when a gang members falls in love with a rival's sister.

Dance 2000 (Damn Yankees), Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1999-2000 Season

No abstract provided.