Dance Commons^™

The Mousetrap, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1998 Summer Theatre

The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has the longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far. It is the longest running show (of any type) of the modern era. The play is also known for its twist ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre. http://agathachristie.wikia.com/wiki/The_Mousetrap

Ten Little Indians, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1997 Summer Theatre

The superlative mystery comedy, top-notch, fantastic, enjoyable nonsense. Ten Little Indians refers to statuettes on the mantelpiece of a strange country house on an island off the coast of Devon, and to the nursery rhyme embossed above them, telling how each little Indian met his death -- until there were none. The excitement never lets up until the final curtain.

Once Upon A Mattress, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1997 Summer Theatre

Our story begins in a faraway kingdom long ago. 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 …

The Great All-American Disaster Musical

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1997 performance of The Great All-American Disaster Musical book by Tim Kelly and music and lyrics by Jack Sharkey.

Black Coffee, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996 Summer Theatre

Accomplished physicist Sir Claud Amory has constructed a workable formula for one of the most deadly weapons known to man – the atom bomb. Hercule Poirot, with the help of Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp, is called in after the formula is mysteriously stolen and Sir Claud is callously murdered.

A superbly crafted whodunit with endless red herrings, subplots of infamous spies and an astonishingly prophetic storyline about weapons created through ‘bombarding the atom’. One of Christie’s most gripping country house murder mysteries.

https://www.samuelfrench.com/p/1120/black-coffee

Charley's Aunt, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996 Summer Theatre

Charley and Jack love Amy and Kitty. Amy is about to go away, and Charley thinks he may miss his opportunity to ask for her hand. Then he discovers that his aunt, a Brazilian woman he hardly knows, is coming for lunch. How fortuitous! Now the aunt can chaperone while the boys ask the girls to marry them. Naturally, things don't go as planned. Donna Lucia, the aunt, is late, and their friend, Lord Fancourt Babberley (Babbs) shows up in drag. He is convinced to pretend to be Donna Lucia, and a wild afternoon of mistaken identity, young love, old …

Educating Rita, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996 Summer Theatre

Educating Rita is a witty yet poignant look at a working class woman’s attempts to change her social circumstances through pursuit of an Open University qualification. Educating Rita is one of Willy Russell’s best known plays, drawing on every emotion to produce a profoundly moving, yet also hilarious two-hander. https://stageagent.com/shows/play/6466/educating-rita

Closer Than Ever, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995 Summer Theatre

Closer Than Ever is a two-act musical revue. Each song is a story: about love, security, and finding happiness in an increasingly complicated world. Songs contain themes about aging, mid-life crisis, second marriages, and role reversals with parents, as well as satirical jabs at Muzak, working couples and unrequited love.

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/2152/closer-than-ever

Sherlock's Last Case, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995 Summer Theatre

Winner of the Louis B. Mayer Award, his diabolically clever play opened on Broadway in August of 1987 and starred Frank Langella as Holmes and Donal Donnelly as Watson. "Part spoof, part loving tribute and all fun..." --The Register, the play centers on a death threat against Sherlock Holmes by the supposed son of his name nemesis, Professor Moriarty. Oddly enough, however, Holmes is warned of the plot by Moriarty's daughter, to whom Holmes is strongly attracted. The plot then twists and turns until Holmes finds himself imprisoned in a dank cellar. The play mixes suspense and humor …

Jake's Women, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995 Summer Theatre

Neil Simon's Jake's Women is about a novelist named Jake, who is struggling to save his marriage. During the course of the play, Jake talks to many women about their own perspective on his relationship, in an attempt to gain insight. Some of these women are real and some are hallucinations, as Jake suffers from psychosis. Jake's first wife, who was killed years earlier, is among the women he talks to in the play. This play is a comedy with a witty take on modern relationships.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/2133/jakes-women

1995 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

The Odd Couple, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994 Summer Theatre

Neil Simon’s classic comedy opens as a group of the guys are in the midst of their weekly poker game in the apartment of divorced sportswriter, Oscar Madison. And if the mess is any indication, it's no wonder that his wife left him. The apartment is smoke-filled, and the only thing Oscar can offer his guests is warm Coke and moldy sandwiches. The last to arrive is Felix Ungar, who has just been thrown out by his wife. Felix is depressed and seems suicidal, leading Oscar to invite Felix to be his roommate. However, as Felix takes on the domestic …

Wait Until Dark, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994 Summer Theatre

Frederick Knott's thriller is the story of Susy Hendrix, a recently blinded housewife who unwittingly possesses a doll filled with illicit drugs. Harry Roat, a brutal and sophisticated criminal, coerces two small-time thugs into helping him con Susy into giving up the doll. A battle of wits ensues as Susy and the young girl upstairs launch a counterplot against the thieves. The drama plays on the themes of darkness and light as Susy navigates through her sightless world, and the crooks signal each other with light through the Venetian blinds.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1890/wait-until-dark

Baby, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994 Summer Theatre

The show concerns three couples on a university campus as they deal with the painful, rewarding and agonizingly funny consequences of conceiving a baby. There are the college students, barely at the beginning of their adult lives; the thirty-somethings, having trouble conceiving but determined to try; and the middle aged parents, looking forward to seeing their last child graduate from college when a night of unexpected passion leads to a surprise pregnancy.

https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/2201/baby

Luv, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994 Summer Theatre

Beatnik Harry Berlin is so beat up, he's gone to a bridge to end it all. His former classmate, the wealthy and successful Milt intervenes. But soon, it turns out that Milt is also desperately unhappy; he is trying to find a way to convince his wife to grant him a divorce. Who turns up next but Milt's wife. A comedy about alienation, loss of identity, and the meaninglessness of it all.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/2051/luv

1994 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Pack Of Lies, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance

1993 Summer Theatre

Based on a true story, the plot centers on Bob and Barbara Jackson (in real life Bill and Ruth Search) and their teenage daughter Julie (in real life Gay Search, later a television reporter and newspaper journalist in the UK.) The Jacksons are friendly with their neighbors, Peter and Helen Kroger, until the couple is arrested and charged with espionage in 1961. It is revealed the Krogers actually are Morris and Lona Cohen, who during the 1950s and 1960s worked with fellow spy Gordon Lonsdale photographing and encoding as microdots various pieces of material which they then sent to their …

1993 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

1992 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Now Now, Darling, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991 Summer Theatre

In a London fur salon, Arnold Crouch, one of the two owners, has difficulty keeping everything going afloat, while his partner, Gilbert Bodley, is off philandering. Bodley decides to sell his new mistress' husband a fur coat for an extremely low price in order to win her affection, and Crouch is stuck presiding over the deal. The husband decides to give the coat to his own mistress, and all hell breaks out. In the end, despite mistaken identities and all sorts of problems, everything turns out as it should.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1984/not-now-darling

Blue Window, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991 Summer Theatre

An Off-Broad way hit and winner of the prestigious George and Elisabeth Marton playwriting award, as well as the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, Blue Window is a funny, inventive account of the lives of seven New Yorkers gathered together for a Sunday evening dinner party. During the course of the play we get an intimate glimpse of the before, during and after of the party and its wonderfully bizarre party guests; most of whom are artists of various kinds. There’s a narcissistic actor, an aspiring musician, a noted writer, a family therapist, a secretary and a parachuting instructor; all …

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

1991 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!

1991 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

1990 - 1991 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Night Watch, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990 Summer Theatre

Unable to sleep, Elaine Wheeler paces the living room of her Manhattan townhouse, troubled by unsettling memories and vague fears. Her husband tries to comfort her, but when he steps away for a moment Elaine screams as she sees (or believes she sees) the body of a dead man in the window across the way. The police are called, but find nothing except an empty chair. Elaine's terror grows as shortly thereafter she sees still another body—this time a woman's—but by now the police are skeptical and pay no heed to her frantic pleas. Her husband, claiming that Elaine may …

Fifth Of July, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990 Summer Theatre

Fifth of July is a 1978 play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. Set in rural Missouri in 1977, it revolves around the Talley family and their friends, and focuses on the disillusionment with America in the wake of the Vietnam War. It premiered on Broadway in 1980 and was later produced as a made-for-television movie.

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

Move Over, Mrs. Markham, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990 Summer Theatre

Move Over Mrs. Markham is set in a very elegant top floor London flat, belonging to Philip and Joanna Markham. The flat has been under renovation, and thus has been largely empty. Philip is a straight-laced publisher of children's books, and he shares an office with his partner, Henry Lodge, on the ground floor. Reluctantly, Philip agrees to let Henry borrow his apartment for the evening to "entertain" his latest girlfriend. At the same time, Joanna Markham is persuaded by Linda Lodge to let her borrow the apartment, so she can entertain her lover. What nobody knows is that the …

1990 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Quilters (Revival), Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989 Summer Theatre

In the American West, a pioneer woman, Sarah, and six women, who are called her daughters, face frontier life. Rather than a straightforward story line, the musical is presented as a series of short tales and tableaux matched with musical numbers, each presenting an aspect of frontier life or womanhood. The patches or blocks show "girlhood, marriage, childbirth, spinsterhood, twisters, fire, illness and death."^[9] The patches are ultimately put together to form one dramatic tableau. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilters_(musical)

Sweeney Todd, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1988-1989 Season

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical thriller with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. The musical is based on the 1973 play Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Christopher Bond.