Theatre History Commons^™

Moon Over Buffalo, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1998-1999 Season

In the madcap comedy tradition of Lend me a Tenor, the hilarious Moon Over Buffalo centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950's. At the moment, they're playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in rep in Buffalo, New York with 5 actors. www.kenludwig.com/moon_over_buffalo/moon_over_buffalo.php

Thirst, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1997-1998 Season

Thirst was inspired by an early Henry James novel titled Roderick Hudson, first published in 1875.

Crazy For You, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1997-1998 Season

Crazy for You is a romantic comedy musical with a book by Ken Ludwig, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Billed as "The New Gershwin Musical Comedy", it is largely based on the songwriting team’s 1930 musical, Girl Crazy, but incorporates songs from several other productions as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_for_You_(musical)

Emperor's New Clothes, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1997-1998 Season

A vain emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires weavers who promise him they will make him the best suit of clothes. The weavers are con-men who convince the emperor they are using a fine fabric invisible to anyone who is either unfit for his position or "hopelessly stupid". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes

1776, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1997-1998 Season

In the days leading up to July 4, 1776, Continental Congressmen John Adams and Benjamin Franklin coerce Thomas Jefferson into writing the Declaration of Independence as a delaying tactic as they try to persuade the American colonies to support a resolution on independence. As George Washington sends depressing messages describing one military disaster after another, the businessmen, landowners and slave holders in Congress all stand in the way of the Declaration, and a single "nay" vote will forever end the question of independence. Large portions of spoken and sung dialog are taken directly from the letters and memoirs of the …

1997 Otterbein University Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Marcus Is Walking: Scenes From The Road, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996-1997 Season

On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the car, the play examines the emotional landscape we roam as we travel in our cars. Control, navigation, love and escape, are some of the themes explored. A protective father shepherds his son through the neighborhood on Halloween; an actor on his way to perform Hamlet provokes a rear-end collision and confrontation with a Czech émigré cab driver; a devastated businessman strikes up an unlikely alliance with a homeless woman who sleeps in his car. This is the landscape of human frailty and vulnerability, charm and strength; a playwright's whimsy combined with …

Cabaret, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996-1997 Season

Cabaret takes place from 1929-1930, a time when Berlin, in the midst of a post-World War I economic depression, is transitioning from a center of underground, avant-garde cultural epicenter to the beginnings of Hitler’s totalitarian regime and the rise of the Nazi Party. Into this world enters Clifford Bradshaw, a struggling American writer looking for inspiration for his next novel. On his first night in Berlin, Cliff wanders into the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy nightclub overseen by the strange, omniscient and gender-bending Master of Ceremonies, “the Emcee.” Here, Cliff meets Sally Bowles, a vivacious, talented cabaret performer, and an …

Hamlet, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996-1997 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

Moonchildren With Catco, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1997-1998 Season

The play chronicles a year in the life of the "moonchildren" referred to in the title: eight college students living communally together in an off-campus attic in the mid-1960s.

Noises Off, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996-1997 Season

Michael Frayn's Noises Off takes a fond look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss, and passionate affairs turn every performance into a high-risk adventure. This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance, and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run. Frayne gives us a window into the inner workings of theatre behind the scenes, progressing from flubbed lines and missed cues in the dress rehearsal to mounting friction between cast members in the final performance. Brimming with slapstick comedy, Noises …

Wind In The Willows, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996-1997 Season

The famous English gentlemen, Mr. Toad of Toad Hall, sees his first motor car and promptly falls uncontrollably in love with motoring, so he buys a car which he then crashes. Another car is bought, followed by another crash and another—and another! For once at the throttle, Toad in his goggles and duster is a man possessed. Soon he is ruled off the road. Then he steals a car. For this he's sent to jail for 20 years. While there, he learns that Weasels have taken over his old family home and all his friends have been thrown out. But …

To Kill A Mockingbird, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996-1997 Season

This play debuted in 1990 in Monroeville, a town that labels itself "The Literary Capital of Alabama". The play runs every May on the county courthouse grounds and townspeople make up the cast. White male audience members are chosen at the intermission to make up the jury. During the courtroom scene the production moves into the Monroe County Courthouse and the audience is racially segregated.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird#Play

1996 - 1997 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

The World Goes 'Round, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1996 Summer Theatre

The World Goes 'Round is a stunning revue of the songbook from the multi-Tony award-winning team, with the original production winning three Drama Desk Awards. Filled with humor, romance, drama and nonstop melody, this title is a thrilling celebration of life and the fighting spirit that keeps us all going. https://www.mtishows.com/the-world-goes-round

1996 Otterbein Summer Theatre Season Brochure, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's show.

Picasso Does My Maps, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995-1996 Season

Focuses on an agoraphobic man who, since childhood, has feared contact with people. The story unfolds around his falling in love with a narcoleptic woman and learning to leave his house.

Phantom, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995-1996 Season

This version of the famous story explores the background between the Phantom and Christine.

Trojan Women, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995-1996 Season

The Trojan Women is one of the most powerful dramas in all of literature. Widely considered the greatest anti-war play ever written, it remains both timeless and timely, a poignant meditation on the aftermath of battle. The Trojan Women is a wonderful complement to the study of classic literature, mythology, history and theater.

https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/the-trojan-women

A Few Good Men, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995-1996 Season

Lt. Daniel Kaffee is a military lawyer defending two U.S. Marines charged with killing a fellow Marine at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Although Kaffee is known for seeking plea bargains, a fellow lawyer, Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway, convinces him that the accused marines were most likely carrying out an order from a commanding officer. Kaffee takes a risk by calling Col. Nathan R. Jessep to the stand in an effort to uncover the conspiracy.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104257/plotsummary

Robin Hood, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995-1996 Season

This classic children’s tale of Robin Hood and his followers is charming and delightful for children of all ages. Set in England’s Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood, with the help of his childhood sweetheart, Maid Marion, and his band of merry men “rob from the rich” (the evil Sheriff of Nottingham) and “give to the poor.” Action that both adults and children will enjoy abounds in this wonderful parable of goodness over evil.

A Chorus Line, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1995-1996 Season

Centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line, the musical is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical. A Chorus Line provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Chorus_Line

1995 - 1996 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Catnap Allegiance, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994-1995 Season

Otterbein College Theatre will end its season with the world premiere of an original play. On May 24, Otterbein will open Catnap Allegiance by noted playwright Kia Corthron. With language that is sparse and poetic, Corthron’s plays are hard-hitting and unrelenting. Her plays address political issues, yet they also transcend the political and capture the essence of the human struggle. Catnap Allegiance protests the Gulf War with the story of several African American soldiers deposited in the middle of the desert, pumped full of inadequately explained medicines and ordered to “take no prisoners...eliminate and go.”

Sweet Charity, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994-1995 Season

Sweet Charity follows the romantic trials and tribulations of Charity Hope Valentine, “a girl who wanted to be loved.” Charity is a taxi dancer, a dance partner-for-hire at a seedy dance hall in New York City. Though the job may be decidedly undesirable, Charity’s hopeful romanticism and unfailing optimism lift her out of her circumstances and help her reach for a life beyond. In the past, she’s been strung along and hung out to dry by a series of bad relationships and lousier men. When she meets Oscar, a neurotic, shy actuary seemingly from another world, will she finally find …

Six Degrees Of Separation, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994-1995 Season

When a young and effortlessly charismatic black con man claiming to be the son of Sidney Poitier himself smiles his way into the sympathetic living rooms of a few of New York City’s white wealthy elite, and tears a swath of disillusionment through their preconceptions and comfortable lives, the thirst for understanding leaves them questioning their sense of selves. Ouisa and Flan, the play’s central duo and two married art dealers, find themselves victims of a strange invasion after offering a young man, who appears to have been mugged in Central Park, shelter in their apartment. He tells them he …

The Cherry Orchard, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994-1995 Season

On a frosty May morning while the cherry trees are in bloom, impoverished Russian aristocrat, Mrs. Ranevsky, returns to her decaying ancestral home with her daughter, Anya. Mrs. Ranevsky is heavily in debt and still grief-stricken by the premature death of her son five years earlier. Her financial crisis forces the family to auction off their estate, including their beloved cherry orchard. Varya, Mrs. Ranevsky’s older, adopted daughter, has been looking after the estate and is frustrated by her mother’s refusal to accept her predicament. Ignoring the practical advice of local businessman, Yermolay Lopakhin, the family cannot come to a …

Androcles And The Lion, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994-1995 Season

Androcles is a slave who is abused by his master, Pantalone. Androcles is trying to help two young lovers , Isabella and Lelio. In order to make sure that his niece will not run off with her boyfriend, Pantalone hires the Captain to guard her. Androcles outwits the Captain and helps the lovers to elope. In the forest, Androcles encounters the Lion who is limping from a thorn in its paw. Androcles does the good deed of removing the thorn and is rewarded by the Lion's help in escaping his master.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/2340/androcles-and-the-lion

True West, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994-1995 Season

True West follows the story of two estranged brothers, Austin and Lee. Austin is has a successful budding career in the film industry. He offers to housesit for his mother, and decides to work on a new screenplay while he has some peace and quiet. Lee, an alcoholic and a thief, unexpectedly shows up and proceeds to disrupt Austin’s life, eventually managing to take over the writing of the screenplay himself. The two brothers end up in a role-reversal, with each admitting that he has always envied the other's way of life.

https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1646/true-west

Cat Among The Pigeons, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1994-1995 Season

Un fil à la patte (known in English as Cat Among the Pigeons or Love on the Rack) is a French bedroom farce in three acts written by Georges Feydeau. The play premiered on January 9, 1894 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, and is considered one of Feydeau's masterpieces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_fil_%C3%A0_la_patte