WIT-Women in Theatre
Announces the 2015-16 Season on
The Avenue Stage
520 Fairfield Ave, Bellevue, KY 41073
(10 blocks east of Newport on the Levy)
October 16, 17, 23, 24
VENUS IN FUR by David Ives
Directed by Donna Hoffman, the Artistic and Producing Director of WIT-Women in Theatre
VENUS IN FUR is a daring, 21st century play nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for Best Play.
Plot: Thomas Novachek is the writer-director of a new play opening in New York City; this play-within-the-play is an adaptation of the 1870 novel Venus in Furs by the Austrian author, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and happens to be the novel that inspired the term Masochism. The play begins with Novachek on the telephone lamenting the inadequacies of the actresses who have showed up that day to audition for the lead character, Wanda von Dunayev. Suddenly, Vanda Jordan, bursts in. At first it’s hard to imagine that she will please this very particular and exasperated writer/director: She’s brash, vulgar and unschooled. With comedy and drama, Vanda convinces him to let her audition for the part of Wanda, with the director/writer reading the part of Severin von Kushemski.
April 1, 2, 3, 8, 9
(Premier) RURAL FREE DELIVERY by Grace Epstein
Directed by Marta Backman, Resident Production SM for New Edgecliff Theatre in Cinti.
RURAL FREE DELIVERY is Grace Epstein’s first entry to the greater Northern Kentucky stage. Grace was the dramaturge for WIT’s production of “Honour” in April 2015. She is an Associate Professor and Assistant Department Head of the Department of English at the University of Cincinnati.
Plot: In this dramedy, a lesbian couple has moved from a northern U.S. climate to a small, eastern Kentucky homestead. Hava is a Jewish biologist at a local university and the very pregnant Shirese is an African-American English teacher at the same university. Joined by Hava’s straight sister, Lyla, and a middle-aged, all-things-Kentucky, competent woman, the four of them are both prepared and unprepared for 25 inches of snow, the onset of labor, and the secret about Lyla’s mother.
July 15, 16, 22, 23
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Donna Hoffman
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is a 1947 play written by American playwright, Tennessee Williams which received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948 and is often regarded among the finest of American plays of the 20th century. “Streetcar” marked a turning point in American acting and directing from melodrama to naturalism. The Stanley Kowalski character played by Marlon Brando represented naturalism while melodrama is shown in all its fluttering theatricality by the character, Blanche Dubois, originally played by Jessica Tandy.
Tickets will go on sale for each play approximately one month prior to opening through St. John United Church of Christ website: https://stjohnchurch.net.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 