TOO MUCH LIGHT MAKES THE BABY GO BLIND
Cincinnati Artist’s Theatre
Jan. 18-24
Liberty Exhibition Hall [Northside]
Produced by Ella Eggold
Cast: Brianna Bernard, Carter LaCava, Gabriella DiVincenzo, Landon Hawkins & Graham Lutes
An ensemble experiment presenting 30 plays in 60 minutes. Each short play is performed in random order with an interactive audience. An onstage 60 minute timer keeps everyone honest.
Filed under On Stage
CHECK PLEASE and CHECK PLEASE TAKE 2
Beyond the Proscenium Ensemble
Feb. 7-15
Liberty Exhibition Hall [Northside]
Dating can be hard. Especially when your date happens to be a raging kleptomaniac, or your grandmother’s bridge partner, or a mime. Check Please follows a series of blind dinner dates that couldn’t get any worse — until they do. Could there possibly be a light at the end of the tunnel?” Watch as Guy and Girl go on some hilarious disastrous dates, proving that cupid’s arrow only strikes when you least expect it. Includes Valentines’s Dinner.
Filed under On Stage
THE WOLVES
Wright State University
Feb. 6-16
Festival Playhouse [Dayton]
Drive. Ambition. Endurance. Precision. We’re not talking about any high school girls’ soccer team; we’re talking about a pack of female warriors, determined to win. Infused with the raw jagged energy of youth, The Wolves offers a refreshingly complex depiction of girls navigating friendships, growing up, confronting the future—and trying to score a few goals. Immediate and timely, this ferociously contemporary coming-of-age drama explores the aggression and teamwork of sports and adolescence with an unflinching and compassionate eye. Adult language and situations.
Filed under On Stage
Schools with Grades 5-8 can apply for services and materials valued at $12K
From the 2019 JumpStart Theatre Showcase at the Taft Theatre. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.
Applications are now available to participate in the middle school initiative, JumpStart Theatre, managed by The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati.
All Cincinnati tri-state area middle schools and schools with grades 5-8 may apply to participate in JumpStart Theatre. Applications can be completed and submitted online beginning January 6, through February 15, 2020. Selected schools will be announced in the spring and will begin implementing the program in their school in the fall of 2020.
Participant schools are chosen through the online application which is now available at: https://thechildrenstheatre.com/2019/12/jumpstart-theatre-program/
Training & Ongoing Mentoring:
Each selected school will receive services and materials valued at $12,000 in the form of training, mentoring, and production support for a show for their community. Students will be involved in every aspect of the production, and TCT will also host an annual JumpStart Theatre showcase, bringing all the participants together to share their work.
Three teachers from each participating school are taught the techniques and skills to develop and manage a musical theatre program (everything from casting, to rehearsal schedules, to staging/choreography and technical requirements, to cultivating parent/community engagement, to achieving economic sustainability) through a series of three, full-day professional development “boot camps” each year of the three-year program, plus an ongoing mentoring/coaching relationship with an experienced theatre teaching artist.
Timeline:
About JumpStart Theatre:
JumpStart Theatre is a collaboration among the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), and New York City-based companies, Music Theatre International (MTI) and iTheatrics. The program trains educators to develop sustainable arts programs at underserved middle schools that do not currently offer theatre in the curriculum or after school.
“Studies have shown that theatre education helps our young people become better students and citizens. The experience of being in a musical teaches life skills like accountability, respect, teamwork, discipline, risk-taking, and creativity,” said Julie Theobald Executive Director of EdTA.
Kim Kern, Managing Director and CEO of The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati said, “JumpStart Theatre is a natural extension of The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati’s goal to fill the gap left by the reduction of arts education in schools, and to provide equitable access to the arts for all children. This program gives schools the tools they need to build a sustainable musical theatre program, while providing students with exposure to the arts and building life skills such as increased self-esteem and social skills.”
-end-
Filed under Press Releases
(Cincinnati, OH) Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati kicks off the new year with the mystifying regional premiere comedy Fortune by Deborah Zoe Laufer, coming to the stage January 18-February 15, 2020. Sure to spark warmth this winter, this quirky comedy is about finding love, whether it’s in the cards or not. The Ithaca Times calls this play “charming and off-beat…the laughter is constant and the romance is sweet in this fine concoction.” Directed by Brian Robertson. Production Sponsor is John Goering.
Maude, aka Madame Rosa, is not your average fortune teller. A true clairvoyant with a bluntness that won’t quit, she often scares her customers away with the truth of what their futures hold. However, when love-hungry accountant Jeremy stumbles into her parlor with death in his imminent future, Maude tells a little white lie triggering supernatural consequences and changing both their destinies. In hilarious rom-com style, Fortune sweetly affirms the benefits of the unpredictability of life.
“We chose this play to start the New Year off with a lot of hope and joy. Fortune captures the idea that you think you know what’s coming your way, but you never do,” says Producing Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers. “It demonstrates that life is a great adventure, and unexpected romance brings highs and lows. This play follows the journey of two people who start out with a great deal of pessimism but work towards hope, which is what I wish we all find in 2020.”
About the Cast
Kelly Mengelkoch (Maude) returns to Ensemble Theatre where she has also been seen in Tribes, The Other Place, This Random World, and Red Velvet. She is an Associate Artist at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, and has also appeared at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati, New Stage Collective, The Human Race Theatre Company, Xavier University Theatre, and, most recently, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Her film credits include Dark Waters, The Old Man and the Gun, A Kind of Murder, Perception, Over-the-Rhine, and CSA: The Confederate States of America.
Jeremy Dubin (Jeremy) returns to the Ensemble Theatre stage after his last appearance in Lolita Chakrabarti’s Red Velvet. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jeremy has called Cincinnati home for the past twenty years. He is the Director of Creative Education and a longtime ensemble member with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, where he works as an actor, director, educator, and other miscellaneous roles.
Production team: Brian c. Mehring (Resident Scenic and Lighting Designer), Amanda McGee (Costume Designer), Matt Callahan (Sound Designer), Julia Guichard (Dialect Coach), Shannon Rae Lutz (Properties Master & Design Assistant), Matthew Hollstegge (Production Manager), and Jack Murphy (Technical Director). Production Stage Manager is Brandon T. Holmes. Assistant Stage Manager is Lexi Muller.
Performance Information
Performances Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 pm; Friday-Saturday at 8:00 pm; Saturday & Sunday at 2:00 pm; Sunday at 7:00 pm. Performances vary. A complete calendar of performances is available online at www.ensemblecincinnati.org.
Ticket Prices
Tickets start at $40 for adults; student tickets are $28; and children are $24. Half-Price Rush Tickets: All remaining tickets for the current day’s performance(s) are available two hours prior to each show time for half-price (discount only applies to adult tickets) when purchasing by phone or in person. $15 Student Rush Tickets: Students may purchase up to two $15 student rush tickets two hours prior to show time with valid student I.D. Available in person only.
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2019-2020 Season Presenting Sponsor is the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation. Additional support provided PNC.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is supported, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is a professional theatre dedicated to producing world and regional premieres of works that often explore compelling social issues. We fulfill our mission through our stage productions and educational outreach programs that enlighten, enliven, enrich and inspire our audiences.
Filed under Press Releases
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 