A MOTHER’S PLEA
Emerald Entertainment
April 9
Fairfield Performing Arts Center
Directed by Piper N. Davis
A dramatic courtroom saga between a revengeful County Prosecutor and the single mother whose son he is attempting to send to prison. Holding nothing back for the sake of justice, the mother of the accused defends him most aggressively and in a manner that is unheard in a modern court of law.
Filed under On Stage
HARVEY
DAFT Theater
April 8-9
Zimmer Hall [University Heights]
Directed by Emma Seymour & Rachel Krallman
Cast: Raquelle DeSimone as Myrtle Mae Simmons, Jeanette Accorinti as Veta Simmons, Patrick Ryan as Elwood P. Dowd, Jessica Price as Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet, Kelsey Roberts as Ruth Kelly, R.N., Sean Currens as Duane Wilson, Jacob Berry as Lyman Sanderson, M.D., Brandon McCauley as William Chumley, M.D., Natalie Sehweil as Betty Chumley (evening performances) and Emma Seymour as Betty Chumley (matinee), Melanie Smith as Judge Gaffney & Brad Taylor as E.J. Lofgren
Elwood P. Dowd is well-liked, and inexhaustibly happy, and from a respected family… and his best friend is an invisible man-sized rabbit named Harvey. Committing Elwood to a sanitarium, his social-climbing sister Veta is herself mistaken as loony while Elwood and Harvey gleefully carry out their bon vivant cocktail calendar with the hospital staff in hilarious pursuit.
Filed under On Stage
MURDERED TO DEATH
Xenia Area Community Theatre
April 8-17
Xenia
Cast: Penelope Winter as Mildred, Kylee Pauley as Dorothy, Harry Wayne Shepard as Bunting, Tony Williams as Colonel Charles Craddock, Tamar Fishbein as Margaret Craddock, Jacinda Bridger as Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington, Dimitri Markov as Pierre Marceau, Edith Waugh as Joan Maple, Christian Yates as Constable Thompkins & Tony Copper as Inspector Pratt
This hilarious spoof of the best of Agatha Christie traditions is set in a country manor house in the 1930’s, with an assembled cast of characters guaranteed to delight – Bunting, the butler; an English Colonel with the prerequisite stiff upper lip; a shady French art dealer and his moll; the bumbling local inspector and a well-meaning local sleuth who seems to attract murder wherever she goes – they’re all here, and all caught up in the side-splitting antics which follow the mysterious death of the house’s owner. It soon becomes clear that the murderer isn’t finished yet, but will the murderer be unmasked before everyone else has met their doom, or will readers and audiences die laughing first?
Filed under On Stage
STREET SCENE
Miami University Music and Theatre
April 7-9
Gates-Abegglen Theatre [Oxford]
Directed by Tiffany Lusht & Benjamin Smolder
Conducted by Bejanmin Smolder
Vocal direction by Lisa Hasson
Choreographed by Jay Goodlett
The musical depicts immigrants living in the slums of New York City during a single day in 1946. The story revolves around several characters, including Anna Maurant, a woman with a brutal husband, who finds friendship and compassion with the milkman Sankey; daughter Rose, who longs to get escape her troubled home; and Sam Kaplan, a bookish law student. A Greek chorus and cast of over forty tell this beautiful and touching story of love and loss in pursuit of the American Dream.
Filed under On Stage
OKLAHOMA!
Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre
April 28-May 1
[Hamilton]
Directed by Rodney Neal
Choreographed by Emily Brinkman
Produced by Carrie Rusche & Kevin Brunck
Cast: David Hurt as Curly McClain, Chelsey Cavender as Laurey Williams, Rhonda Lucas as Aunt Eller, Angie Baker as Ado Annie, David Michel as Will Parker, Matt Neal as Ali Hakim, Coby Osborne as Jud Fry, Michael Reardon as Andrew Carnes, Hannah Brown as Gertie Cummings, Gary Bracknell as Ike Skidmore, Michael Wright as Cord Elam, Kaitrin McCoy as Ellen, Haley Charles as Kate, Elisabeth Yates as Vivian & Gaby Neal as Virginia
Womens ensemble: Joan Angst, Teresa Bayer Iltzsch, Kim Bracknell, Kenzie Carlyle, Lisa Dronberger, Abigail Farmer, Carmen Fields, Janine Graham, Julie Elizabeth Huster, Hannah Rose, Kait White & Melanie Winsted
Mens ensemble: Bob Dronberger as Sam, David Eschenbrenner as Slim, Alex Cottle as Jess Chalmers, Brett Parr as Mike, Dan Schindler as Joe, McClean Strickland as Fred, Christopher Koonce, Jim Graham, Clayton Eschenbrenner & Collin Newton
Childrens ensemble: Leah Allman, Haley Allman, Leah Bracknell, JaLeah Brackney, Chase Briggs, Emma Brown, Maura Brown, Marion Edmonson, Emily Muench, Hannah Neal, Gabe Neal, Betsy Phillips, Makayla Platt, Angela Rusche & Kaiden Thomas
Specialty dancers: Kenzie Carlyle, Abigail Farmer, Julie Elizabeth Huster, Hannah Rose, Kait White, JaLeah Brackney, Makayla Platt, Kaitrin McCoy, Haley Charles, Elisabeth Yates, McClean Strickland, Peanut Edmonson & Grace Connaughton
Filed under On Stage
