Category Archives: Press Releases

March 1, 2016 · 6:19 am

MAKING A MURDERER’S Dean Strang & Jerry Buting: A Conversation on Justice | Sun., May 1 | Aronoff Center

MAKING A MURDERER’S DEAN STRANG & JERRY BUTING:
A CONVERSATION ON JUSTICE

Sunday, May 1, 2016
Aronoff Center – Procter & Gamble Hall  

PRESALE THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 10:00 AM
ONSALE FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 12:00 NOON 

ADDITIONAL NORTH AMERICAN DATES ANNOUNCED  

CAA_Making a Murderer logoCincinnati, OH – Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, defense attorneys for Steven Avery in the Netflix documentary series Making A Murderer, have just announced North American dates for their “A Conversation on Justice Tour.” Strang and Buting’s multi-city speaking tour will play the Aronoff Center’s Procter & Gamble Hall on  Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 8:00 PM.  The tour, which begin April 16th at Berklee Theater in Boston and hits cities across the U.S. and Canada through mid-August, will involve the two attorneys in conversation about the Steven Avery case and its broader implications, as well as a discussion on the larger topic of the American criminal justice system. Each night will also feature a Q&A opportunity for the audience to address questions directly to Dean Strang and Jerry Buting.

Tickets go on pre-sale Thursday, March 3 from 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM (AEG Live and Cincinnati Arts Association members).  Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, March 4 at 12:00 Noon at CincinnatiArts.org, (513) 621-ARTS [2787], and the Aronoff Center Ticket Office.  Ticket prices are $46.25 and $36.25.  Limited VIP tickets are available at $91.25 and include a seat in the first eight rows of the orchestra, a pre-show meet & greet and photograph with Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, and  an autographed program.

At a time when the nation is gripped with pressing questions about the fairness and effectiveness of our criminal justice system, concerns that have been highlighted by true crime narratives from Making A Murderer, Serial and The Jinx to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, Strang and Buting will be exploring and discussing our process of justice today and throughout history. Reviewing these situations, they will highlight the imperfections in our judicial system and suggest improvements that are sorely needed.

For more information, visit ConversationonJustice.com

DEAN STRANG & JERRY BUTING:
A CONVERSATION ON JUSTICE TOUR 

  • 4/16 – Boston, MA @ Berklee Performance Center
  • 4/17 – NYC @ Beacon Theatre
  • 4/24 – LA, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel
  • 4/30 – Columbus, OH @ Palace Theatre
  • 5/1 – Cincinnati, OH @ Aronoff Center – Procter & Gamble Hall
  • 5/20 – Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center
  • 5/21 – Houston, TX @ Cullen Performance Hall
  • 5/22 – Dallas, TX @ Majestic Theatre
  • 6/2 – Minneapolis, MN @ Northrop
  • 6/3 – Chicago, IL @ The Chicago Theatre presented by Chase
  • 6/10 – Cleveland, OH @ Playhouse Square – State Theater
  • 6/11 – Toronto, ON @ Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
  • 6/12 – Atlanta, GA @ Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center
  • 6/17 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
  • 6/18 – San Francisco. CA @ The Warfield Theatre
  • 6/19 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
  • 7/15 – Kansas City, MO @ Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland
  • 7/16 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
  • 7/17 – San Diego, CA @ The Balboa Theatre
  • 7/29 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theater
  • 7/30 – Calgary, AB @ Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
  • 7/31 – Edmonton, AB @ Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
  • 8/12  – Phoenix, AZ @ Celebrity Theatre
  • 8/13 – Austin, TX @ Paramount Theatre
  • 8/14 – Nashville, TN @ TPAC’s Andrew Jackson Hall
  • 8/20 – Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
  • 8/21 – Ft Lauderdale, FL @ Broward Center for the Performing Arts

Watch: A Conversation on Justice Tour Trailer: https://youtu.be/uF8o_5vloZc

Find more info at: ConversationonJustice.com

Follow the tour on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @strangandbuting

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February 26, 2016 · 6:39 am

CCM Pushes Boundaries With Green Day’s Punk Rock Musical AMERICAN IDIOT, March 3 – 13, 2016

CCM_American Idiot promo3

Louis Griffin, Ben Biggers, John Battagliese and Chris Collins-Pisano in CCM’s production of AMERICAN IDIOT. Photo by Mark Lyons.

CCM proudly presents the first local production of Green Day‘s iconic musical AMERICAN IDIOT from March 3 – 13 in Patricia Corbett Theater. The through-sung rock opera is directed by Patricia A. Corbett Distinguished Chair of Musical Theatre Aubrey Berg with musical direction by Adjunct Instructor of Musical Theatre Steve Goers.

Although many think of Broadway musicals as saccharin sweet, there have been shows throughout the decades that have burst onto the scene, changing theatre forever and defining a generation.

“In 1944, Leonard Bernstein’s ‘On The Town’ brought fresh faces and a jazz-inflected score to Broadway. My generation grooved to the sound of ‘Hair.’ In the 90s there was ‘Rent’ by Jonathan Larson, and for the current generation, it is ‘American Idiot’,” says Berg.

A high octane adaptation of Green Day’s 2004 Grammy-winning concept album of the same name, AMERICAN IDIOT features a raucous and exhilarating punk rock score yet offers a simple, contemporary fable in the style of the Brothers Grimm. Three disaffected young men – Johnny, Will and Tunny – plan to flee a stifling suburban lifestyle and parental restrictions. Along the way they deal with drugs, lost love, war, inner turmoil and living in an America that is forever changed and roiled by dark events, including the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the Iraq War.

Making sure CCM’s production reflects the style and temperament of the current generation was important to Berg. “AMERICAN IDIOT is a musical by the young, for the young,” he says. To keep the presentation authentic, Berg surrounded himself with a creative team of students. His associate director and choreographer, Tom Meglio and Samantha Pollino respectively, are both graduating seniors and are the perfect candidates to help shape this production.

“AMERICAN IDIOT was one of our generation’s very first artistic expressions of events that are ever present in our consciousness because, for the very first time, our generation can say: we lived them,” Meglio and Pollino suggest.

CCM’s production is set three years before the release of the album in the aftermath of the events of 9/11. Meglio and Pollino explain, “We wanted to create an atmosphere of immediacy, to highlight the themes of the show as a response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and explore the period of upheaval that immediately followed.”

Great theatre can delight and entertain, but it can also challenge audiences to confront their own closely held views and perceptions. American Idiot deals with potentially incendiary subjects. The show is loud, abrasive and confrontational. The language is raw and constant. There is simulated sex and simulated drug use. The musical presents an uncompromising view of a dystopian America, but it is also a foray into the psyche of a young generation struggling to make sense of its place in the world at a particular moment in time.

“In addition to ‘rocking out,’ we ask the audience to take a moment to connect with, reflect on and embrace this piece as a raw fragment of history presented with the utmost respect and many unanswered questions,” Meglio and Pollino conclude.

CCM’s production of American Idiot is not recommended for children or those easily offended.

Green Day’s AMERICAN IDIOT
Music by Green Day
Lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong
Book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer

The Company

  • Ben Biggers as Johnny
  • John Battagliese as St. Jimmy
  • Clara Cox as Whatsername
  • Chris Collins-Pisano as Will
  • Shauna Topian as Heather
  • Louis Griffin as Tunny
  • Cameron Anika Hill as Extraordinary Girl
  • Ensemble: Kyra Christopher, EJ Dohring, Joel Flynn, Ciara Alyse Harris, Marissa Hecker, Tyler Jent, Phillip Johnson, Chris Kelley, Stavros Koumbaros, Jackson Matteck, Emily Ashton Meredith, Hamilton Moore, Anya Olsen, Alex Stone, Donelvan Thigpen, Madelaine Vandenberg and Keaton Whittaker.

The Creative Team 

  • Aubrey Berg, director
  • Stephen Goers, musical director
  • Samantha Pollino, choreographer
  • Thomas C. Umfrid, scenic designer
  • CJ Mellides, lighting designer
  • Kevin Semancik, sound designer
  • Jillian Coratti, costume designer
  • Jillian Floyd, wig & make-up designer
  • Tom Meglio, assistant director
  • k. Jenny Jones, fight choreographer
  • Jenny Rissover, stage manager
  • Tom Kitt, musical arrangements and orchestrations

Performance Times

  • 8 p.m. Thursday, March 3
  • 8 p.m. Friday, March 4
  • 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 5
  • 2 p.m. Sunday, March 6
  • 8 p.m. Thursday, March 10
  • 8 p.m. Friday, March 11
  • 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 12
  • 2 p.m. Sunday, March 13

Location
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to American Idiot are $31-35 for adults, $20-24 for non-UC students and $18-22 for UC students with a valid ID.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/mainstage/american-idiot.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
____

CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s

Community Partner: ArtsWave

American Idiot is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019 | Phone: 212-541-4684 | Fax: 212-397-4684 | www.MTIShows.com

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February 26, 2016 · 6:20 am

WIT-Women in Theatre Announces First Premiere Play, RURAL FREE DELIVERY

Due to stuff that happens, “Rural Free Delivery” by Grace Epstein is postponed until October 2016.

WIT_Grace Epstein

Playwright Grace Epstein

On April 1, 2016, a new play, RURAL FREE DELIVERY written by a local Kentucky/Ohio playwright, who teaches English and Film at the University of Cincinnati, opens on The Avenue Stage in Bellevue, Ky.  Grace Epstein has been writing dialogue since she was ten years old, but didn’t understand what to do with it until she minored in drama at Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Ky.  She continued writing for the stage while working on her MA in Creative and Dramatic Writing and her PhD in Literature and Narrative at Ohio State University.

RURAL FREE DELIVERY has been a work-in-progress for five years since her sense of social and moral consciousness peaked and she realized that lesbians were not being represented on stage.  Then, three years ago, her daughter had a premature child by C-section.  She was astonished that recovering from a C-section was so much worse than from her own experience of natural childbirth.  Her youngest child was delivered at home and even though it was a breach birth, it was far less painful than a C-section.

In the 1970’s, The Home Birth Movement began in the United States.  Grace was quickly drawn to the idea that women need to support each other in childbirth and throughout their lives.  Before that time, women were not encouraged to breast feed or to have children at home.

Epstein’s play, RURAL FREE DELIVERY, merges these life experiences with many important issues of the day:  womens’ right to choose the best outcome for her own body, mixed racial marriages, gay marriage, and the political and cultural differences between rural folk and big city sophisticates.  It takes place in Western Kentucky’s mining country where trudging through 25 inches of snow to help another woman is the natural thing to do.

In this dramatic comedy, a lesbian couple has moved from a northern U.S. climate to a small, western Kentucky homestead.  Hava (played by Leah Heisel) is a Jewish biologist at a local university and the very pregnant Shirese (Burgess Byrd) is an African-American English teacher at the same university.  Joined by Hava’s straight sister, Lyla (Hannah Goodman), and a middle-aged, all-things-Kentucky, hands on woman (Liberty Fraysure), 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.

WIT-Women in Theatre is dedicated to producing and performing plays by, for, and about women.  Giving women the work they need and want on and behind stage helps bridge the gap caused by the fact that only 37% of all jobs in film and theatre are given to women of all races.  They are constantly searching for emerging female playwrights with a Feminist point of view.

“WIT doesn’t do theatre just to say we put on a show, we do theatre to have a conversation and to learn.”  Look for us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WIT.Women.in.Theatre.

RURAL FREE DELIVERY is directed by Marta Backman Hyland and will run April 1, 2, 5, 8, 9 at The Avenue Stage, 520 Fairfield Ave., Bellevue, KY, 41073.  The Avenue Stage is on the St. John United Church of Christ building.  Tickets will be available around March 1 on-line at:  https://stjohnchurch.net.  There will also be tickets sold at the door.

 

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February 26, 2016 · 6:07 am

Newsboys Variety Show on March 7

BIC Newsies Variety Show logoCincinnati, OH – Cast members from the North American tour of Disney’s NEWSIES will present The Newsboys’ Variety Show, a cabaret benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), on Monday, March 7, 2016 at 7:30pm at The Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater (650 Walnut Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202). Doors open at 7pm.

More than 20 cast members from the North American touring company of NEWSIES will present some of their favorite standards, pop songs, choreography, dances and more. Come see the Newsies like you’ve never seen them before, all while supporting an incredible organization. A Facebook event to share on social media can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/ 957756887628271/

Tickets start at $27 and are available online at http://www.cincinnatiarts.org/newsboys, in person at the Aronoff Center Box Office, or by calling (513) 621-ARTS. A silent auction will present opportunities to bid on backstage passes, tickets to see Disney’s NEWSIES at The Aronoff Center, merchandise and exclusive show memorabilia. All proceeds go to BC/EFA, which provides funds to over 450 service organizations from coast to coast.

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS (BC/EFA) is the nation’s leading industry-based, non-profit AIDS fundraising and grant making organization. BC/EFA is the on-going, committed response from the American theater community to an urgent worldwide health crisis. Since its

founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $250 million for critical services for people across the country with AIDS, HIV, and other serious illnesses. Locally, “The Newsboys’ Variety Show” will benefit Caracole, Inc, which provides safe and affordable housing to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. In the past six months alone, NEWSIES has raised more than $175,000 for BCEFA. For more information, visit: http://www.broadwaycares.org/newsies

Tickets to the Cincinnati engagement of Disney’s NEWSIES, playing March 1-13 at the Aronoff

Center, can be purchased at the theatre box office (650 Walnut Street), by calling (513) 621- ARTS or by visiting http://www.cincinnatiarts.org

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February 24, 2016 · 6:14 am

Acting Up to Present Disney’s THE LITTLE MERMAID

April 8,9,10 in Mason

ACTUP_The Little Mermaid logoOne of the most popular Disney musicals, The Little Mermaid, will be hitting the live stage in Mason this spring, presented by Acting Up -Young Performer’s Community Theater.  This is the full 2-Act version complete with a 16 piece orchestra. Based on one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved stories and the classic animated film, Disney’s The Little Mermaid is a hauntingly beautiful love story for the ages. With music by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, and a compelling book by Doug Wright, this fishy fable will capture your heart with its irresistible songs including “Under the Sea,” “Kiss the Girl,” and “Part of Your World.”

Acting Up’s version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid is possible through a special arrangement with Music Theatre International. It will feature a cast of approximately 75 talented youngsters ages 6 to 18, hailing from all over the Cincinnati-area. The director is Joel Saeks.

Acting Up is an all-volunteer, young performers community theater founded in Mason.  They stress family involvement and working with the community to provide an enjoyable, educational, and enriching experience for all.  Acting Up is a member of ACT Cincinnati and won 32 Orchid awards at the Association of Community Theatre awards for productions over the past year, including Overall Technical Quality, Overall Performance Quality, Excellence in Dance Execution, and Excellence in Chorus, Choreography and Ensemble.

Acting Up will present four shows of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, April 8,9,10, at the Mason Middle School Theater, 6370 Mason Montgomery Road, Mason, OH 45040.

Performances will be Friday, April 8 at 7:00 pm; Saturday, April 9 at 2:00pm (sign language interpreter will be provided) and 7:00 pm; and Sunday, April 10 at 5:00 pm.

Tickets are $12 each and are general seating.  For more information, visit www.ActingUp.com or call 513-494-6062.

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