Category Archives: Season Announcements

The Drama Workshop’s Office of Special Projects is adding a fifth show to the TDW 2012-2013 season! “Jerry Finnegan’s Sister” will be directed by Ray Persing, and co-produced by Ray Persing and Gretchen Gantner.

Brian Dowd is 23 years old, and has had a mammoth crush on his best friend’s sister Beth for most of his life. In the play, Brian takes the audience members in as his confidants, telling them that he has just heard that Beth Finnegan is going to be married, and ushers them through a number of incidents in his life, such as they are, with the breathtaking dynamo who lives on the other side of his driveway. He also tells them that, before the evening is out, he will finally, finally tell her how he feels about her. The actors play the characters as children, adolescents, teens, and young adults, culminating in the moment when Brian finally tells Beth how he feels!

Show dates are January 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 2013; Friday and Saturday curtains are at 8 pm; Sunday matinees are at 2 pm.

The Drama Workshop is thrilled to announce its opening season at Cincinnati’s newest theatre venue, The Glenmore Playhouse, 3716 Glenmore Avenue. TDW is excited to have outstanding production teams for all its shows this year, featuring award-winning directors, producers, and designers who will be sure to continue the standards of theater excellence that is a hallmark of  a TDW production.

The season will open in October with Snoopy: The Musical, by Larry Grossman and Hal Hackady, book by Warren Lockhart, Arthur Whitelaw, and Michael Grace. The show will be directed by Dennis Murphy, with musical direction by Linda Abbott, and produced by Gretchen Gantner. This lighthearted, musical romp through the Peanuts canon features Charlie Brown, Sally, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Woodstock, and, of course, Snoopy! The London publication What’s On Stage reviewer wrote, “…this is a show for all ages and all seasons – and as a sunny summer’s entertainment, could hardly be bettered.” This will be the first show produced at The Glenmore Playhouse. Show dates are October 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, and 21, 2012.

In December, TDW will present the classic comedy, The Man Who Came to Dinner, by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, directed by Amy Hamilton and produced by Mary Stone. Set in the 1930’s, famously outlandish radio wit Sheridan Whiteside is invited to dine at the home of a small-town Ohio factory owner and his family. However, before Whiteside enters the house, he slips on a patch of ice outside the front door and injures his hip. Whiteside is forced to remain at the home indefinitely, and in the process of recovering alternately terrorizes the family and household staff, meddles in the love-life of his long-suffering assistant, Maggie, and endears himself to the rest of the community. Show dates are December 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16 and 17, 2012.

March will see John Patrick Shanley’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Doubt, A Parable; it will be headed up by director Michael L. Morehead, and produced by Ray Persing. Doubt is set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, where a strong-minded nun wrestles with conscience and uncertainty as she is faced with concerns about one of her male colleagues. Should she voice her concern about one of the priests even if she is not totally certain about the truth? “Blunt yet subtle, manipulative but full of empathy for all sides, the play is set in 1964 but could not be more timely. Doubt is a lean, potent drama…passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing.” Linda Winer, Newsday. Because of strong subject material, TDW does not recommend this production for children not yet in high school. Show dates are March 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, and 24, 2013.

Finally, closing the season in late April will be another classic comedy, Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, directed by Dan Cohen. A conservative young lawyer and his irrepressible bride struggle with marital discord after the ecstasy of the honeymoon gives way to the reality of setting up housekeeping in a five-flight walk-up. Throw in an emotionally repressed mother-in-law, a bohemian upstairs neighbor, and a bottle of Ouzo, and you end up with a laugh-a-minute comedy that will keep you in stitches! Show dates are April 26, 27, and 28, and May 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, and 12, 2013.

Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 pm, Sunday matinees will be at 2 pm.

For additional information, contact Gretchen Gantner at 513.470.5516, or at groose1876@aol.com.