Tag Archives: Oxford Area Community Theater

THE GIN GAME
Oxford Area Community Theatre
Feb. 16-25
Oxford Community Arts Center

Directed by Virgil Seger

Cast: Bett Kooris & Arny Stoller

This winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama uses a card game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home. Enter Fonsia Dorsey, a prim, self-righteous lady. They discover they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy, so they begin to play and to reveal intimate details of their lives. Fonsia wins every time, and their secrets become weapons used against one another. Weller longs for a victory to counter a lifetime of defeats, but it doesn’t happen. He leaves the stage a broken man, and Fonsia realizes her self-righteous rigidity has led to an embittered, lonely, old age.

• Fri-Sat, Feb. 16-17 at 7:30pm
• Sun, Feb. 18 at 2pm
• Fri-Sat, Feb. 23-24 at 7:30pm
• Sun, Feb. 25 at 2pm

Official page |

OH, COWARD! A Musical Comedy Revue
Oxford Area Community Theatre
Oct. 20-22
Oxford Community Arts Center

Directed by Rebecca Howard

Weaving together songs and literary delights, Oh,Coward! celebrates one of the theater’s greatest entertainers, Noël Coward. His effervescent music and charming quips combine for an unforgettable evening of the most memorable tunes of the twentieth century. In countless songs, musicals and plays (including the beloved Private Lives and Blithe Spirit), the multi-talented Coward made an indelible mark on the international theatrical landscape with his unique talent to amuse.

• Fri-Sat, Oct. 20-21 at 7:30pm
• Sun, Oct. 22 at 2pm

Official page |

FOUR BY TWO (BY FOUR)
Oxford Area Community Theatre
April 22-30
Oxford Community Arts Center

GRACELAND directed by Rebecca Howard
GRACELAND takes place outside the front entrance of Graceland, at 5 a.m. three days before the estate is to be opened to the public. Two ardent Presley fans, middle-aged Bev and young Rootie, have arrived at the sacred gates, each desiring to be the first to enter the grounds, and each believing that she is the one most deserving of the honor. Wary at first, the two soon progress from dispute to shared confidences and a touching resolution.

ASLEEP ON THE WIND directed by Lisa Biales
ASLEEP ON THE WIND serves as a “prequel” to Graceland, taking place 10 years earlier in Bayou Teche, Louisiana, where adolescent Rootie and her favorite brother, Beau, come to talk in private and to escape the harassment of her other brothers. This time Beau has a double purpose for their meeting: to persuade Rootie to try to stick it out at home and in school and to reach beyond him for companionship; and also to tell her that he has enlisted in the army and has requested service in Vietnam.

BIRDING WITH AUNT NANCY directed by Jeff Douglass
Winner of the Fitton Center New Play competition, finds two sisters, Ellie and Mim, as they have traveled to their favorite Aunt’s favorite bird watching spot to spread her ashes. With the assistance of their Aunt’s favorite bottle of Scotch, left to them in her will, they use humor to celebrate her life, mourn her death, and grapple with the legacy of painful family relationships.

STRAWBERRY ISLAND directed by Teresa Ayers Gordon
STRAWBERRY ISLAND provides us insight into the past that has brought these characters to where they are, finding the two sisters as children on vacation in Michigan, visiting their favorite aunt. Having rowed to the small, uninhabited island in Lake Huron where Nancy has built a bird blind to monitor the migrations of bald eagles, they encounter another pair of young siblings, locals who challenge the sisters to a competition—who can collect the most wild strawberries in 10 minutes. But the game reveals much more than simple competitiveness, as the sisters begin to confront the impending divorce of their parents and their growing understanding of their own feelings about generosity, loyalty, and fairness, with both humor and frustration.

• Sat, April 22 at 7:30pm
• Sun, April 23 at 2pm
• Fri, April 28 at 7:30pm
• Sun, April 30 at 2pm

Official page |

TALLEY’S FOLLY
Oxford Area Community Theatre
Feb. 18-26
Oxford Community Arts Center

Cast: Matt Benzing as Matt Friedman & Heidi Bortel as Sally Talley

Winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award as best play of the season, Talley’s Folly is the story of one night in the lives of two unlikely sweethearts, Matt Friedman and Sally Talley. The play takes place in a dilapidated boathouse on the Talley farm in Missouri on the Fourth of July, 1944. Matt gradually awakens Sally to the possibilities of a life together until, in the final, touching moments of the play, it is clear that they are two kindred spirits who have truly found each other—two “lame ducks” who, in their union, will find a wholeness rare in human relationships.

• Sat, Feb. 18 at 7:30pm
• Sun, Feb. 19 at 2pm
• Fri-Sat, Feb. 24-25 at 7:30pm
• Sun, Feb. 26 at 2pm

Official page |