On Stage Dayton

In 2011, Dayton History unveiled a new public program, Old Case Files, at the Old Court House. Old Case Files brings to life an infamous 19th century murder case through an historically accurate and engaging re-enactment of the trial, based upon the newspaper accounts and other primary source documents of the time.

Dayton History (with sponsorship of Bieser, Greer & Landis LLP, with additional support by the Dayton Bar Association) presents Old Case Files for its second year at the Old Courthouse in Downtown Dayton. This year features a dramatic presentation of the 1876 trial in which Harry Adams was accused of murdering Civil War veteran, Henry Mulharen.

The mock-trial promises to be filled with mystery, intrigue, and excitement for all those who enjoy history and a great piece of theatre! Audience members will have a chance to interact with the witnesses and some attending the show may be lucky enough to be chosen for the jury to decide Adams’ fate. You can witness this entertaining and engaging living history event on July 20-22, 27-29 and August 3-5. Friday and Saturday performances start at 7:30 pm and Sunday performances start at 3:00 pm. Admission is $10 for Dayton History members and $12 for non-members. Light food and drinks are available for purchase as is selected Museum Store merchandise.

Construction of the Old Court House began in 1847 and was completed within three years at a cost of $100,000. It is built almost entirely from a grade of locally quarried limestone nicknamed “Dayton marble.” The building was dedicated on April 16, 1850. Upon completion, the structure became the center of law and local government for Montgomery County. It was the scene of many famous, as well as infamous, trials.

For more information, please call 937.293.2841 or visit www.daytonhistory.org.

TICKET CONTEST

Dayton Most Metro has TWO PAIRS of tickets to give away, courtesy of Dayton History!  Simply fill out the form below and then in the comment section, tell us your favorite famous trial.  We’ll announce winners on Thursday July 19th after 3pm – GOOD LUCK!

CONTEST CLOSED

Congratulations to our winners:
Katie Gilding
Sandy Hoying

Todd Lawson

(from The Human Race Theatre Company)

The Human Race Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals, is pleased to announce the three-play line-up for its 2012 Festival of New Musicals. This marks The Human Race’s fifth annual festival that showcases musicals in development, and the second year of including a new work from Encore Theater Company. Human Race Producing Artistic Director Kevin Moore has selected two musicals that are very close to his heart—Dani Girl and Red-Blooded, All-American Man. The third musical is Encore Theater Company’s production of 33MM: A Musical Exhibition. The festival will kick off with a welcome session on Friday, August 3 at 6:00 p.m. in The Loft Lobby. The productions perform in The Loft Theatre in rotating repertory over the course of the three-day festival. Audiences will have a chance to meet the writers of the shows during a discussion session on Saturday, August 4 at 12:30 p.m.

Dani Girl, a beautiful, touching and unexpectedly humorous story of a 9-year-old girl battling leukemia. Her incredible imagination takes her on a fantastical quest to get her hair back when she loses it to chemotherapy. With the help of a fellow patient, 10-year-old Marty, and her imaginary friend, Raph, she confronts Cancer and asks him, “Why?” Created by the award-winning team of Michael Kooman, music, and Christopher Dimond, book and lyrics, the show has been developed in a number of festivals, including the 2011 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival of New Musicals, the Kennedy Center and the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop, and during productions in Canada and Australia. Kooman and Dimond have received the much-coveted Jonathan Larson Award, and most recently became the first recipients of the Lorenz Hart Award presented by the ASCAP Foundation. “The show is a tribute to the children and families dealing with serious medical issues,” said Moore. “It is not a weepy melodrama or a bleak tragedy, but a spiritual journey accompanied by an upbeat, contemporary score that evokes feelings of hope and joy.” Dani Girl is directed by Marya Spring Cordes and music directed by Scot Woolley. The cast includes Abby E. Cates, Brendan Plate, Jamie Cordes and Katie Pees. Performances of Dani Girl are Friday, August 3 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 4 at 2:00 p.m.

Native Daytonian and Human Race alumnus Todd Lawson and his writing partner, Carter Anne McGowan, have joined with the New Orleans rock n’ roll band Cowboy Mouth (who is playing at the Downtown Dayton Revival Music Fest in September), to create Red-Blooded, All-American Man, the story of a regular guy having a pre-midlife crisis. Tucker, our main guy, has a beautiful fiancée and a good job, but he’s still not happy. His mind wanders—with the help of the rock band in his head that comments on everything he does. Unsure of his life and afraid of his future, he’s ready to throw it all away for the chance to make his dreams come true only to discover that sometimes getting everything you wish for is not as great as you imagine. Originally workshopped at the Penobscot Theatre Company’s Northern Writes New Play Festival, this “coming-of-age” musical “is sure to connect with our new musical audience,” says Moore. “And we are equally thrilled to be working with Todd Lawson again.” Lawson appeared in Three Days of Rain and The Vertical Hour—both directed by The Human Race’s late artistic director, Marsha Hanna. Red-Blooded, All-American Man is directed by Kevin Moore, music directed by Jay Brunner and vocal directed by Scott Stoney. The cast includes Todd Lawson, Amy Leigh, Paige Dobkins, Scott Stoney and Sara Mackie, with band members Jay Brunner, Allison Kelly and Kevin Anderson. Performances of Red-Blooded, All-American Man are Friday, August 3 at 10:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but what about a song? Can one picture inspire a song? How about fifteen photos? In 35MM: A Musical Exhibition, each photo creates a different song completely disconnected from the other, creating fifteen different and unique moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. This stunning new multimedia musical explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre. With music and lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver (composer of Disney Theatricals’ upcoming stage musical Freaky Friday) and the contemporary photography of Matthew Murphy, this intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern American musical can be. 35MM: A Musical Exhibition is produced by Encore Theater Company, directed by its artistic director, David Brush, and music directed by Zachary Jordan Steele. The cast includes Elizabeth Wellman, Melissa Hall, Drew Bowen, Zachary Jordan Steele. The band includes Zachary Jordan Steele, Amy Gray, Melissa Hall, Allison Kelly and Jeremy King. Performances of 35MM: A Musical Exhibition are Saturday, August 4 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 5 at 2:00 p.m.

The 2012 Festival of New Musicals is sponsored by the 25th Anniversary Fund, The Producers’ Circle and a grant from The Dramatists Guild of America.  SEE ENTIRE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE CALENDAR

All performances are at the Metropolitan Art Center’s Loft Theatre, located at 126 North Main Street in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door for each production and are available online at www.humanracetheatre.org or by calling Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630, and in person at the Schuster Center box office.

FutureFest, an annual festival of previously unproduced plays sponsored by the Dayton Playhouse, will take place July 27-29. This event is nationally recognized as a premier event in the playwrighting community and is the largest effort of its kind sponsored by a community theatre.

“Each year we read hundreds of previously unproduced plays submitted by writers in the United States and often around the world,” said Brian Sharp, chairman of the Dayton Playhouse board. “We narrow the selection to the top 6 plays and we bring those playwrights to Dayton for an in-depth weekend. The plays are produced by Dayton Playhouse volunteers, half as staged readings and half as fully staged productions during the weekend. After each presentation, the writing is critiqued by professional adjudicators from major theatre communities across the country. All of this is shared by our audience members, who also participate in the adjudication. The weekend also includes lots of social interaction with playwrights, actors and adjudicators and makes for a very stimulating theatre event.”

This year’s finalists include:

A Political Woman by Joel Fishbane of Quebec, Canada, also a finalist in 2010 for Short Story Long. This play will be directed by Cynthia Karns and will be fully staged at 8 p.m. on Friday.

As a debate rages in the Canadian parliament over universal suffrage, young Maggie Shand slowly becomes instrumental to her husband’s political life. But she soon realizes that her newfound political influence has a price – one she may not be willing to pay. Inspired by the play “what every woman knows” by J.M. Barrie, a political woman is at once a historical comedy and an exploration of a crucial time in gender politics with echoes that are all too relevant in the modern day.

Provenance by Daniel J. Weber of Great Neck, New York. This play will be a staged reading Saturday at 10 a.m. and will be directed by David Shough.

Provenance – lives and breathes in the world of wine. Yet it is emphatically not a play about wine. Rather, the cultivation of wine serves as an overarching metaphor for the history of change and growth that affects each character on stage. Like the mysterious champagne in question, four characters are trapped inside their own personal histories. The only way out: personal reinvention. Change becomes an act of survival. But how far will a person bend the truth to escape his or her past? What are the consequences? In this explosive examination of history and identity, secrets, like lies, are impossible to contain.

Nureyev’s Eyes written by David Rush of Murphysboro, Illinois whose play Estelle Singerman was the festival winner in 2006. This play will be directed by Annie Pesch and will be a staged reading 3 p.m. on Saturday.

During the 70s, Jamie Wyeth (son of Andrew) painted a series of works of Rudolf Nureyev, the dancer. The play examines what their relationship may have been like, how they passed through good and bad times and ultimately changed each other.

Curve by Sam Havens of Houston, Texas. This play will be directed by Jim Lockwood and will be fully staged on Saturday at 8 p.m.

In this witty, provocative play about truth and illusion, unrelenting rain pours down outside the Connecticut home of Dakin Abernathy. Inside, Dakin and his neighbor, Ted Mueller, engage in a verbal joust where nothing is as it seems. Or is it? Dakin, a noted film noir director, accuses Ted of having killed his own wife. Ted protests, yet as morning spins into afternoon and a thunderous evening, he begins to believe that he might, indeed, be a murderer. Dakin’s wife, Angela, complicates events with her flaky personality, and their daughter, Lana Veronica, comes home for the weekend saying she is in trouble with the law. Events escalate and secrets are revealed until the play itself suggests one of Dakin’s film noir classics, complete with dark music, ominous lighting and swirling fog.

Excavation by Robert Barron of Newburgh, NY. This play will be directed by Nancy Campbell and will be a staged reading at 10 a.m. on Sunday

Excavation – is a journey into the past to unlock the future. A widowed father who works as a security guard at New York’s American Museum of Natural History struggles to reach his mute seven year old son, who is fading away from grief over his mother’s death. Meanwhile, a parallel story takes place on the Southwest corner of England in the 1800s, as one of the first paleontologists, Mary Anning, struggles for her own survival as she scours the shorelines for whispers and vestiges of worlds gone by…

This Rough Magic written by Richard Manley of New York City, who was a festival finalist in 2009 for his play Quietus. The play will be directed by Gayle Smith and will be fully staged at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

I believe that Americans are by and large a lonely people. Our productivity and medication and social media notwithstanding, many of us struggle to make sense of things, to find a sustainable balance between melancholy and hope. Joy, when it comes, is often momentary, and must be savored. In my work, I celebrate those who fight to maintain equilibrium. This Rough Magic takes place a few years from now, when overcoming loneliness and feeling loved are no less of a problem, but when technology offers more solutions to those who can afford them.

Adjudicators for FutureFest 2012 are returnees David Finkle, writer for the Huffington Post; playwright and dramaturg at Chicago Dramatists, Rob Koon; Helen Sneed, president Helen Sneed Consulting; and Eleanore Speert, past publications director at Dramatists Play Service, Inc. They will be joined by playwright and Ohio regional representative to the Dramatists Guild, Faye Sholiton, whose play The Interview won the festival in 1997.

Weekend passes for the entire festival are available for $95. Tickets to individual performances are $18. All tickets may be purchased at www.daytonplayhouse.org, or by calling the Dayton Playhouse box office at 937-424-8477. The Dayton Playhouse is located at, 1301 E. Siebenthaler Ave., Dayton, OH 45414.

(submitted by Dayton Playhouse)

Welcome back to another installment in my fortnightly updates from Dayton’s theatre world!

Opening This Weekend

Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins

Brookville Community Theatre

The Skinny: Directed by Saul Caplan, Souvenir was first seen (in Dayton) at the Dayton Theatre Guild last fall. This winning little show, superbly acted and directed, won the hearts of its audiences. Russell Florence reviewed its original production, which can be read here. Among those charmed by the original production were members of the board at Brookville Community Theatre who then asked Caplan to remount the production, in its entirety, in Brookville. Renee Franck-Reed and Charles Larkowski reprise their roles on Brookville’s lovely stage.

Dates: Opening 7/5/ and running through 7/15. Brookville Community Theatre offers Thursday performances.

Tickets: pre-ordering is highly recommended and can be done by calling the Brookville Flower Shop at 937-833-3531. More information can be found at Brookville Community Theatre’s website www.brookvillecommunitytheatre.com or at the “Souvenir…” Facebook event page, here

Future Fest 2012 update

Future Fest 2012 rehearsals are in full swing. There’s a certain exhilaration that comes from the Future Fest rehearsal process; with 6 shows sharing rehearsal space, there are almost always at least 2 shows rehearsing at the same time. Due to that situation, you find yourself and your show tucked away into other spaces. Sometimes it’s the lobby, sometimes it’s the green room. And while you’re not doing anything, you overhear snatches of other plays dialogue, and see fellow actors ducking in and out of other rehearsals. It feels vibrant and alive. And uniquely “Summer theatre in Dayton”, as Future Fest has come to represent.

For those interested in attending Future Fest productions, but not all 6 shows of the weekend, single-performance tickets are now available at a cost of $18.00. As a reminder, the line up of the weekend is:

Friday, 7/27 (8:00 pm): A Political Woman

Saturday, 7/28 (1o:00 am): Provenance

Saturday, (3:00 pm): Nureyev’s Eyes

Saturday, (8:00 pm): Curve

Sunday, 7/29, (10:00 am): Excavation

Sunday, (3:00 pm): This Rough Magic

Each production is followed immediately afterwards by an adjudication and talk-back session. If you’re interested in any of these shows, ala carte, space is extremely limited, but good seats are still available. And if you’re interested in the entire weekend, weekend pass ticket prices are at $95.00. Divided among 6 shows, that comes to less than $16.00 per show, which is a bargain considering the value in the weekend. Future Fest is a wonderful, Dayton theatre gem. All information about ticketing, as well as synopses of all the productions, can be found at the Dayton Playhouse website, www.daytonplayhouse.com

Free Shakespeare!

Now in its third year, Chris Shea’s troupe of traveling thespians are taking on The Merchant of Venice. Performance dates and venues are as follows:

July 19 — Blommel Park, South Park, Dayton
July 20, 21, 22 — ArtStreet, University of Dayton
July 26 — Tower Park, Fort Thomas, KY
July 27, 28, 29 — Antioch College Amphitheater, Yellow Springs
August 2 — Rosewood Arts Center, Kettering
August 3, 4, 5 — Newcom Park, Oregon District, Dayton
August 9 — Blommel Park, South Park, Dayton
August 10, 11, 12 — Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark, Dayton

All shows are at 7:00 pm and are completely free, though a goodwill donation in whatever amount you see fit would be warmly welcome and greatly appreciated. Audiences are reminded to bring their own lawn chairs or blankets. Free Shakespeare!’s Facebook page is a font of information, and can be found here. As they themselves put it, “Spread the Words.”

Remember to keep me posted on anything you’d like to see featured or highlighted! I’m always open to suggestions, and always ready to hear more people talking about Dayton theatre!

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Ah, it is officially summer! A time for swimming and barbeques and all sorts of outdoor based activities. And when you’ve had your fill of the sun and heat, where better to turn then the soft squishy seat inside the darkened confines of an air-conditioned theatre? Summer is traditionally the “off-season” for theatre, meaning the opportunity for live shows will be slightly less in the coming weeks, but that doesn’t mean it’s non-existent. Two great musicals are finishing up their runs this weekend, and I have news for you on Dayton’s favorite traveling Shakespeare Troupe!

Closing this weekend:

Wicked

The Schuster Center

The Skinny: This beloved “Wizard of Oz” prequel folds up its tent and hits the road soon. You can read Russell Florence, Jr’s take on it here.

If you haven’t seen it yet, fear not! Tickets are still available.

Dates: The last performance will be Sunday, June 24th.

Tickets: All information regarding tickets can be found online at www.victoriatheatre.com

Chicago

Beavercreek Community Theatre

The Skinny: Kander and Ebb’s well-loved musical about prohibition-era murderesses finishes its run in Beavercreek this weekend.

The Dates: Chicago closes on June 24th.

Tickets: Tickets are still available but are becoming rather scarce, so if you’re interested, please get ticketing information at www.bctheatre.org

Bare/Stop-Kiss

Playhouse South

The Skinny: Playhouse South’s duel billing of Bare and Stop-Kiss ends this weekend.

Dates: Bare’s last performance is June 23rd and Stop-Kiss will perform last on June 22nd.

Tickets: For all ticketing information please visit Playhouse South’s website at www.playhousesouth.org

Coming Soon

Free Shakespeare!

Dayton’s traveling Shakespeare Troupe is celebrating their 3rd summer of free theatre with Shakespeare’s provocative play, The Merchant of Venice.

Dates and Locations:

July 19: Blommel Park, South Park, Dayton
July 20, 21, 22: ArtStreet, University of Dayton
July 26: Tower Park, Ft Thomas, Kentucky
July 27, 28, 29: Antioch College Amphitheatre, Yellow Springs
August 2: Rosewood Arts Centre, Kettering
August 3, 4, 5: Newcom Park, Oregon District, Dayton
August 9: Blommel Park, South Park, Dayton
August 10, 11, 12: Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark, Dayton

All performances begin at 7 pm. Audience members should bring chairs or blankets. All performances are free of charge (but donations are happily and readily accepted!).

The Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame

I’ve been told by a member of the Hall of Fame committee that I can confirm this year’s Hall of Fame inductee. Bruce Brown, well-known local theatre set designer, will be the 2012 honoree at the annual DayTony’s award dinner. Bruce has designed sets for The Dayton Playhouse, The Dayton Theatre Guild, Kettering Children’s Theatre, Epiphany Lutheran Church and many, many more. Bravo and congratulations, Bruce!

Future Fest

Just as a reminder, weekend pass tickets for Future Fest, Dayton’s internationally-known festival of previously unpublished works, are still on sale. Also, single-performance tickets will go on sale on July 1st at a cost of $15.00. Single-performance seating is limited, so act fast. As a reminder, the schedule of performances is as follows:

Friday, July 27th, 8:00 pm: A Political Woman

Saturday, July 28th, 10:00 am: Provenance

Saturday, July 28th, 3:00 pm: Nureyev’s Eyes

Saturday, July 28th, 8:00 pm: Curve

Sunday, July 29th, 10:00 am: Excavation

Sunday, July 30th: 3:00 pm: This Rough Magic.

Each performance is followed by an adjudication and limited talk-back session.

Information about all things Future Fest can be found at the Dayton Playhouse website, www.thedaytonplayhouse.com

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention I am a member of the cast for A Political Woman. And I’m very excited!

That will just about do it for now, I believe. 2 weeks from now, I’ll bring you mention of a little season extra show from earlier this year, that another theatre has decided to import, part and parcel, for their season!