Current Theater Season
2023-2024
1st Year MFA Directors’ Project
To Be Announced
Directed by Sarah Curtis
First year MFA Directing students will each present a one-act play to introduce themselves as artists to our community. We are proud and excited to produce their work. Titles and production information are forthcoming.
Putnam PlaySpace
March 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th
Reality Check
Written and Directed by Rebecca Vernooy
Virginia Hahne Theater, Kantner Hall
March 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
9 to 5 the Musical
Book by Patricia Resnick
Music & Lyrics by Dolly Parton
Adapted from 9 to 5 (1980)
Directed/Choreographed By Shanna VanDerwerker
9 TO 5 The Musical is the story of three working women getting revenge on their sexist and egotistical boss. Based on the 1980 film and the real-life women of the 9 to 5 movement, over 40 years later, this sassy, fun, and fast-moving show with Dolly Parton music provokes us to examine how much progress we’ve actually accomplished in equal rights for women, and all folx.
Forum Theater
February 29th (Preview) March 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 8th @ 8PM
March 2nd @ 2PM
Talkbacks: March 2nd and 7th following evening performance.
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Südwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915
By Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed by Caitlin Lopez
A group of actors gather to tell the little-known story of the first genocide of the 20th century. We Are Proud to Present … follows a group of idealistic actors they test the limits of empathy as their own stories, subjectivities, assumptions and prejudices catalyze their theatrical process. Eventually the full force of a horrific past crashes into the good intentions of the present, and what seemed a faraway place and time comes all too close to home.
Baker Theater
April 11th (Preview)
April 12th, 13th (Talkback), 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th (Talkback), 20th @ 8PM & 20th @ 2PM
Fringe Festival
April 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th
Past Shows
Broadway Bound with Faith Prince
Featuring: Brent Frederick & Faith Prince
The Ohio University Musical Theater Class of 2024
Baker Theater (Kantner Hall)
Friday, September 15 at 7PM
For the past four decades, FAITH PRINCE has dazzled audiences on both stage and screen in a variety of memorable comedic and dramatic roles. She quickly rose to Broadway fame after winning a Tony Award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls directed by Jerry Zaks and has remained one of the most prolific leading ladies working in the American musical theater.
For her Broadway debut in Jerome Robbins Broadway Ms. Prince was nominated for her first Tony Award and Drama Desk Award and has since starred in over a dozen Broadway shows: Nick & Nora (Outer Critics Circle nomination), Guys and Dolls, What’s Wrong with This Picture, The King and I, Little Me, James Joyce’s The Dead, Bells Are Ringing (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics nominations), Noises Off, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, A Catered Affair (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics nominations), Annie, and Disaster. Also in New York, she originated the role of Trina in William Finn and James Lapine’s Falsettoland and can be heard on the cast recording.
Equally present on screen, Ms. Prince made her television debut guest starring opposite Pierce Brosnan on the hit series Remington Steele, followed by playing Angela Virago in the 1985 film The Last Dragon.
Faith is perhaps more widely recognized for the many colorful characters she has created on television, including recently Nellie Cantrell on the 2022 Fox series Monarch and Judith Robertson in Emily in Paris as well as Kristy Swenson in Scream Queens, Elaine Bingum in Drop Dead Diva, Claudia in Spin City, Kelly Knippers in Huff, Modern Family, CSI, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Monk, House, Now and Again, and television movies, including most recently Dear Christmas for Lifetime.
Medea
By Euripides
Directed by Devin Ty Franklin
In this modern translation by Frederic Raphael and Kenneth McLeish, this classic Greek tragedy follows the journey of a woman fighting to be seen by a man (and a world) that has defined her as invisible and insignificant. What will it take for this force of a woman to ascend beyond her circumstances?
Virginia Hahne Theater
October 12th, 13th, 14th @ 8PM & 14th @ 2PM
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
By Francis Beaumont
Directed by Caitlin Lopez
A group of thespians present a romantic play about star-crossed lovers… well… they would if the audience would just shut up. A rowdy grocer and his wife demand a different play starring their apprentice. The company must now perform two plays: the romance, and an improvised chivalric adventure complete with knights, giants, and sick dance moves.
Virginia Hahne Theater
October 26th, 27th, & 28th @ 8PM & 28th @ 2PM
TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS
Twelfth Night
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Shelley Delaney
A shipwreck in perilous waters creates a sea of confusion on land in Shakespeare’s freewheeling romcom of loss, longing, mistaken identity, obsession, revenge and madness, Twelfth Night. Anything can happen in coastal Illyria, where characters leap in heart first: transcending gender, upending propriety and scoffing at noise ordinances. Or… What You Will.
Forum Theater
November 9th (Preview), 10th (Opening), 11th (Talkback), 15th, 16th (ASL+Talkback), 17th, 18th @ 8PM & 18th @ 2PM
FREE Student Rush Tickets available with a valid Ohio University ID at the venue for each performance if there are tickets remaining.
ShiningGirls
Written Collectively By Millie Rose, Levi Shrader, joolz, Kaitlin Gilgenbach, Maggie C. Nolan, and Molly H. Donahue
Directed by Molly H. Donahue
Sometimes, the only thing we can do is survive.
When two podcasters go viral for catching a vivid paranormal experience on tape, they will do anything to keep that fame train runnin'! Even if that means bringing the innocent public into direct contact with the veil for clout. Kantner is filled with ghosts of one girl's past and once they are released, it is unclear if they will ever be contained again.
Kantner Hall
December 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th @ 7PM & 9PM
SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS
Midnight Madness
Midnight Madness is part of the MFA Playwriting program consisting of the bi-weekly, informal production of new work. Early each week a different graduate playwright is selected as the week’s producer. The producer chooses a theme, style, or concept as a prompt for that week’s production. Each writer must then write a three to five-minute play based on that prompt. Each play is written, cast, and rehearsed throughout the week in preparation for the Friday night, script-in-hand production.
Madness takes place Fridays at 11 PM in the Hahne Theater. The performances last about an hour and are free and open to the public. Upcoming Madness Schedule is available here: ohioplaywriting.org/madness
Visit the College of Fine Arts calendar often for updates and information about the School of Theater's season.
Visit Tantrum Theater's page for further details about productions, season offerings, workshops, etc.