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Current Theater Season

2022-2023

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

29th Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights’ Festival

29th Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights’ Festival

IMAGINARY AUDIENCES
by Eryn Elyse McVay
Directed by Molly Donahue 

When Lola McIntyre, a twelve-year-old aspiring magician, uploads the home video of her latest act to YouTube and suddenly garners millions of views overnight, her distant dream of performing magic solo on a Las Vegas stage soon becomes a tangible potential reality. Fast-forward fifteen years, and Lola’s still reaching toward that dream, still just on the cusp on true greatness. From betraying a friend to making deals with a demon, Lola will do just about anything to get on that Vegas stage, she has to, because everything she’s done, everything she’s gone through, it has to be worth it, right?

SQUEAKERS
by Steven Strafford
Directed by Sam Nelson

Jane is a new mother of a young baby, who finds herself on an adventure she never wanted to take. She fights through grief, addiction, and what lies beyond this plane of existence, all in pursuit of saving a life. Squeakers asks us what the punchline is for a joke that begins, "A pair of new parents, a clown, an angel, a nurse, and a couple of alcoholics walk into a hospital..."

The annual Ohio University Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights’ Festival held each year at the end of the Spring Semester represents the culmination of the work of Ohio University’s MFA Playwrights. Join us to celebrate and help in the creation of new work!

Baker Theater
April 19-22
, 26-29

Tickets on sale now

  • Wednesday, April 18, 8:00 PM preview: Squeakers by Steven Strafford 
  • Thursday, April 20, 8:00 PM opening: Imaginary Audiences by Eryn Elyse McVay 
  • Friday, April 21, 8:00 PM opening: Squeakers by Steven Strafford 
  • Saturday, April 22, 2:00 PM performance: Imaginary Audiences by Eryn Elyse McVay 
  • Saturday, April 22, 8:00 PM performance: Squeakers by Steven Strafford 

 

  • Wednesday, April 26, 8:00 PM performance: Imaginary Audiences by Eryn Elyse McVay 
  • Thursday, April 27, 8:00 PM performance: Squeakers by Steven Strafford 
  • Friday, April 28, 3:00 PM reading: Mona Quimby: Age 38 by Steven Strafford 
  • Friday, April 28, 8:00 PM production: Imaginary Audiences by Eryn Elyse McVay
  • Saturday, April 29, 3:00 PM reading:  How Sweet the Sound by Eryn Elyse McVay 
  • Saturday, April 29, 8:00 PM production: Squeakers by Steven Strafford

Mentors: Martine Kei Green-Rogers and Aaron Carter

Past Shows

TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS

Carrie, The Musical

Carrie

Book by Lawrence D. Cohen
Lyrics by Dean Pitchford
Music by Michael Gore
Adapted from Stephen King’s Carrie
Directed and Choreographed by Victoria Rae Sook

Adapted from Stephen King's 1974 novel Carrie, the musical focuses on an awkward teenage girl with telekinetic powers whose lonely life is dominated by an oppressive religious fanatic mother. When she is humiliated by her classmates at the high school prom, she unleashes chaos on everyone and everything in her path.

Elizabeth Baker Theater

View Cast and Creative

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

1st Year MFA Directors’ Projects

1st Year MFA Directors’ Projects

macbitches 

Directed by Devin Ty Franklin

When a freshman is unexpectedly given the coveted role of Lady Macbeth, a few upperclassmen actresses invite her over to “celebrate” her casting and reassert their positions at the top of the theatre department’s hierarchy. As the Fireball and Svedka flow, the girls interrogate their own sense of ambition as well as the power structures that have shaped their theatrical education.

PlaySpace, Putnam Hall RM 227

The Secretaries 

Directed by Caitlin Lopez

Pretty Patty Johnson is thrilled to join the secretarial pool at the Cooney Lumber Mill under the iron-fisted leadership of sultry office manager Susan Curtis. But she soon begins to feel that all is not right—the enforced diet of Slim-Fast shakes, the strange clicking language between the girls, the monthly disappearance of a lumberjack… By the time Patty discovers murder is part of these office killers' skill set, it's too late to turn back! In the guise of satiric exploitation-horror, The Secretaries takes an unflinching look at the warped cultural expectations of femininity.

PlaySpace, Putnam Hall, RM 227

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS 

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Shelley Delaney

Power and Ambition. Friendship and Betrayal. Anarchy and Justice. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: a fast and furious political tale for our time.

Virginia Hahne Theater

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SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS 

Doctor Voynich and Her Children

Doctor Voynich and Her Children

A Prediction by Leanna Keyes
Directed by Tyler Everett Adams

Doctor Rue Voynich and her apprentice Fade travel the American Heartland dispensing herbal medications. They also covertly perform abortions--long ago made illegal. When approached by a local young woman, Hannah, to perform an abortion, Fade must assist her before the sheriff can nail them for the “attempted murder of an unborn person.” This post-Roe v. Wade play about mothers and daughters is poetic, sexy, vulgar, queer, and a little too real.

Virginia Hahne Theater

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SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

what the Gods gave me

what the Gods gave me

By Eryn Elyse McVay
Directed by Molly H. Donahue

Moon magic, man eaters, and matrimony; the women of Nevermoore Inn are preparing for the first night of the rest of their lives, but their carefully crafted mythos is about to catch fire. Written by OU’s own Eryn Elyse McVay, what the Gods gave me is a story about the magic of the family and the power of the individual.

Baker Backstage

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TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS 

Hotel Berry

Hotel Berry

By Jacqueline Lawton
Directed by JaMeeka Holloway

By 1912 Athens’ only Black business owners, Edward and Mattie Berry, have established one of the finest hotels in Ohio, with visitors from all over the country. When former president and now presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt decides to stay at the hotel, a potential moment of pride and joy unleashes scandal and political upheaval.

Forum Theater

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VIBRANCY THEATER PRESENTS

Yerma

Yerma

By Federico García Lorca
Directed by Ally Poole

A woman in a passionless marriage, who wants nothing more than to have a child. A community that measures a woman’s worth by their ability to bear children. Yerma, for anyone who has ever desperately wanted something and found that it was just beyond their reach.

Forum Theater
April 13-
15, 18-22 @ 8:00pm
April 22 @ 2PM

Tickets available now

Learn more about Vibrancy Theater


SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

Madness

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.