SPECIAL SUMMER THEATRE EDITION SPRING 1991 T VOLUME II, NUMBER 3 OTTERBEIN COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE A 25th Anniversary comes once in a lifetime Otterbein Summer Theatre celebrates it with gusto Three words that best describe this year's 25th anniversary sum­ mer season are FUN, FUN and more FUN! First up is the zany (clever ad­ jective meaning fun) musical com­ edy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Equity guest artist Ed Vaughan leading the onstage hijinx. This one has to be fun because it says so in the title. It's not A~Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And it is funny. Show number two is Blue Win­ dow, a Central Ohio Premiere com­ edy written by award-winning playwright Craig Lucas and guest­ directed by Carter Lewis. The best way to describe this one is clever, offbeat-a thinking person's com­ edy. Seven somewhat pretentious 30-something New Yorkers attend a dmner party where no one really knows anyone. Trust us, it's funny. Charles W. Dodrill (the man who started it all 24 years ago) returns this summer to direct our final show Not Now, Darling, the sequel to last year's monster hit come join us as we celebrate 25 summer is our favorite time of the T Caught in the act! Guest artists Move Over, Mrs. Markham. If you years of laughter at Otterbein Sum­ year. We'd much rather be onstage Dennis Romer and Ed Vaughan liked that show, and we know you mer Theatre. Also be sure to con­ every night in the basement of the take to the floor in last year's did (many of you came back to see tribute a little extra this time to the Campus Center than be anywhere record-breaking hit Move Over it again), you'll love this one. Be Summer Theatre Patron Fund be­ else. Thank you for your continued Mrs. Markham. forewarned, Not Now, Darling is cause this much fun isn't cheap generous support of our program truly low comedy-no thinking al­ and besides, we need the cash! and we hope to see you again this lowed! Finally and seriously, it's been year as we celebrate the very spe­ Okay, get the point? If you want our pleasure entertaining all of you cial tradition that we call Otterbein to be where the fun is this summer, over the past 24 summers. In fact, Summer Theatre. T Inside: A glimpse at Tilting at windmills Wasserstein at her our Silver p.2 cynical best in Season Uncommon Women p.2 p.3 OTTERBEIN Non-Profit Org. us Postage Otterbein College PAID Department of Theatre & Dance Westerville, OH Westerville, OH 43081-2006 Permit1n Forwarding and Return Postage Guaranteed, Address Correction Requested If you receive more than one copy of this newsletter, please pass one along to a friend. Something for everyone, a comedy tonight Hilarious Musical Nonsense Central Ohio Premiere Comedy Uproarious Farce A Funny Thing Blue Window Not Now, Darling Happened on the by Craig Lucas by Ray Cooney and John Chapman July 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; July 24, 25, 26, 27, 28; 31, Way to the Forum 17, 18, 19,20,21 Aug. 1,2,3,4;7,8,9, 10, 11 Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Wed. - Sun. Matinee, each week Wed. - Sun. Matinee, each week Originally Produced on Broadway by Harold S. Prince Directed by Guest Professional Directed by Charles W. Dodrill June 26, 27, 28, 29, 30; Carter W. Lewis* Featuring Equity Guest Artist Marcus Smythe July 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 An Off-Broadway hit and winner of the prestigious Wed. - Sun. Matinee; Tues. - Sun. Matinee; George and Elisabeth Marton playwriting award, Written by the same scandalous pair that authored as well as the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, last year's all-time biggest summer theatre hit No show on July 4 Blue Window is a funny, inventive account of the Move Over, Mrs. Markham, this year's offering is lives of seven New Yorkers gathered together for a merely a variation on that same hilarious theme. Featuring Equity Guest Artist Sunday evening dinner party. During the course of The scene is the exclusive London fur salon of Ed Vaughan* and the play we get an intimate glimpse of the before, Bodley and Crouch, where Crouch (the well-mean­ during and after of the party and its wonderfully bi­ ing innocent) struggles to keep things on an even Guest Director/Choreographer zarre party guests; most of whom are artists of keel despite the energetic philanderings of his Doreen Dunn* various kinds. There's a narcissistic actor, an aspir­ partner. At the moment Bodley is trying to secure ing musician, a noted writer, a family therapist, a the affections of of his latest would-be mistress by secretary and a parachuting instructor; all of whom "selling" her husband an expensive mink coat for a An American musical classic, Forum opened on come to life in this truly original ensemble comedy. fraction of its real worth, and the stammering Broadway in 1962 and immediately earned six Written by relative newcomer Craig Lucas (whose Tony Awards for its creators and star performer Crouch is saddled with the task of consumating the other plays include Reckless and the current Broad­ sale with a straight face. But, as luck would have (Zero Mostel). Since then, this outrageous musical way smash Prelude to a Kiss), "Blue Window is a farce was made into a major motion picture hit and it, the husband seizes the bargain coat as the perfect joy! A terrific new play ... "-Michael Feingold, gift for his own mistress-whereupon the compli­ has enjoyed numerous hysterical revivals world­ The Village Voice. T wide. Blending the hilarious illogicalities of Latin cations burgeon uproariously, with poor Crouch comedy and the zany nonsense of vaudeville, the caught in the middle. Suspicious wives, mistaken Note: Blue Window is a sophisticated work in­ identities, scantily clad girls clapped hurriedly into story of this musical concerns the connivings of a tended for mature audiences only. certain slave, Pseudolous (guest actor Ed Vaughan), closets and a barrage of rapid fire jokes all become to acheive his freedom. His young master, Hero, part of the riotous doings in this evening of " ... promises Pseudolous to grant him freedom if he non-stop laughter. The most uninhibited bellylaugh can obtain for Hero the beautiful girl, Philia, whom in town."-The London Sunday Express. • he has seen from a window. Deliciously unsavory characters, parents, neighbors and even strangers, are involved in the mounting confusion as the side­ splitting come<ty unwmcts. Feawnng the merry musical numbers "Comedy Tonight," ''Everybody Ought To Have A Maid," "Pretty Little Picture," and "Impossible," Forum has everything that's * All guest artists subject to change pending been making farces raucously comic for two thou­ final availability. sand years-mistaken identities, masquerades, lecherous old duffers chasing pretty girls and young lovers panting to get married. T La Mancha will parade student talent May 1-5 Otterbein College Theatre this rector Dennis Romer, who will tended to a slatternly tavern wench keeps on tilting at real and meta­ year offers Man ofLa Mancha as again be directing the spring musi­ whom he sees only as a fair maid phorical windmills, an invincible the spring musical spectacular cal. Romer last year directed the in distress; to a ruffianly innkeeper idealist Eventually the pathetic but which will be performed May 1 very popular and successful Evita. who to him is lord of a castle, to a noble-hearted creature returns through 5. In the two-hour parade of char­ coarsely impish barber who be­ home to regain his sanity and die This internationally-acclaimed acters on the stage and more than comes to him a courtly sorcerer. quietly in bed. musical play combines the madly 20 rousing songs, the show crystal­ The sober-faced Don pursues his Senior Colby Anne Paul will comic eccentricities of the immor­ lizes the thousand episode­ lunatic career with fanatical zeal, portray Aldonza, the raucous bar tal fictional figure Don Quixote crammed pages in which Cervantes completely oblivious of the mock­ maid who appears in the Don's de­ with a moving account of the ad­ exposed the absurdities of his day. ery he receives from those around luded eyes as the fair Dulcinea, a versities that beset his creator He created an inept hero who is him. maid of delicate beauty. In the end, Miguel de Cervantes. The show steeped in the exaggerated ro­ Despite setbacks, beatings, when Quixote is lying on his death opens with Cervantes in prison mances of knight-errant that had scorn and disillusions, the Don trying to save his manuscript from been the popular literature of previ­ (continued on next page) destruction. To do so, he acts out ous times. scenes from his tales of Don Quix­ Don Quixote is the errant knight ote beginning with the famous epi­ who believes the long dead age of sode of the knight tilting wind­ chivalry is still alive. With his mills. faithful servant Sancho Panza by Junior Jess Hanks fills the dual his side, Quixote goes forth in his role of Cervantes and Quixote and tarnished armor in quest of adven­ with an amazingly quick make-up ture, determined to redress all job transforms himself on stage be­ grievances,rightwrongsand fore the audience's eyes from the champion lost causes in the pursuit broken prisoner to the eccentric of honor and renown.