The Ohio State University Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts is pleased to announce its 2024 – 2025 theatre season.

August Wilson's Seven Guitars

Guest Directed by Terrence Spivey

October 23 – 31
Proscenium Theatre

August Wilson’s Seven Guitars is a dark, dramatic comedy set in the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in 1948. After being released from jail, Blues singer Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton is offered a record deal based on a recent recording became a surprising hit. While attempting to secure financial backing, Barton tries to persuade his girlfriend Vera to move to Chicago with him so he can escape the hardships of his past and pursue the American dream. Seven Guitars is part of Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle.

August Wilson is a Tony- (Fences) and two-time Pulitzer-Award-Winning (Fences; The Piano Lesson) American playwright. He is best known for his Pittsburgh Cycle, ten plays, each set in a different decade, that provides a glimpse into the 20^th Century Black American experience. His works explore racial discrimination, identity, migration, and race relations. Other plays include Jitney; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone).

Guest Director Terrence Spivey is the former artistic director of Cleveland’s Karamu House, the oldest African-American theatre in the U.S. In addition to directing at Karamu House, he has directed at Weathervane Playhouse, Borderline Theatre Festival, convergence-continuum, and Ensemble Theatre. He has taught and directed at Oberlin College, Kent State, and Cleveland State University. He wrote and directed An Ocean in My Bones about the Clotilda, the last known slave ship.

The Moors

By Jen Silverman
Directed by Tom Dugdale

November 6 – 15
Blackbox Theatre

Two unhappy Branwell sisters live in an isolated home in the wilderness with their maid and family dog. A young woman arrives at their doorstep expecting to become the governess of Mr. Branwell’s child. Both sisters try to manipulate the situation to their advantage against the backdrop of the gloomy and foggy moors. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility that satirizes the gothic themes found in the works by the Brontë sisters.

Jen Silverman is an award-winning playwright, TV writer, and novelist. The department has previously produced Bonnets: (How Ladies of Good Breeding Are Induced to Murder) in 2019. In 2020, the department presented a Zoom performance of Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties. Silverman also wrote for Netflix’s Tales of the City (2019 miniseries).

The Dog Project

Created by Mandy Fox and the Graduate Acting Class of 2025 in partnership with Canine Companions, Pet Partners of Central Ohio, and Ohio Prison Dog Coalition

February 26 – March 7
Blackbox Theatre

As part of the graduate acting curriculum, the Graduate Acting Class of 2025 will present a new, original collaborative work based on their outreach activities in 2024. Professor Mandy Fox and the students worked with three community partners: Canine Companions, which provides service dogs to adults, children and veterans with disabilities and facility dogs to professionals working in healthcare, criminal justice and educational settings; Pet Partners of Central Ohio, which envisions a future filled with happier, healthier communities through greater access to meaningful interactions with therapy dogs and other therapy animals; and the Ohio Prison Dog Coalition, which provides a connection among all of the active prison dog training programs in Ohio. The production inspired by student outreach and engagement with these community groups, marks the culmination of their three years of study towards the Master of Fine Arts in Theatre with an emphasis in the creation of new theatre.

Orlando

Written by Virginia Woolf
Adapted by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Claudia René Wier

April 2 – 10
Proscenium Theatre

Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, Orlando is the story of a young nobleman in love with Queen Elizabeth I. Orlando is beset by wanderlust as life at court isn’t enough to keep his attention. After encountering a gypsy, he sleeps for seven days and awakes as a woman. Orlando’s travels take her around the world and across the centuries from the Elizabethan age to the 20^th Century. Ruhl’s adaptation of Woolf’s famous novel presents a fantastical world where the lead character moves through time and dances between genders while questing for love, power, and fulfillment.

MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl is a multiple-award winning playwright, poet and professor. The department has previously produced In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) in 2021 and Eurydice in 2011. Other plays include The Clean House and Dead Man’s Cell Phone. She is a professor in the practice of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.