The Seagull
By Anton Chekhov
Adapted for the Stage by Janice L. Blixt
Translated from the Russian by Alexandra LaCombe
Directed by J. Briggs Cormier
Roy Bowen Theatre
October 27 – November 6
Romantic and artistic conflicts unfold beside a lake on a country estate where Constantine yearns for Nina’s love and for recognition as a playwright. Nina dismisses his infatuation, seeking instead Trigorin’s affection. Arkadina, Constantine's mother, would rather keep him out of sight to maintain the fading illusion of youth. Her lover Trigorin dallies with Nina, but she is little more than inspiration for his writing. Family and friends struggle to live with their unfulfilled ambitions when their passions fail to soar.
Artistic Director of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival Janice L. Blixt sets her adaptation of Chekhov's dark comedy about desire, ambition, creativity, and family in upstate New York.
DigiEYE
Curated by Janet Parrott
Film/Video Theater, Wexner Center for the Arts
November 9
An evening of live-action and animated moving-image shorts created by students from the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts, the Department of Dance, and the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design.
In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Jeanine Thompson
Thurber Theatre
November 10 – 19
Among the technological innovations of the late 19th Century is the electric vibrator, used by Dr. Givings to treat “hysteria” in his female (and occasionally male) patients. Meanwhile, his wife Catherine struggles with not only an unfulfilled marriage, but also depression over her inability to breastfeed their newborn daughter. Jealousy raises its head as Catherine becomes increasingly frustrated by her husband’s unwillingness to treat her, even as he helps patient after patient.
MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House; Eurydice; Passion Play; Dead Man's Cell Phone) explores Victorian ignorance of female desire, motherhood, and marriage in this stimulating comedy.
Sweat
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Tom Dugdale
Roy Bowen Theatre
March 2 – 11
Alternating between 2008 and 2000, the play depicts how Jason and Chris, with their entire lives ahead of them, find their hopes dashed by prison sentences; how Cynthia and Tracey’s childhood friendship disintegrates after competing for the same promotion; and how racial tensions can explode within a community after steel mill jobs are relocated from Reading, Pennsylvania to Mexico.
Lynn Nottage (Intimate Apparel; Ruined; By the Way, Meet Vera Start; Mlima's Tale) won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sweat and Ruined. She wrote this evocative tragedy after conducting extensive interviews with residents of Reading.
Violet
By Jeanine Tesori (music) and Brian Crawley (book and lyrics)
Based on the short story “The Ugliest Pilgrim” by Doris Betts
Directed by Mandy Fox
Musical Direction by Theo Jackson
Thurber Theatre
March 31 – April 8
Violet Karl, a small-town girl from North Carolina whose face was horribly disfigured in an accident, travels across country by Greyhound bus seeking a miracle from a Tulsa televangelist. Violet encounters love and learns that beauty is more than skin deep as she meets a couple of soldiers, a music hall singer, a hooker, her landlady, and others, on a Southern road trip to see the Preacher.
Violet by Tony-winning composer Jeanine Tessori (Caroline, or Change; Thoroughly Modern Millie; Shrek; Fun Home) and Brian Crawley (A Little Princess) features music ranging from bluegrass to gospel to the blues.
Moving-Image Production Senior Showcase
Film/Video Theater, Wexner Center for the Arts
April 13 – 14
Seniors in the moving-image production major create original short films as part of their required capstone course. This evening presents the work they produced as part of their culminating experience at Ohio State.