Ovation Theatre Company Announces 2005-2006 Season
Ovation Theatre Company is pleased to announce its eighth season, running October 2005 through July 2006, at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. In keeping with its mission to provide a diverse season, the Ovation staff has selected an eclectic slate of shows. “All of us at Ovation have a wide range of tastes in theatre, and so do our audiences,” says Artistic Director Joe Stollenwerk. “That’s clearly reflected in our season selection. Where else can you see a show about gay marriage followed by a children’s show, or Shakespeare followed by a thought-provoking comedy about abortion?”
Following the box office success of shows like Macbeth, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and its two-time Cincinnati Entertainment Award winner, Fallen Angels, Ovation is expanding its season. “This year, for the first time, we’ll be presenting a fifth mainstage production,” Managing Director Lisa Breithaupt reports. “We felt we were ready to take that step and produce another show. Additionally, we’ll be able to pay our actors and production staff higher stipends this season than ever before.”
Ovation is also continuing its commitment to education—with more daytime educational matinees for local schools through the Cincinnati Arts Association (Arts in Education) Program—and addressing social issues, including religion, race, and sexuality. Ovation will also be expanding its relationships with other non-profit agencies in an array of mutually beneficial partnerships, including donating a portion of ticket sales back to the non-profit agencies.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.cincinnatiarts.org, at the Aronoff Center and Music Hall ticket offices, or by calling 513-621-ARTS (2787). Tickets are $16 general admission, $14 seniors, and $12 students. Ovation also offers a “Pay What You Can” Preview on the Thursday night final dress rehearsal. For more information or to become involved with Ovation, please call 513-369-1544 or email info@cincinnatiovation.com.
Jeffrey
October 26 – October 29, 2005
By Paul Rudnick
Fifth Third Bank Theater
“Sex is too sacred to be treated this way. Sex wasn’t meant to be safe, or negotiated, or fatal.”
The season begins with a one-week return engagement of this romantic comedy, a huge hit for Ovation in March, 2004. Due to countless requests to bring the show back, Jeffrey will return to the Aronoff for a limited run of five performances. Most of the original cast will reprise their roles, including Ovation favorites Michael Monks and Joe Hornbaker and CEA winner Christine Dye. Laughter, romance, and pathos collide as Jeffrey is faced with the AIDS crisis of the early 1990s. Ovation will be partnering with several gay-and AIDS-oriented non-profit agencies on this production.
“Jeffrey is our bonus show—seeing if we can move up to five shows a season. The show was incredibly well received—most of the six shows were sold out, and we've had countless requests to bring it back, both from people who saw the show and those who missed it.”
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
November 25 – December 3, 2005
By Barbara Robinson
Jarson-Kaplan Theater
“Try to remember that that’s a baby. And, for tonight anyway, it’s the baby Jesus.”
A holiday tradition the last two years, Pageant returns to the Ovation stage for the third (and possibly final) time in 2005. Over the last two years, thousands of local children of all ages and their families, as well as Gen-Xers who read the book as children have enjoyed this funny and moving holiday tale. No one can believe it when the six Herdman children—who lie, steal, and smoke cigars—crash Sunday school and demand to play the leads in the annual Christmas Pageant. Their interpretation of the Christmas story brings some surprising results, new insight, laughter, and smoke in the women’s restroom. Ovation will offer four extra weekday matinees offered to local schools,
“We’re excited to bring this holiday tradition back for a third year. So many families have enjoyed sharing this heartwarming story in the past, and we’ve been able to introduce many young children to theatre for the first time.”
Kindertransport
February 3 – 12, 2006
By Diane Samuels
Fifth Third Bank Theater
“You should have hung on to me and never let me go.”
Ovation presents what is believed to be the local premiere of this poignant drama that tells two interrelated stories. In 1939, young Eva is sent from Germany to England through the Kindertransport program, and makes the adjustment to a new culture and family when her parents are trapped in Germany. Fifty years later, the now-middle-aged Evelyn must come to terms with her past, her adoptive English mother, and the daughter she never told her story to. Samuels’ theatrical script intertwines these stories, weaving past and present together in a unique way. Ovation will be partnering with the Jewish Community Center on this production.
“In addition to Pageant, we wanted to pick another show with educational appeal. Thom was open to anything, and Kindertransport was an ideal choice—a Cincinnati premiere (we think), educational appeal to 6-9 graders for whom the Holocaust is required curriculum, five great roles for women, and lots of potential for creativity in the production.”
Read more about the Kindertransport program at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Website.
The Little Foxes
April 28 – May 6, 2006
By Lillian Hellman
Fifth Third Bank Theater
“There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. Then, there are people who stand around and watch them eat it.”
This classic drama, laced with humor and wisdom, is often considered the greatest work by America’s most underrated playwright. Set in Alabama at the turn of the last century, the play delves into the seamy underbelly of the wealthy and ruthless Hubbard family. Led by Regina, one of the greatest female roles in all of theater, the Hubbards stop at nothing to increase their family fortune, exploiting poor southerners, fallen aristocrats, and even each other. Written in 1939, Foxes offers a still-relevant examination of family dynamics, racism, and Americans’ insatiable greed.
“This has been a favorite show of mine since I was in high school,” says director Joe Stollenwerk. “By the time I was a sophomore in college, I was sort of obsessed with Lillian Hellman. I took a history class on women in 17th - 19th century Europe, and somehow managed to get my professor to approve my doing my research paper on Hellman (wrong century, wrong continent...). Amazingly, this great script has only been produced once in Cincinnati since I moved back here ten years ago, and that was in 1998.”
As Bees in Honey Drown
July 21 – 29, 2006
By Douglas Carter Beane
Fifth Third Bank Theater
“Art is eternal.”
“Eternal isn’t as long as it used to
be.”
We close our season with this hit Off-Broadway hit comedy about the fleeting nature of fame, and what people will do to get into in the spotlight. Evan Wyler, the hottest new first-time novelist, is swept off his feet by Alexa Vere de Vere, who asks him to write the screenplay of her fabulous life. Evan is introduced to a whirlwind of celebrities and fancy living, until that world reveals itself to be merely a house of cards that has fallen in all around Evan, who is left to pick up the pieces. Other than a CCM workshop production, this fast-paced comedy is a Cincinnati premiere.
"Bees was actually the first show we chose—we picked it a full two years ahead of time. It was actually slated to be in our 2000-2001 season, but we couldn't get the rights. Gina came to interview for us, and while her background and interest is primary musical theater, "Bees" was one of the shows she pitched to us. Since Bees is a fast-paced comedy that plays almost like a musical without music, it seemed like a perfect fit.”