CCM Celebrates the Music of the Bard at Knox Presbyterian Church on Saturday, April 23

CCM’s Departments of Choral Studies and Dramatic Performance honor the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare‘s passing (April 23, 1616) with a special concert honoring the Music of the Bard on Saturday, April 23, 2016.

Under the music direction of Earl Rivers and stage direction of D’Arcy Smith, the Music of the Bard is a 75-minute, one-act presentation of Shakespeare’s texts through choral music, scenes, monologues and sonnets.

This concert features the 30-voice Chamber Choir, CCM’s premiere choral ensemble, along with nine student actors. Featured students include conductors Daniel Blosser and Matthew Swanson, and actors Owen Alderson, Sydney Ashe, Mafer Del Real, James Egbert, Annie Grove, Laura McCarthy, Meg Olson, Josh Reiter and Graham Rogers.

The program showcases texts from 18 Shakespeare plays and sonnets, highlighted with the premieres of three newly commissioned choral works by composers Judith Bingham, Dominick DiOrio and Jake Runestad. The music encompasses a range of styles from jazz arrangements by legendary jazz pianist George Shearing to modern a cappella classics, enhanced with violin, flute, clarinet, vibraphone, piano, and string bass as accompanying and obbligato instruments.

With this performance, CCM’s Department of Choral Studies completes The Shakespeare Quadricentennial, a two-year commemoration of the playwright’s birth and death through choral music. The celebration commenced on Shakespeare’s 450th birthday on April 23, 2014.

The Shakespeare Quadricentennial has produced four all-Shakespeare programs since Sept. 21, 2014, which have featured CCM’s Chamber Choir and Chorale, the UC Men’s and Women’s Choruses, the Cincinnati Children’s Choir and local guest choirs.

The Shakespeare Quadricentennial has fostered the commissioning of new works on Shakespeare texts by Dan Forrest (Cincinnati Children’s Choir), Daniel Elder (UC Men’s and Women’s Choruses), as well as those performed on April 23, 2016 by Judith Bingham, Dominick DiOrio and Jake Runestad.

Performance Time
7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 23

Location
Knox Presbyterian Church
Michigan and Observatory Avenues,
Cincinnati, OH 45208

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for non-UC students and FREE for UC students with valid ID.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online now through our e-Box Office!

Visit ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice for CCM Box Office hours and location.

Parking and Directions
Knox Church is located on the corner of Observatory and Michigan, at 3400 Michigan Avenue, in the heart of Hyde Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. Please refer to the interactive map found online at www.knox.org/directions for details on Knox’s location and for directions to Knox Church.

Parking at Knox can be a bit challenging. The best advice is to arrive a little early for the event you are attending.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Community Partner: ArtsWave
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Story by Curt Whitacre

Introducing the 2016 TRANSMIGRATION Festival’s New Works

Running March 10-12, this year’s TRANSMIGRATION festival will feature six original dramas: A Brief Eternity, Colony Collapse Disorder, The Elephant in the Room, Vices, Elliot Popkin and The Home.

Audience members will have the opportunity to customize their theater-going experience by choosing to watch up to four different productions, which are performed simultaneously and in non-traditional spaces throughout CCM’s Corbett Center for the Performing Arts.

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A Brief Eternity, TRANSMIGRATION 2016.

A BRIEF ETERNITY
History repeats itself. History repeats. History.
Highly dangerous and experimental technology has provided us (and you) the opportunity of a lifetime: to visit the past, future and perhaps even the alternate present. From the comfort of our transporter you’ll be able to safely observe dinosaurs, historical events happening in the flesh and perhaps even your own birth. Why wonder, when you can see it with your own eyes? You’re sure to lose your senses and you just might find yourself along the way. Warning: possible side effects include dizziness, time radiation and general incidents. Must be at least 40 inches tall to ride.
Featuring: Ethan Finder, Alison Sluiter, Madeleine Page-Schmit, Isaac Hickox-Young, Rupert Spraul, Ryan Garrett, Michaela Tropeano, Colleen Ladrick
Location: Corbett Center 4735

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Colony Collapse Disorder, TRANSMIGRATION 2016.

COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER
Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Bees are an intrinsic and beautiful part of our environment. However, these bees are not immune to danger. Spores from a parasitic fungus called cordyceps may infiltrate their bodies, and their minds. It’s infected brain directs the bee back to the hive to spread the infection further. Those afflicted, if they’re discovered by the worker bees, are quickly taken and dumped far away from the hive. It may seem extreme, but if they are unable to stop the infected bee, the hive may collapse.
Featuring: Sarah Durham, Jacqueline Daaleman, Landon Hawkins, James Egbert, Clare Combest, Sydney Ashe, Hannah Kornfeld, Bartley Booz, and Devan Pruitt.
Location: Corbett Center 4735

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The Elephant in the Room, TRANSMIGRATION 2016.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
It’s a play about an elephant ghost.
A young, bright-eyed actor trying to make it in the big city—Milwaukee is the big city—has booked the dream job of a part on long-running local children’s show, Oofa Moobooz. Entering the jungle-themed studio with nervous excitement, he joins an endearing cast of local stars, all with their own funny quirks… and secrets.
Featuring: Colin Edgar, Andrew Iannacci, Spencer Lackey, Katie McDonald, Andrew Ramsey, Joshua Reiter, Graham Rogers, Sara Haverty
Location: Corbett Center 3705

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Vices, TRANSMIGRATION 2016.

VICES
The freaks come out at night.
Cocaine. Neon. Drag. Rum. A dirty women’s bathroom and a crime gone wrong. Welcome to 1990 South Beach, Miami, where the days are full of sun and sand, and the nights are full of energy and excess. Another day, another deal, but what happens when “just another night out” could be your last?
Featuring: Rachel Baumgarten, Arielle de Versterre, Emily Walton, Julia Netzer, Carissa Cardy, Mafer Del Real, Derek Kastner, Jabari Carter
Location: Corbett Center 3705

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Elliot Popkin, TRANSMIGRATION 2016.

ELLIOT POPKIN
The best friends I never had
An 8-year-old boy has some classmates over for a play date. When it comes to third graders, you never know what you’re gonna get.
Featuring: Alice Skok, Keisha Kemper, Katie Langham, Olivia Passafiume, Nicholas Heffelfinger, Meg Olson, Gabriella DiVincenzo
Location: Corbett Center 4755

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The Home, TRANSMIGRATION 2016.

THE HOME
Who wants it more?
When Tod and Karen Fazzari learn of their grandfather’s sudden death, they each see a promising opportunity to change their fate. But conflict arises when the siblings realize they aren’t alone in their endeavors. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, the Fazzari kids have a difficult choice to make. Sure, family is great, but diamonds are forever.
Featuring: Lauren Carter, Laura McCarthy, Kenzie Clark, Owen Alderson, Carter LaCava, and Sydney Martin, Annie Grove
Location: Corbett Center 4755

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Performance Times

• 7 p.m. Thursday, March 10
• 7 p.m. Friday, March 11
• 7 p.m. Saturday, March 12

Location
Various locations around CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Reserving Tickets
Admission to CCM’s TRANSMIGRATION Festival is free, but reservations are required. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.

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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Community Partner: ArtsWave

Drama Studio Series Sponsors: Neil Artman & Margaret Straub

CCM Drama Presents Bittersweet Production of Eugene O’Neill’s Comedy ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ Feb. 10-14

CCM resumes its Mainstage Series with Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness!: A Comedy of Recollection in Three Acts, playing Feb. 11-14 with a special preview performance on Wednesday, Feb. 10. The show also bids a fond farewell to its director, and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Graduate Studies, R. Terrell Finney as he retires from fulltime status at CCM.

The words “Eugene O’Neill” and “comedy” are rarely used in the same sentence unless that sentence is “Eugene O’Neill does NOT write comedy.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Long Day’s Journey into Night and Mourning Becomes Electra is primarily known for his semi-autobiographical plays about characters who struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into despair and disillusionment. Ah, Wilderness! is not one of those plays.

Set in an idyllic Connecticut town (presumably New London, O’Neill’s hometown) on the Fourth of July weekend of 1906, the play focuses on the Miller family and their 16-year-old son Richard, whose coming of age story offers a tender portrait of small town family values, teenage growing pains, and young love.

“It’s really quite the opposite of a typical O’Neill family story,” says director R. Terrell Finney. “The subtitle of the play is ‘A Comedy of Recollection,’ so my take on it is this is the family unit that O’Neill wishes he had.”

Even though it’s a comedy, the show still has plenty of the classic O’Neill depth-of-character for which he is known, “If it were written by a playwright of lesser skill, it could verge on the sentimental, but [O’Neill] brings elements that his other plays deal with: alcoholism, squandered love, intolerance and political strife. So, although it is a very loving and romantic portrait of a family, it has some depth as well,” explains Finney.

CCM’s production will be very true to the original look and feel of the play as written. “We’ve tried to create a world that’s going to let us live in 1906, so everything on stage is very period-specific,” says Finney. For example, it was important to obtain the exact music requested by O’Neill for various parts of the play, “I have to thank Dr. bruce mcclung from the Department of Musicology; he really helped us locate the music and source material so we could stay true to the original script,” Finney adds.

Ah! Wilderness!’s tender feel makes it a fitting farewell for it’s director, R. Terrell Finney. Finney’s tenure as a fulltime faculty member will come to an end this semester after 33 years of service as a member of the Department of Drama and head of CCM’s Division of Opera, Musical Theatre, Dramatic Arts and Arts Administration (now known as the Division of Theatre Arts, Production and Arts Administration, or TAPAA). Finney has most recently served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Graduate Studies at CCM.

R. Terrell Finney directs this beloved classic by Eugene O’Neill.

Over his time at CCM, Finney’s approach to directing has changed, he says, for the better, “I’d like to think I’m more relaxed than when I started! Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches in the theater. I’ve also really come to respect and trust actor instinct. If a director can open a door to the creativity the actor can bring, he’s done his job.”

Finney says directing Ah Wilderness! has reinvigorated his love for the creative process and, even though he’s entering a much-deserved retirement, he hopes to stay involved in the future, “I’ve had a ball directing this show. It’s been six years since I’ve directed and it’s been so liberating. It’s amazing to be involved in the creative process, so if you had asked me, without having done this show, what I wanted to do in retirement I may have just said, ‘Oh, tend my garden,’ but now I would hope that I can continue to direct. I’m not quite ready to be put out to pasture!”

The Company

• Jonah Sorscher as Tommy Miller
• Olivia Passafiume as Mildred Miller
• Owen Alderson as Arthur Miller
• Katie Langham as Essie Miller
• Rachel Baumgarten as Lily Miller
• Devan Pruitt as Nat Miller
• Andrew Iannacci as Sid Davis
• Andrew Huyler Ramsey as Richard Miller
• Spencer Lackey as David McComber
• Mickey Tropeano as Norah
• Isaac Hickox-Young as Went Selby
• Annie Grove as Belle
• James Egbert as Bartender
• Ryan Garrett as Salesman
• Emily Walton as Muriel McComber

The Creative Team

• R. Terrell Finney, director
• Thomas C. Umfrid and Whitney Glover, scenic designers
• Adam Ditzel, lighting designer
• Mathew D. Birchmeier, sound designer
• Maria Lenn, costume designer
• Missy White, wig & make-up designer
• k. Jenny Jones, fight choreographer
• Scott Slucher, stage manager

Performance Times

• 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10 (preview)
• 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11
• 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12
• 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13
• 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14

Location
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to Ah, Wilderness! are $27-31 for adults, $17-20 for non-UC students and $15-18 UC students with a valid ID. Tickets to the Feb. 10 preview performance are just $15.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/mainstage/ah-wilderness.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.

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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s

Community Partner: ArtsWave

Ah, Wilderness!: A Comedy of Recollection in Three Acts is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

CCM Slideshows: Pentecost

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CCM’s Mainstage Series opens this week with a powerful production of David Edgar’s Pentecost.

Declared an “important opportunity to be ‘taken in’ by theater” by Rick Pender in his CityBeat preview story, Pentecost details the discovery of a painting stunningly similar to Giotto di Bondone’s The Lamentation in an abandoned church in Eastern Europe. If proven to pre-date the master’s work, the fresco will revolutionize Western Art.

A dramatic power struggle ensues, as representatives from the worlds of art history, religion and politics stake their claims for the ultimate prize. The unexpected arrival of 12 asylum seekers sets events spiraling toward an explosive climax. Richard E. Hess directs.

Described by the Daily Telegraph as “funny, frightening and deeply moving,” this powerful play by the Tony Award-winning adapter of Nicholas Nickleby and author of numerous plays won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play of 1995. This production contains mature subject matter.

Special Seating Available
Witness Pentecost up close and personal in the best seats in the house. Ticket holders may seat themselves in any black on-stage seat unclaimed by a program for any performance of Pentecost. Access to on-stage seating can be found at the ends of aisles 1 and 5.

Take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to intimately experience David Edgar’s “funny, frightening and deeply moving” masterpiece.

Performance Times

• 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1
• 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2
• 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3
• 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4

Location
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to Pentecost are $27-31 for adults, $17-20 for non-UC students and $15-18 UC students with a valid ID.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/mainstage/pentecost.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s

Community Partner: ArtsWave

CCM Announces 2015-16 Studio Series of Opera, Musical Theatre, Drama & Dance

All-time favorites and daring new works receive equal billing during CCM’s 2015-16 Studio Series. This year’s 12-part series of performing and media arts events features an eclectic mix of opera, musical theatre, drama and dance productions, all featuring CCM’s acclaimed “stars-of-tomorrow.”

Season highlights include an irreverent comedy co-produced with Know Theatre of Cincinnati, a world-premiere produced in partnership with Cincinnati Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and two film collaborations with CCM’s Division of Electronic Media.

This year’s lineup also includes six free productions held in CCM’s intimate and versatile “black box” space, the Cohen Family Studio Theater, which provides audiences with an unparalleled “up-close-and-personal” performing arts experience.

CCM’s Studio Series runs from Oct. 8, 2015, through April 23, 2016. Please see below for full production and ticketing details.

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CCM 2015-16 STUDIO SERIES
Opera, Musical Theatre, Drama and Dance

BIG RIVER: THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Music and lyrics by Roger Miller
Book by William Hauptmann
Vince DeGeorge, director
Steve Goers, musical director
Patti James, choreographer

Meet Mark Twain’s Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer in an irrepressible adaptation of a timeless novel. With a foot-stompin’ country score by Roger Miller, Big River brings to life all the favorite characters from the original – Widow Douglas, the King and Duke, Pap Finn, Mary Jane Wilkes and, of course, the Royal Nonesuch. A dazzling, heartwarming slice of Americana and the crowning achievement of one of country music’s most celebrated careers, Big River is a Tony-Award winning musical for all ages.

Performance Dates: Oct. 8 – 10, 2015
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Oct. 5. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation
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THE HUNCHBACK OF SEVILLE
A co-production between Know Theatre of Cincinnati and CCM’s Division of Theatre Arts, Production and Arts Administration
Written by Charise Castro Smith
Brant Russell, director

An absurdist play amped to the max, The Hunchback of Seville delves into the lives of the monarchy and citizens of 15th-century Spain: the infamous Queen Isabella, the spoiled Infanta Juana (the future Queen of Spain), and the Muslim Talib who is desperately attempting to avoid persecution at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. All of this revolves around Maxima, a mathematical genius and adopted royal family member who is locked away in a tower and pines for Talib’s love. Smith’s play uses this dark, comedic plot both for laughs and as a serious means to examine sanitized history and human rights injustices both in Spain and the new world that Columbus “discovered.” This exciting collaboration brings CCM drama students to Know Theatre’s stage for a history lesson you won’t get in college!

Performance Dates: Oct. 9 – 24, 2015
Location: Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Admission: Tickets available through the Know Theatre Box Office by calling 513-300-5669 or online at http://knowtheatre.com.

Drama Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman & Margaret Straub

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SHALIMAR THE CLOWN
A collaboration between CCM Opera, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Co-artistic directors Robin Guarino and Marcus Küchle
Music by Jack Perla
Libretto by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by James Robinson

Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CCM Opera and Cincinnati Opera present a rare behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an original work. An opera based on the novel of the same name by Salman Rushdie, Shalimar the Clown revolves around a child named India who loses her father—a United States diplomat to India’s namesake country—to assassination at the hands of his former chauffeur Shalimar. The reasons that led the former clown to murder India’s father tell of the fragility of human life and love, detailing how complicated and non-simplistic our stories are, how large the consequences of our actions can loom, and how great joys can turn into unbearable sadness and senseless tragedy.

Performance Date: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015
Location: TBA
Admission: For ticket details and location for the public reading of Shalimar the Clown, please contact the Cincinnati Opera box office at 513-241-2742.

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WILLIAM BOLCOM: CABARET SONGS
Lydia Brown, music director and piano
Robin Guarino and Marcus Shields, stage directors

William Bolcom’s career is storied: famed pianist, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Ragtime revivalist and acclaimed professor at the University of Michigan. Arnold Weinstein, a self-proclaimed “theatre poet,” won acclaim as a lyricist for famed musicals such as Metamorphoses. Brought together by Darius Milhaud, the duo had a prolific partnership from 1964 until Weinstein’s death in 2005. Their collaborations included famed operas such as McTeague, A Wedding and others. Among these works were four sets of cabaret songs written between the 1970s and 1990s. CCM Opera is proud to present the first complete performance of all 24 of these cabaret songs.

Performance Dates: Oct. 23 – 25, 2015
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Oct. 19. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

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SECOND ANNUAL CCM 48-HOUR FILM FESTIVAL
Co-produced with CCM’s Division of Electronic Media
Richard E. Hess and John Owens, producers

You are invited to a celebration of original film work by CCM students. After random team placement, student authors, actors, directors, editors and composers have 48 hours to create finished original short films. The general public is invited to a screening of these works at the end of the 48-hour project time! Six teams, six short films, plus six guest artists from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya will surprise and delight.

Screening Time: 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015
Location: MainStreet Cinema, UC’s Tangeman University Center
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are not required.

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IL SIGNOR BRUSCHINO
Music by Giachino Rossini
Libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa
Frances Rabalais, director

A brilliant one-act operatic farce based upon the play Le fils par hasard, ou ruse et folie by Alissan de Chazet and E.T.M. Ourry, Il Signor Bruschino features the traditional hallmarks of opera buffa: mistaken identity, star-crossed lovers, betrothed confusion, and an ending that ties up all the loose ends. Relax your mind and enjoy a playful romp in a French castle!

Performance Dates: Feb. 19 – 21, 2016
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Feb. 15. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

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DANCE STUDENT CHOREOGRAPHER’S SHOWCASE
Andre Megerdichian, director

Come experience the next generation of emerging choreographers as CCM dance majors take the stage with exciting and diverse new works.

Performance Dates: March 3 – 5, 2016
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Feb. 29. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

The Dance Department gratefully acknowledges the support of the Corbett Endowment at CCM.
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TRANSMIGRATION 2016
A Festival of Student-Created New Works
Richard E. Hess, coordinator
Brant Russell, producer

TRANSMIGRATION, so named for “the movement from one place to another” or “the transition from one state of being to another,” is a festival of new works created by the acting students in CCM Drama. Six teams of actors craft and perform five original 30-minute shows. Performed simultaneously in different locations throughout CCM Village, TRANSMIGRATION will allow the audience to sample four different new works of their choosing in one spectacular evening. “Thanks to the drama program at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music,” observed CityBeat’s Rick Pender, “theater fans were offered a jolt of onstage vitality.”

Performance Dates: March 10 – 12, 2016
Location: Various locations throughout CCM Village, including Corbett Center rooms 3705, 4735 and 4755
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, March 7. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Drama Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman & Margaret Straub

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MARIA STUARDA
CCM’s Opera d’Arte Undergraduate Opera Series
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by Giuseppe Bardari
Brett Scott, music director and conductor
Amy Johnson, Stage Director
Kenneth Shaw, Co-producer

One of the hallmarks of bel canto opera, Maria Stuarda is a story of intrigue, confrontation and tragedy loosely based upon the lives of Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I.

Performance Dates: March 11 – 13, 2016
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, March 7. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

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BINARY
Co-produced with CCM’s Division of Electronic Media
Screenplay by Owen Alderson
Richard E. Hess and John Owens, producers

Set in a Massachusetts private boarding school, Binary is a coming of age story following one student’s journey to embrace a new identity in the face of peer adversity. Winner of the first-ever CCM screen-writing contest, this original short film with screenplay by CCM Drama major Owen Alderson will be jointly produced by the CCM E-Media and Drama Departments.

Screening Time: 7 p.m. Saturday, April 2, 2016
Location: MainStreet Cinema, UC’s Tangeman University Center
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are not required.

The April 2 screening of Binary has been canceled. A rescheduled screening date will be announced soon.

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LYSISTRATA JONES
Lyrics and Music by Lewis Flinn
Book by Douglas Carter Beane
Emma Griffin, director
Danny White, musical director
Patti James, choreographer

The Athens University basketball team hasn’t won a game in 30 years. But when spunky transfer student Lysistrata Jones dares the squad’s fed-up girlfriends to stop “giving it up” to their boyfriends until they win a game, their legendary losing streak could finally come to an end. Adapted from Lysistrata, Aristophanes’ classic Greek comedy, Lysistrata Jones takes student activism to a whole new level and celebrates the journey of discovering and embracing your true self.

Performance Dates: April 7 – 9, 2016
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, April 4. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

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VERY DUMB KIDS
(formerly THE GREAT MAJORITY)
Written by Gracie Gardner
Brant Russell, director

Join us for a staged reading of an in-progress play by rising New York star Gracie Gardner. Sarah Nehal was murdered while working as a correspondent in New Delhi while her college friends were at home in the U.S. streaming TV on the internet and peddling their esoteric skill sets. One year after her funeral, Sarah’s friends meet for their annual Fourth of July reunion. The play explores entitlement and how its effects are visited upon the disenfranchised as well as the privileged. It’s also about how we can live responsibly in an irresponsible universe. The Great Majority is the inaugural production of CCM Drama’s new play-commissioning initiative: plays that speak to the unique experience of being young in America; plays that are written for and about our students; plays that will go on to be produced by educational institutions and professional theatre companies all over the country; plays that will involve a new generation of artists and audiences… and you will be able to say you were there when it all started.

Performance Dates: April 21 – 23, 2016
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, April 18. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Drama Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman and Margaret Straub

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Reserving Tickets
All Studio Series performances held in CCM’s Cohen Family Studio Theater are free and open to the general public, but reservations are required. Reservations can be made the Monday before each show by visiting the CCM Box Office in person or calling 513-556-4183. Limit two tickets per order.

For additional information on reserving tickets for CCM’s Studio Series, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/did-you-know/how-to-studio-series.

Some off-campus Studio Series productions require paid admission or reservations through a partner organization’s box office. Please refer to individual production listings for more information.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.

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University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
2015-16 Studio Series: Opera, Musical Theatre, Drama and Dance

FALL 2015 BIG RIVER: THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN Performance Times: 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9 2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10 Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater THE HUNCHBACK OF SEVILLE Performance Times: 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 Location: Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 OPERA FUSION: NEW WORKS – SHALIMAR THE CLOWN Performance Date: Saturday, Oct. 17 Location: To Be Announced WILLIAM BOLCOM: CABARET SONGS Performance Time: 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25 Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater CCM’S 48-HOUR FILM FESTIVAL Screening Time: 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8 Location: MainStreet Cinema, Tangeman University Center

SPRING 2016 IL SIGNOR BRUSCHINO Performance Times: 8 p.m. Friday, February 19 8 p.m. Saturday, February 20 2 p.m. Sunday, February 21 Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater DANCE STUDENT CHOREOGRAPHER SHOWCASE Performance Times: 8 p.m. Thursday, March 3 8 p.m. Friday, March 4 2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, March 5 Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater TRANSMIGRATION 2016 Performance Times: 7 p.m. Thursday, March 10 7 p.m. Friday, March 11 2 & 7 p.m. Saturday, March 12 Location: Corbett Center room 3705, 4735 & 4755 MARIA STUARDA Performance Times: 8 p.m. Friday, March 11 8 p.m. Saturday, March 12 2 p.m. Sunday, March 13 Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater  BINARY Screening Time: 7 p.m. Saturday, April 2 Location: MainStreet Cinema, Tangeman University Center LYSISTRATA JONES Performance Times: 8 p.m. Thursday, April 7 8 p.m. Friday, April 8 2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, April 9 Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater VERY DUMB KIDS (formerly THE GREAT MAJORITY) Performance Times: 8 p.m. Thursday, April 21 8 p.m. Friday, April 22 2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, April 23 Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater

CCM Season Presenting Sponsor & Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Drama Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman and Margaret Straub

A preeminent institution for the performing and media arts, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is the largest single source of performing arts presentations in the state of Ohio.

All event dates and programs are subject to change. For a complete calendar of events, please visit us online at ccm.uc.edu.

 

CCM Drama and E-Media Announce New Film Collaboration

We are thrilled to announce that CCM’s Department of Drama and Division of Electronic Media have launched a new collaborative project, which will bring original scripted films to CCM’s performance season beginning next spring!

Utilizing the expertise and resources of both programs, students will receive hands-on experience in the development of a new film by serving as screenwriters, actors, directors, cinematographers and film editors, as well as location scouts, prop masters, costume designers and more.

“This exciting new film project will allow CCM students to collaborate across departments in the creation of a new and original film,” explains CCM’s A.B., Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Chair of Dramatic Performance Richard Hess. “Our students have artistic voices and artistic visions that they need to practice articulating. What a fantastic opportunity.”

Scripts for this project’s inaugural film were solicited from students in January and February of 2015, with submissions coming from not only CCM Drama and E-Media students, but also from students in McMicken College and UC Clermont.

CCM Drama student Owen Alderson.

This year’s winning submission – entitled Binary – was written by sophomore drama major Owen Alderson.

A coming of age tale set in a private boarding school in Massachusetts, Binary is the story of a character named Emmett as he begins to transition to his true self, Julia.

Binary will be cast, rehearsed and filmed in the fall of 2015. The film will be edited in the spring of 2016 and will have a special showing in April of 2016 at UC’s MainStreet Cinema.

Stay tuned to The Village News for more information on Binary‘s production.

CCM Drama Students Present New Works in TRANSMIGRATION Festival This Week

CCM’s Drama students flex their writing, editing, designing and directing muscles to produce the 2015 TRANSMIGRATION Festival of Student-Created New Works taking place March 11-13 in non-traditional performances spaces throughout CCM Village. Admission is free, but reservations are required.

Brant Russell, Assistant Professor of Drama and producer of this year’s TRANSMIGRATION Festival describes how the students begin their projects. “The groups are chosen at random at the beginning of each school year. The only thing we do is make sure that there is representation from each grade level in every group.”

The students are given freedom to explore what they want to do for their productions, and the instructors typically don’t see the pieces until about a week before opening night.

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Because of the intense schedule of productions in the fall, the student groups meet after UC’s winter break and come up with concepts. Senior AC Horton says that this year her group “sat down and created a list of things we want to have in the play or the process: a fantastical element, poetic language, to begin the production by moving and not sitting down. On the don’t-wants list we had things like domestic violence and drugs. We like to establish values at the top of the process.” The final idea “shows up one day at rehearsal,” she says, describing the process as very organic.

“Each group has a different way they like to work. Figuring out the needs of each group is the most difficult part, but it’s also the best part. We rehearse every day by doing a song with choreography. We pull open the mirrors and sing and do cartwheels. It’s our own process,” laughs Horton.

These unique methods have helped all of the students grow as artists. Junior Colleen Ladrick says, “you learn where you’re needed. I saw a need and was able to bring that to a collaborative situation… and it lifted a pressure off of the other people in my group.” This year Ladrick took on a lot of the scripting; something she had never considered doing previously. “You discover your tack as a result of filling a necessity,” adds Russell.

Horton recalls filling the role of TRANSMIGRATION electrician. “You have 85 extension cords, two power strips and a half an hour to set up, perform and tear down. It’s my goal to short out a TRANSMIGRATION classroom,” she jokes.

Ladrick agrees that “the process never stops. The challenges keep happening and you have to keep improvising. There’s never enough time to get comfortable. That’s what makes it so fun. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Russell feels that TRANSMIGRATION is an important activity for CCM drama students. “It would be very irresponsible [for this program] to turn out students who did not know how to produce their own work. We want to create actors who are technically proficient and also have something to say. Transmigration empowers them.”

After all of the insanity and fun surrounding TRANSMIGRATION has come to a close, each of the participants will be required to turn in a paper. This is still school, after all.

TRANSMIGRATION 2015 will feature the original works Coulter Cliffs Inn, Neutral and Non-Partisan, [cult]ured, A Fool’s Paradise, Seven Feet Under and Mandatory Fun. Audience members will have the opportunity to customize their evening of theater experiences by choosing to watch as many as four different productions, which are performed simultaneously in non-traditional spaces throughout CCM’s Corbett Center for the Performing Arts.

Performance Times

• 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 11
• 7 p.m. Thursday, March 12
• 7 p.m. Friday, March 13

Locations
Various locations throughout CCM Village, including:

• Room 3705, Corbett Center for the Performing Arts
• Room 4735, Corbett Center for the Performing Arts
• Room 4755, Corbett Center for the Performing Arts

Festival Schedule

7 p.m.

• Coulter Cliffs Inn, Room 4755
• Seven Feet Under, Room 4735
• Neutral and Nonpartisan, Room 3705

7:45 p.m.

• Coulter Cliffs Inn, Room 4755
• cult[ured], Room 4735
• Mandatory Fun, Room 3705

  8:30 p.m.

• A Fool’s Paradise, Room 4755
• cult[ured], Room 4735
• Neutral and Nonpartisan, Room 3705

 9:15 p.m.

• A Fool’s Paradise, Room 4755
• Seven Feet Under, Room 4735
• Mandatory Fun, Room 3705

Reserving Tickets
Admission to TRANSMIGRATION is free, but reservations are required. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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TRANSMIGRATION 2015 PRODUCTION SYNOPSES AND CAST LISTS

Coulter Cliffs Inn
There are no secrets that time does not reveal.

Established in 1852 by the Jospeh L. Coulter family, the Coulter Cliffs In has been revered for its antique charm and timeless atmosphere. Nestled in the misty cliffs of Northern Maine, the Coulter Cliffs Inn has attracted a diverse array of curious travelers for generations. Let us take you back to a simpler time with our cozy rooms, full bar and nighttime entertainment. But be advised, once you step foot into your new serene home, you may never want to leave.

Cast: Trey Wright, Alison Sluiter, Colin Edgar, Clare Combest, Annie Grove, Kenzie Clark and Rupert Spraul
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Neutral and Non-Partisan
Capture their minds, and hearts and souls will follow.

Operation [BLANK] has been compromised. Indoctrination tactics, regarding GREY PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS (PSYOP), implemented to “Leave it to Beaver” have been breached. Target [BLANK] detected an abnormality resulting in an imminent threat of exposure. Joint staffer, [BLANK], has declined to give a statement in order to maintain plausible deniability for the US government. Sector [BLANK] running operation [BLANK] sanctioned “the six” to fabricate authenticity in order to enhance productivity to the effect of [BLANK], which would dissolve variables concerning gross domestic product and quality of life. It is advised, and therefore essential, to dispose all records of incrimination and proceed by code [BLANK].

Cast: Connor Lawrence, Rachel Baumgarten, Laura McCarthy, Ryan Garrett, Katie McDonald, Lauren Carter and Meg Olson
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[cult]ured
Fresh yogurt. Fresh ideas.

An unsuspecting reporter serendipitously stumbles upon a mystical frozen yogurt stand in rural Oregon. The charming characters that populate the stand catalyze a spritiual journey and raise more questions than expected. What does it mean to be part of a community? The reporter is forced to confrontsocial norms and societal constraints, and is left forever wondering: Are we all homogenized, or are we… cultured?

Cast: Anna Stapleton, Carli Rhoades, Keisha Kemper, Alice Skok, Sydney Ashe, Christian Thomason, Landon Hawkins, Mafer Del Real and Andrew Ramsey
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A Fool’s Paradise
Death was never more full of life.

When the Boca Raton Community Theatre Players notice their subscriptions taking a drastic drop, Peaches Montgomery and her cast of actors ban together to mount one of Shakespeare’s classic tales, directed at her least subscribed audience – urban youth.

Cast: Spencer House, Fabiola Rodriguez, Devan Pruitt, Spencer Lackey, Katie Langham, Isaac Hickox-Young and Olivia Passfiume
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Seven Feet Under
How low would you go before you’re buried alive?

This twisted depression-era fairy tale follows an eccentric family of seven miners as they pursue a legendary treasure for their mistress. In a story of adventure, obsession and greed, they must figure out how low they are willing to go to attain a better life.

Cast: Arielle De Versterre, Bartley Booz, Emily Walton, Owen Alderson, Nicholas Heffelfinger, Eliza Lore and Joshua Reiter
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Mandatory Fun
A good time is required.

In a futuristic dystopia where robots hold all the cards, six humans are forced to participate in “Mandatory Fun.” This gameshow pits contestants against each other to provide entertainment for humans and robots alike. Integrity, Alliances and Plot Structure will be tested – but who will take home The Grand Prize?

Cast: AC Horton, Colleen Ladrick, Andrew Iannacci, Julia Netzer, Michaela, Tropeano, James Egbert and Carissa Cardy

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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Drama Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman and Margaret Straub

Community Partner: ArtsWave

CCM Slideshows: The Heidi Chronicles

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CCM’s 2014-15 Mainstage Series continues TONIGHT with Wendy Wasserstein’s groundbreaking comedy The Heidi Chronicles, playing through Sunday, Feb. 15, in Patricia Corbett Theater. See a complete list of performance times below.

Winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, The Heidi Chronicles is directed by CCM’s A.B., Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Chair of Dramatic Performance Richard Hess.

Rick Pender takes a closer look at The Heidi Chronicles and the legacy of playwright Wendy Wasserstein for CityBeat. Read the story online here.

David Lyman previews the production for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Read the story online here.

Sexuality, feminism, education, gender equality, marriage, women’s rights – there’s no hot-button issue the play doesn’t touch. Learn more about this poignant comedy here.

Performance Times

• 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12
• 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13
• 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14
• 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15

Location
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to The Heidi Chronicles are $27-31 for adults, $17-20 for non-UC students and $15-18 for UC students with a valid ID.

Saturday matinee student rush discount tickets are available beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14 and are $12-15.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/heidi-chronicles-mainstage.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s

Community Partner: ArtsWave

CCM’s Mainstage Series Presents the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-Winning ‘The Heidi Chronicles’ Next Week

Sarah Davenport as Heidi Holland in CCM’s THE HEIDI CHRONICLES. photography by Mark Lyons.

CCM’s Department of Drama opens its spring Mainstage Series with its debut of Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, running Feb. 11 through Feb. 15, in the Patricia Corbett Theater.

An examination of feminism and its evolution from the 1960s through the late 1980s, The Heidi Chronicles follows Heidi Holland, a successful art historian, who tries to find her true self in a rapidly changing world as the roles of women were being redefined.

Students and audience members alike will get the chance to witness a piece of history on stage as director Richard E. Hess, A.B., Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Chair of Dramatic Performance, attempts to make connections between a generation who lived through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s and students who are now products of this age.

Hess asks a thought-provoking and timely question: “What would Wendy think of life in America in 2015, where we still must deeply question this country’s commitment to racial and gender equality?”

Wasserstein was the first woman playwright to receive a Tony Award for Best Play for The Heidi Chronicles. Her work also earned her prestigious awards including the 1989 Pulitzer Prize, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award, among others.

Hess says that Wasserstein liked to create characters “who struggled with the shifting demands and definitions of self, unique to a time and place.” This struggle rings true even today.

Second-year Theater Design and Production graduate student Jillian Coratti serves as costume designer for this production. She talked with Hess at the beginning of rehearsals about his vision for the look and feel of the production. “The hardest part about this production was making it look real,” she explains. “This show is dramatic and thoughtful, but very rarely flashy. The characters are real and contemporary, so I didn’t want to make anything come across as overly theatrical.”

Coratti did a great deal of research in magazines and blogs, even pulling out older family photo albums. Her uncles grew up as members of the “baby boomer” generation, so she was able to find looks from the 70s and 80s in their wedding albums. Since each scene in The Heidi Chronicles is set in a new time period, there are a lot of quick costume changes. Heidi alone has 13 changes!

But the easiest and most rewarding part has been the fittings. Coratti says, “The actors are so eager and willing to see their costumes because they can connect with these clothes. They’re very similar to what we wear everyday, yet some come from our parents closets.”

• Richard E. Hess, director
• Thomas C. Umfrid, scenic designer
• Jillian Coratti, costume designer
• Taylor Malott, wig & make-up designer
• Joe Beumer, lighting designer
• Corbin Wescott, sound designer
• k. Jenny Jones, fight choreographer
• Susan Stephenson, stage manager

The Heidi Chronicles Cast List:

• Sarah Davenport as Heidi Holland
• Clare Combest as Susan Johnston
• Colin Edgar as Peter Patron
• Connor Lawrence as Scoop Rosenbaum
• Ryan Garrett as Chris Boxer/Steve/Waiter
• Katie McDonald as Jill/Sandra Zucker-Hall
• AC Horton as Fran
• Julia Netzer as Becky
• Rachel Baumgarten as Debbie
• Owen Alderson as 1968 Hippie/Mark/Dr. Ray
• Michaela Tropeano as Molly McBride/Clara
• Alice Skok as Lisa
• Carli Rhoades as Betsy
• Sydney Ashe as Denise
• Katie Langham as April

About The Heidi Chronicles
After its initial opening in November 1988 Off-Broadway, The Heidi Chronicles was praised by the New York Daily News as “witty, hilarious…not just a funny play, but a wise one… I doubt we’ll see a better play this season.” Even Variety raved, “Not many plays manage Heidi’s feat of inducing almost continuous laughter while forcing the audience to examine its preconceptions.” In March of 1989, The Heidi Chronicles was transferred to Broadway and became a long-running success with an impressive 622 performances when it closed in September of 1990.

Comprised of a series of interrelated scenes, the play traces the coming of age of Heidi Holland, a successful art historian, as she tries to find her bearings in a rapidly changing world. Gradually distancing herself from her friends, she watches them move from the idealism and political radicalism of their college years through militant feminism and, eventually, back to the materialism that they had sought to reject in the first place. Eventually Heidi comes to accept the fact that liberation can be achieved only if one is true to oneself, with goals that come out of need rather than circumstance.

Read Rick Pender’s thoughts on the legacy of Wendy Wasserstein and the importance of The Heidi Chronicles, courtesy of CityBeat.

Performance Times

• 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11 (preview)
• 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12
• 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13
• 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14
• 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15

Location
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to The Heidi Chronicles are $27-31 for adults, $17-20 for non-UC students and $15-18 for UC students with a valid ID. Saturday matinee student rush discount tickets are available beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14 and are $12-15. Tickets to the Feb. 11 preview performance are just $12.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the CCM Box Office, over the telephone at 513-556-4183 or online at ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice/heidi-chronicles-mainstage.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s

Community Partner: ArtsWave

CCM’s Studio Series Presents the Dark Comedy ‘Speech and Debate’ Nov. 6-8

Owen Alderson, Ryan Garrett and Katie Langham in CCM’s production of ‘Speech and Debate.’ Photo by Richard E. Hess.

CCM’s Department of Drama presents the regional premiere of Pulitzer Prize nominee Stephen Karam’s Speech and Debate as part of this fall’s Studio Series. Directed by CCM’s A.B., Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Chair of Dramatic Performance Richard E. Hess, the production opens Thursday, Nov. 6, and plays through Saturday, Nov. 8.

Like all Studio Series productions, admission to Speech and Debate is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Nov. 3. This production features adult themes and is recommended for mature audiences.

According to Hess, Speech and Debate is “a 90 minute intermission-less romp through high school experienced by three socially awkward misfits. The play is a cry to be noticed from students on the fringe.”

“Both gender and sexual identity play a large role in this play.  [It’s] a recipe for comedy in dark and disturbing moments of angst,” Hess explains.

Sophomore Katie Langham discusses her experience playing the irreverent Diwata, a young woman who envisions her future on Broadway but can’t seem to get a part in the school play: “She keeps me on my toes and constantly surprises me. Playing this character is delightfully freeing because she’s so experimental in her own artistic life.”

“Each rehearsal is a time to play and explore, maybe regress back to the days of high school and re-discover adolescent feelings of precociousness, uncertainty and insecurity,” says Langham. It’s this attitude of discovery that makes the characters of Speech and Debate so authentic and engaging.

The play will take advantage of technology to enhance the storytelling. “A crucial plot element in the play is revealed in the very first scene,” Hess explains, “A computer conversation told entirely through projections when an 18 year old high school senior begins cruising on a gay chat line. This event sets the play in motion.”

About Richard E. Hess
Richard E. Hess has been the Chair of CCM Drama for the past 20 years. Recent directing credits at CCM include The Crucible, The Laramie Project, Coram Boy, RENT, You Can’t Take It With You (ACCLAIM Award winner Outstanding University Play), Anon(ymous) (ACCLAIM Award winner Outstanding Play), Brigadoon (Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Outstanding Musical) and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Best Ensemble Acting).

He made his New York directing debut at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on 42nd Street directing AN EVENING OF (Mostly) TRUE SONGS (with Andrea Burns), a new incarnation of Don’t Look Down, the music and lyrics of Adam Wagner, first seen in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Favorite directing credits at the Human Race Theatre Co., where he has been a resident artist since 1996, include Race, Red, Doubt, Proof, I Am My Own Wife and A Delicate Balance. He directed Miracle on South Division Street for the Human Race in September 2014.

Other credits include the Los Angeles staging of the one-woman show Besame Mucho, O.K. That’s Enough (with Diana Maria Riva) and the smash hits The Pages of My Diary I’d Rather Not Read and The Catholic Girl’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity, both of which enjoyed sold out runs at the Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles. For five years Hess was the artistic director of Hot Summer Nights in Cincinnati, where he directed Violet (with Ashley Brown), Hello, Dolly! (with Pamela Myers), Godspell (with Shoshana Bean and Leslie Kritzer) and the premiere of We Tell The Story: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty, in collaboration with Stephen Flaherty.

He studied with the internationally acclaimed director Anne Bogart and members of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI Co.) in New York and Los Angeles for the past decade. He has worked with the KNOW Theatre, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Chautauqua Institution, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops and Cincinnati Opera Education. He is proud of fostering the new work of playwrights and has directed first productions of Richard Oberacker and Rob Taylor’s Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Parenting, Mark Halpin’s The Kid in the Dark, Ben Magnuson’s Four Minutes and Tom Korbee’s Will It Ever Stop Raining?

He made his debut as a playwright/creator in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival with (UN)Natural Disaster created with 13 actors and performed in an abandoned building in Over-the-Rhine. (UN)Natural Disaster was named the Producer’s Pick of the Fringe and subsequently re-mounted on the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival.

In June of 2011, Hess directed The Collapsible Space Between Us with the Dadaab Theater Project, comprised of five CCM Drama students, which was presented with eight refugees from the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya for World Refugee Day sponsored by the United Nations in Nairobi, Kenya. He returned to Kenya as a Fulbright Scholar in 2014 and taught acting and directing at Kenyatta University in Nairobi and researched the creation of original works by creating KUMI NA MBILI (12), a stage show and a short film.

Hess was named Ernest Glover Outstanding Teacher at UC in 1999 and again in 2012 and was also named the ACCLAIM Award Theatre Trailblazer in 2009. He is an associate member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers (SDC).

Cast List
Ryan Garrett as Howie
Owen Alderson as Solomon
Katie Langham as Diwata
Sarah Davenport as Teacher and others
Colleen Ladrick as Reporter and others

Performance Times

• 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6
• 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7
• 2 & 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8

Location
Cohen Family Studio Theater, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Reserving Tickets
Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, November 3. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors.

Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots. For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation

Community Partner: ArtsWave

Drama Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman & Margaret Straub