Photo Coverage: First Look at Actor's Theatre of Columbus' FRANKENSTEIN
Appearing on the English stage only five years after Mary Shelley's groundbreaking novel Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus, Richard Brinsley Peake's Frankenstein, or the Dangers of Presumption is the first adaptation of that venerable novel. Peake's monster is an early version of the horror that would star in more than 50 films in the last 100 years. Performed in the style of classic melodrama, including song, lovers, and spectacle, Peake's stage adaptation was the only version Shelley attended, an event which she recounted in a letter to her father, stating, "I was much amused!" Frankenstein was such a hit in the theaters that the publisher of Shelley's novel produced a second edition, and the place of that novel in the English canon was secured. Several stage imitators followed in the decade after Peake's 1823 play, but this play endures as the original stage version of Frankenstein.
Performances are June 21 - July 15, 2018. Thursdays through Sundays @ 8pm. Schiller Park (German Village), Amphitheatre Stage, Columbus, Ohio. For information on donations and seat reservations, visit http://theactorstheatre.org
Photo Coverage: First Look at Exit Left's SEMINAR
In Seminar, a provocative comedy from Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck, four aspiring young novelists sign up for private writing classes with Leonard, an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting Broadway comedy. Seminar performs June 9th thru 18th at the The Garden Theater, 1187 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43201. Purchase tickets at: http://shortnorthstage.org/calendar/v/619
Photo Coverage: First look at Actors' Theatre of Columbus' THE WINTER'S TALE
Appalachia and the Bard collide in a night of live music and theatre. Sometimes dark tragedy, sometimes uproarious comedy, 'The Winter's Tale' sets the story of one of Shakespeare's more disparate and modern works, at the turn of the 19th & 20th century, between the coal mining country of Eastern Kentucky and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. Inspired in part by the album 'Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson at Folk City' and heavily flavored with traditional mountain and American folk music performed by the cast, the play will celebrate the culture and the music of Appalachia, a region with strong cultural, musical and linguistic ties to Shakespeare's England, with a tragedy and joy that is uniquely and entertainingly American.
Photo Coverage: First Look at SRO Theatre's SWEENEY TODD
Widely acknowledged as Stephen Sondheim's musical masterpiece, Sweeney Todd is set amongst London's seedy side streets and laced with Sondheim's characteristically brilliant wit and dark humor. This landmark musical depicts the barber Sweeney Todd's savage quest for justice and retribution after years of false imprisonment. Aided by harridan pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett, who is secretly in love with him, he sets out to avenge the wrongs done to him and his family. Combining comic turns, chilling drama, and hauntingly beautiful romantic songs, Sweeney Todd offers a fascinating portrait of a man driven to madness by injustice.