The Other Place Photo

The Other Place

posted in: 2018-2019 Season, Past Seasons, Past Shows | 0

2018-2019 Season

Part medical thriller and part domestic drama: Juliana Smithton is a successful neurologist whose life seems to be coming unhinged. Her husband has filed for divorce, her daughter has eloped with a much older man and her own health is in jeopardy. But in this brilliantly crafted work, nothing is as it seems. Piece by piece, a mystery unfolds as fact blurs with fiction, past collides with present and the elusive truth about Juliana boils to the surface.

Rabbit Hole Photo

Rabbit Hole

posted in: 2017-2018 Season, Past Shows | 0

2017-2018 Season

Becca and Howie Corbett have a picture perfect family life in the suburbs of New York until a random, tragic accident takes the life of their four-year old son. Soon after, Becca’s younger, irresponsible sister, Izzy, announces that she is pregnant: there will now be a new child in the family. As Becca and Howie grow apart, Becca’s mother, Nat, badgers Becca about her grieving process, and Jason, the young driver who killed their son, continually shows up to ask forgiveness, the group is on a bumpy road to healing with no road map in sight. Rabbit Hole delves into the complexity of a family navigating deep grief, and learning what it means to live a fruitful life when things fall apart.

Cast:
Becca:   Teresa Gordon
Howie:  Matt Benzing
Izzy:      Jen Holan
Nat:      Deb Richardson
Jason:   Tony Giuffre

Gin Game Photo

The Gin Game

posted in: 2017-2018 Season, Past Shows | 0

2017-2018 Season

This winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which originally starred Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn and was later revived with Julie Harris and Charles Durning, uses a card game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home. Enter Fonsia Dorsey, a prim, self righteous lady. They discover they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy, so they begin to play and to reveal intimate details of their lives. What follows is a witty and compelling exploration of love, loss, bitterness, and desire.

Four by Two by Four Photo

Four by Two (by Four)

posted in: 2016-2017 Season, Past Seasons, Past Shows | 0

2016-2017 Season

Four Plays by Two Authors Staged by Four Directors.

Graceland takes place outside the front entrance of Graceland, at 5 a.m. three days before the estate is to be opened to the public. Two ardent Presley fans, middle-aged Bev and young Rootie, have arrived at the sacred gates, each desiring to be the first to enter the grounds, and each believing that she is the one most deserving of the honor. Wary at first, the two soon progress from dispute to shared confidences and a touching resolution. Asleep on the Wind serves as a “prequel” to Graceland, taking place 10 years earlier in Bayou Teche, Louisiana, where adolescent Rootie and her favorite brother, Beau, come to talk in private and to escape the harassment of her other brothers. This time Beau has a double purpose for their meeting: to persuade Rootie to try to stick it out at home and in school and to reach beyond him for companionship; and also to tell her that he has enlisted in the army and has requested service in Vietnam.

Birding with Aunt Nancy, winner of the Fitton Center New Play competition, finds two sisters, Ellie and Mim, as they have traveled to their favorite Aunt’s favorite bird watching spot to spread her ashes. With the assistance of their Aunt’s favorite bottle of Scotch, left to them in her will, they use humor to celebrate her life, mourn her death, and grapple with the legacy of painful family relationships. Strawberry Island provides us insight into the past that has brought these characters to where they are, finding the two sisters as children on vacation in Michigan, visiting their favorite aunt. Having rowed to the small, uninhabited island in Lake Huron where Nancy has built a bird blind to monitor the migrations of bald eagles, they encounter another pair of young siblings, locals who challenge the sisters to a competition—who can collect the most wild strawberries in 10 minutes. But the game reveals much more than simple competitiveness, as the sisters begin to confront the impending divorce of their parents and their growing understanding of their own feelings about generosity, loyalty, and fairness, with both humor and frustration.

Art Photo

Art

posted in: 2016-2017 Season, Past Seasons, Past Shows | 0

2016-2017 Season

Described by Newsweek as sounding “like a marriage of Moliere and Woody Allen,” Art won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1996 Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Navigating the complexities of aesthetics, maturity, and evolving friendships, Art concerns three long-time friends, Serge, Marc, and Yvan. Serge, indulging his penchant for modern art, buys a large, expensive, completely white painting. Marc is horrified, and their friendship is challenged as a result of their differing opinions about what constitutes “art.” Yvan, caught in the middle of the conflict, tries to please and mollify them both to preserve the friendship.

Talleys Folly Photo

Talley’s Folly

posted in: 2016-2017 Season, Past Shows | 0

2016-2017 Season

Winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award as best play of the season, Talley’s Folly is the story of one night in the lives of two unlikely sweethearts, Matt Friedman and Sally Talley. The play takes place in a dilapidated boathouse on the Talley farm in Missouri on the Fourth of July, 1944. Matt gradually awakens Sally to the possibilities of a life together until, in the final, touching moments of the play, it is clear that they are two kindred spirits who have truly found each other—two “lame ducks” who, in their union, will find a wholeness rare in human relationships.

Directed by Virgil Seger

Cast:
Matt Friedman – Matt Benzing
Sally Talley – Heidi Bortel

The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman Poster

The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman

posted in: 2014-2015 Season, Past Shows | 0

2014-2015 Season

The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman is “a onewoman show about the greatest American actress of the nineteenth century” (Carolyn Gage). Cushman was a larger-than-life, charismatic, commanding figure, famed for her “breeches” roles, who was not shy about her sexuality, her life, or her death. Confronted with her own mortality as she battled breast cancer, Gage’s Cushman offers insights into her relationships and her work, quoting some of her most memorable roles, in a work that is “Electrifying…enormously entertaining, absorbing, and brutally honest” (The Sunday Mail, Adelaide, Australia).

Cast
Charlotte: Rebecca Howard

Posters and Programs

Out Cry! by Tennessee Williams

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Out Cry is set in an empty, run down theatre in an unspecified location.  Siblings Felice and Clare discover that the acting company that they have been directing and touring with has abandoned them... READ MORE

Become an OxACT Supporter!

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We count on the generosity of our community as we continue to provide a wonderful training ground for actors, directors, and those most valuable behind-the-scene crews. It takes a lot to put on... READ MORE

Volunteer

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Have you ever wanted to be a part of a community theater? Even if you don’t feel comfortable in front of the stage, there are many aspects of production that you can be... READ MORE

Founding Patrons

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These are the names of the founding patrons of the Oxford Area Community Theater. Without their faith in the future of community theater in our town, we wouldn’t be here. Susan Braunig Bill... READ MORE