Theatre Productions
The Department of Art, Design, and Theatre at Cedarville University presents three full productions each academic year. To search for a specific production, please use the search box in the sidebar, making sure to choose the "in this collection" option. Click here to view memorabilia from theatrical productions from the earlier years of the university.
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Over the River and Through the Woods
October 4-6 and 11-14, 2012
Twenty-eight year old Nick, an Italian single guy from New Jersey, gets the professional career offer of a lifetime … on the opposite coast from his family. Nick’s traditional Italian grandparents, Frank and Aida and Nunzio and Emma, do their level best to keep their beloved grandson home with them on the East Coast, while a job as a marketing executive calls him to Seattle. Will Nick abandon family to pursue a glamorous and exciting career move, the opportunity he has hoped for? His grandparents wonder if he would stay in New Jersey if he fell in love with a hometown girl. And so the lovely — and single — Caitlin O’Hare is brought in as bait. But will their scheme work? This comedy by contemporary playwright Joe DiPietro is sure to resonate with audience members from university students (soon to face the same career decisions themselves) to extended family members (who have either wrestled with these same choices themselves or have struggled to release those they love to pursue their own dreams). Themes of family, professional goals, tradition, and romance are all presented in a way that reminds us to celebrate the everyday gifts of our lives.
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The Star-Spangled Girl
March 29-31, April 12, 14-15, 2012
In this uproarious comedy, we are introduced to Andy and Norman, producers of a protest magazine. Sophie, an Olympic swimmer and all-American girl who just moved into the apartment next door, pays the young men a good-neighbor visit. From that moment on, Norman is hopelessly smitten. His love for Sophie becomes an obsession, and he literally drives her crazy by ignoring her rejection and constantly interfering in her life. Meanwhile, Andy is preoccupied with fending off creditors and charming the landlady to avoid being evicted for not paying the rent. The situation is eventually resolved through a series of hilarious happenings set forth with the masterly skill and inventiveness that are the hallmarks of Neil Simon.
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The Crucible
January 26-28, February 3-5, 2012
What price are you willing to pay to defend the truth? Arthur Miller’s The Crucible explores this important question against the backdrop of the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s. Based loosely on historical fact, The Crucible chronicles the destruction of a community when power is abused and truth is twisted. And while the play’s setting dates back more than 300 years, its themes speak convincingly to our 21st century lives. Experience this searing drama — Miller’s unforgettable exploration of power, integrity, and the high cost of truth.
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And Then There Were None
September 29 - October 9, 2011
Adapted from Agatha Christie’s best-selling novel, the play tells the tale of a group of strangers, all with questionable pasts, isolated on an island off the coast of Devon. And Then There Were None will captivate you not only by the skillful twists and turns of a “Who done it?” but also by the suspense of “Who’s next?” This is Agatha Christie at her best!
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See How They Run
April 7-9, 14-15 and 17, 2011
No doubt about it — this smash London hit left its audience as exhausted from laughter as if they had run a footrace. Galloping in and out of the four doors of an English vicarage are an American actor and actress, a cockney maid who has seen too many American movies, a staunch parishioner who unknowingly gets into the cooking sherry, and four men in clergyman suits. One is the bishop who really lives there, another is a disguised escaped prisoner, one just dropped in to visit, and the other — well, that's left for those on stage and the audience to figure out. Fast-paced and fun, the farce See How They Run will leave you guessing and laughing from beginning to end.
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Hello, Dolly!
February 3-5 and 10-12, 2011
" … I meddle." And indeed she does. Dolly Levi meddles in numerous people's lives as she pursues her goal of marrying Horace Vandergelder, the well-known half-a-millionaire. Dolly, one of the most fabulous characters on the musical stage, has been hired by Mr. Vandergelder, a widower, to find him a new wife. Little does he realize that Dolly has found him the perfect wife — herself. It takes two hours of comedy, fun, music, dancing, and a cast of crazy characters for Horace to realize that Dolly is just the wife he needs. Comedy, music, and spectacle provide a full package of laughter and optimism in this production of match-making and scheming as Dolly charms and meddles her way into the heart of the "hard as nails" Horace Vandergelder.
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The Importance of Being Earnest
September 30-October 2, October 7-9, 2010
Gwendolyn and Cecily are in love with romantic, handsome, beguiling young men named "Ernest" ... or at least they think they are! And Jack and Algernon, bachelors who may have finally fallen victim to romance, seem to be caught between the wiles of the female sex and the allure of freedom. The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a romantic delight that entertains audiences, satirizes the hypocrisy of social obligations, and comments on society's foibles — all in the midst of mistaken identities and some mysterious business with a handbag in a train station. Playwright Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy, set in Victorian England, is one of the most widely produced plays in the English language and has been described as Wilde's "most enduringly popular play." Join us as we watch Lady Bracknell preside while Gwendolyn, Cecily, Algernon, and Jack learn the importance of being earnest!
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You Can't Take It with You
March 25-27, April 8-10, 2010
You Can't Take It With You opened in New York in December of 1936 to instant critical and popular acclaim. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1936, the comedy went on to run 837 performances on Broadway. The 1938 film version by Columbia Pictures won an Academy Award for best picture. This classic American comedy is the story of Alice Sycamore and Tony Kirby who find their romance complicated by the conflict between the eccentricities of the Vanderhof family and the strictly conservative Kirbys.