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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The Glass Menagerie
March 29-31 and April 12-14, 2007
Tom, who is both a narrator and a character in Tennessee Williams' masterwork, recalls his family's struggle to escape the realities of life in 1939 St. Louis. Amanda, his mother, is trying to provide for the future in difficult times, but the responsibility of being the breadwinner has fallen to Tom. His frail sister, Laura, has shielded herself from society's expectations with a homebound life where she finds comfort caring for her collection of little glass animals. Inevitably, Tom becomes desperate to escape his circumstances and follow his dreams just as a "gentleman caller" arrives for Laura - a caller who could be either a sign of hope or a disturbance that will shatter their fragile home.
This haunting American classic speaks as profoundly to our 21st century way of life as it did when it premiered in 1945. Its timeless themes of enduring family crises, escaping reality, and dreaming of a better future resonate powerfully in our turbulent times and make it an excellent reminder of how to fully embrace the reality of our lives.
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You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
February 1-3 and 8-10, 2007
The original version of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown was based on the comic strip, "Peanuts," by Charles M. Schulz. Book, music and lyrics were written by Clark Gesner. First produced in 1967, the musical became an instant off-Broadway smash and ran 1,547 performances. Since then, it has become one of the most produced musicals in history. We will be performing the revised version, billed as a "new musical entertainment," which opened on Broadway in 1999. In his Feb. 14, 1999, review of the show for the New York Times, Vincent Canby states, "Among other things, you will discover a blissfully sunny alternate universe to the one of broken marriages, career compromises, alcoholism, mental breakdowns (plus the occasional redemption) that became so familiar in American literature of the postwar years."
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown tells the story of an average day in the life of the famous comic strip hero, Charlie Brown. The vignettes reflect moments picked from Valentine's Day to baseball season, ranging emotionally from wild optimism to utter despair. Charlie's kite won't do what he wants it to, he makes the final "out" in the baseball game he could have won, he doesn't have the nerve to talk to that little red-haired girl, and he thinks that few kids like him - but by the show's end, Lucy comes up to him and asserts, "You're a good man, Charlie Brown."
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The Mousetrap
October 5-7 and 12-14, 2006
Agatha Christie's classic story, The Mousetrap, opened in 1952 at the Ambassadors Theatre in London, England and is still playing in theatres around the world nightly. The longest running play or musical in history, it is Agatha Christie at her best.
The setting is the 1940s in post World War II England. A young married couple has inherited a large manor house in the English countryside, which they have decided to open as a guest house. On their first day of business their curious and interesting guests arrive along with a massive winter storm confining everyone to the house. The roads are blocked and the phone does not work. A detective arrives on skis to announce that the address of the house was found on the body of a woman murdered in London. The police are concerned that someone staying in the house might be the next victim. Suspicion grows as the detective attempts to unmask everyone present. When one of the guests is murdered, everyone becomes a suspect. Who will be killed next? The tension and suspicions build to an amazing and surprising climax. The Mousetrap will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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Romeo & Juliet
March 31 - April 1, 6-8, 2006
Using the timelessness of this classic, Baker has set the play in Miami in the 1930’s. She reasons that this setting will celebrate the power of the play, as well as enhance the youthful feel for the audience. Along with using a relatively more modern setting all the while maintaining the Shakespearean structure, the script contains slight adjustments in language to help the audience better understand the plot of the story.
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Bridge of Blood: Taking Christ to the Aucas
January 8-13, 2006
Bridge of Blood is based on Through Gates of Splendor and Shadow of the Almighty, two books written by Elisabeth Elliot. Consequently, the character of Elisabeth in the play is also the narrator. All of the characters' monologues were taken directly from their own letters, diaries and journals.
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The Miser
October 10-12, 17-19, 2002
The plot concerns the classic conflict of love and money. The miser Harpagon wishes his daughter Elise to marry a wealthy old man, Anselme, who will accept her without a dowry, but she loves the penniless Valère. Harpagon himself has set his eye on young, impoverished Mariane, whom his son Cléante also loves. Much of the play’s action focuses on Harpagon’s stinginess. Valère and Mariane are revealed to be Anselme’s long-lost children, and they are happily paired with the miser’s son and daughter by the play’s end, after Harpagon insists that Anselme pay for both weddings.
Although The Miser is usually considered to be a comedy, its tone is one of absurdity and incongruity rather than of gaiety. The play, based on the Aulularia of Roman comic playwright Plautus, recasts the ancient comic figure of the miser who is inhuman in his worship of money and all too human in his need for respect and affection.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
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Inherit the Wind
April 25-27, May 2-4, 2002
Written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Inherit the Wind is loosely based on the famous 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tenn. In a sweltering summer courtroom, famous lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan battled over whether John T. Scopes had violated Tennessee state law by teaching evolution in his classroom. The play uses this “trial of the century” to raise issues about evolution, the dignity of the human mind, and the authority of God’s Word—issues which are still on trial in the public arena today. This is a fast-paced and intense drama that combines gospel music, courtroom drama, and powerful emotions.
