ATC’s latest project, The Shakespeare Underground, is an exuberant, fun, unpredictable take on classic plays from Shakespeare and a variety of authors. The concept of the project is a combination of guerrilla street theater and traditional Elizabethan staging methods. What’s more “underground” than that? Please join us the first Monday of the month as we return in person to hear something that you’ve probably never heard before!
VIEW OUR VIRTUAL TSU PRODUCTIONS, THE SHAKESPEARE ETHERGROUND
Upcoming:
Previously:
May 2, 2022 - THE BEAU DEFEATED
Directed by Ollie Worden
A biting satire on the social aspiration, the play follows two women in their search for respectable husbands. The unfortunate Mrs. Rich makes a desperate attempt to land herself an aristocratic husband. For witty Lady Landsworth, the problem is to discover whether the man she loves is quite as good as he looks. From the nobles to the servants, no one is what they appear to be. Imposters are unmasked, confidences betrayed, and a great deal of money changes hands as the story careens towards its disastrous conclusion.
April 4, 2022 - NOBODY: A COMEDY IN TWO ACTS
Directed by Jabari Johnson
One of Mary Robinson’s most remarkable productions was her two-act farce Nobody (Drury Lane, 1794), though now, even among scholars of the Romantic period, it is a play almost completely unknown. A biting satire on female gamblers, Nobody documents the financial ruin and rescue of the recently widowed aristocrat, Lady Languid, who, having become caught up in a world of fashionable dissipation, squanders her fortune while playing faro, vingt-et-un, and rouge et noir, among other high-stakes games.
March 7, 2022 - THE ROARING GIRL
Directed by Nina Martin
Jacobean comedy The Roaring Girl is a fictionalized dramatization of the life of Mary Frith, known as “Moll Cutpurse,” a woman who had gained a reputation as a virago in the early 17th century. (The term “roaring girl” was adapted from the slang term “roaring boy,” which was applied to a young man who caroused publicly, brawled, and committed petty crimes.).
January 4, 2021 - THE KNIGHTS
The Knights was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, who is considered the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War and in this respect it is typical of all the dramatist’s early plays. It won first prize at the Lenaia festival when it was produced in 424 BCE. The play is a satire on political and social life in 5th Century BCE Athens, and in particular a diatribe against the pro-war populist politician, Cleon. In the play, a sausage-seller, Agoracritus, vies with Paphlagonian (representing Cleon) for the confidence and approval of Demos (an elderly man who symbolizes the Athenian citizenry) and Agoracritus emerges triumphant from a series of contests and miraculously restores Demos to his former youth and glory.
December 7, 2020 - STORYTIME WITH SANTA
Whether you’re on the nice list or naughty list this year, join us for a virtual reading from a very special guest.
November 2, 2020 - ENCORE PRESENTATION: JULIUS CAESAR
October 5, 2020 - POLITIAN
Politian is the only play known to have been written by Edgar Allan Poe, composed in 1835, but never completed. The play is a fictionalized version of a true event in Kentucky: the murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam O. Beauchamp in 1825.
September 7, 2020 - SHAKESPEARE'S SHORTS VOL. 4
August 31, 2020 - A KNACK TO KNOW A KNAVE
August 24, 2020 - LOCRINE
August 17, 2020 - ENCORE PRESENTATION: THE COUNTESS OF MONTE CRISTO
August 10, 2020 - THE BIRTH OF MERLIN
August 3, 2020 - THE PURITAN
July 27, 2020 - SHAKESPEARE'S SHORTS VOL. 3
July 20, 2020 - MUCEDORUS with eMBer Women's Theatre
Mucedorus, written and first performed in London in the early 1590s, is a play about a prince who adopts a disguise and undertakes a journey to see if a princess is as beautiful as he has heard. Along the way he eliminates threats to himself and her, finally revealing his identity and proposing marriage. Attributed in whole and in part to Shakespeare, it was one of the most performed plays of its age, and 16 quarto editions were published between 1598 and 1668 making it the most widely printed play from the time.
July 13, 2020 - FAIR EM, THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER
July 6, 2020 - SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE
June 29, 2020 - THE LONDON PRODIGAL
June 22, 2020 - A YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY
June 15, 2020 - EDWARD III
June 8, 2020 - SHAKESPEARE'S SHORTS VOL. 2
June 1, 2020 - SHAKESPEARE'S SHORTS VOL. 1
May 26, 2020 - CGA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
May 18, 2020 - CHARLES II
Considered one of the best early American comedies, Charles II; Or, The Merry Monarch is based on the French play, La Jeunesse de Henri V, by Alexandre Duval. The simple plot involves Lady Clara and the Earl of Rochester plotting to reform King Charles II by leaving him in a common tavern without money to contend with real life.
May 11, 2020 - MISS JULIE with Columbus Civic Theatre
Miss Julie is Strindberg’s examination of power, sex, and class, set on a Midsummer’s Eve in a nobleman’s house and focusing on the shifting relationship between Miss Julie, the daughter of the house, and Jean, her father’s manservant.
Actors’ Theatre is proud to collaborate with the Columbus Civic Theater for this live virtual broadcast of Miss Julie. When the theatres can open again, this production will finally be back on the CCT stage. Check www.columbuscivic.org for updates on this production and others.
May 4, 2020 - LOVE FOR LOVE
In William Congreve’s witty farce, love and money square off as two brothers attempt to follow their hearts without losing their inheritance. Populated by a lover named Valentine; his clever beloved, Angelica; a less-than-virtuous Miss Frail; and a braggart, Tattle, Love for Love takes a satirical and sardonic look into Restoration-era romance.
April 27, 2020 - THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS
First published in his collection Echoes of the War in 1918, J.M. Barrie’s The Old Lady Shows Her Medals is about a London charwoman and the surprising consequences of her lies to keep up with the Joneses.
April 20, 2020 - AUGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT
Augustus Does His Bit: A True-to-Life Farce (1916) is a comic one-act play by George Bernard Shaw about a dim-witted aristocrat who is outwitted by a female spy during World War I.
April 6, 2020 - ARIA DA CAPO
In her response to World War I, Edna St. Vincent Millay discusses class issues, human greed, selfishness, moral decay, and the pettiness of war and its causes in this poetic farce.
March 2, 2020 - MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL
First performed in 1935, Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T.S. Eliot that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writing of Edward Grim, a clerk who was an eyewitness to the event. The play, dealing with an individual’s opposition to authority, was written at the time of rising fascism in central Europe.
February 3, 2020 - LOA TO DIVINE NARCISSUS
Legendary Mexican poet and playwright Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Loa to Divine Narcissus (1689) is an allegorical play that depicts the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico. Known as the Tenth Muse and the Mexican Sphinx, Sor Juana was a nun famous for her secular writings, early feminism, and egalitarian ideals. She remains a national hero in Mexico and a figure of intense critical interest today.
January 6, 2020 - THE DUCHESS OF MALFI
Inspired by a true story, The Duchess of Malfi follows the tragic efforts of a noblewoman to marry for love and to free herself of the writhing political, religious, and erotic web spun by her family. This macabre, punk beauty of a play draws together extraordinary language, violent delights, humanity and humor, and some of the most complex and memorable characters in Jacobean drama.
December 2, 2019 - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL
We get in the holiday “spirit” with William Shakespeare’s A Christmas Carol by Ian Doescher.
From The Muppets to Mickey Mouse & Friends, The Flintstones to Looney Tunes, interpretations of A Christmas Carol have featured some of pop culture’s most recognizable figures. Now, in Ian Doescher’s delightful adaptation, a troupe of Shakespearean characters get to play in Dickens’ fanciful and frightening fable, telling the story as if the Bard himself had penned it. For Shakespeare buffs, the script is stuffed like a Christmas turkey with references and inside jokes. But no matter your background, the timeless transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge is sure to warm your heart!
November 4, 2019 - LOVE FOR LOVE: ACT ONE
The Shakespeare Underground returns for the 2020 season at a new venue – The Studio @ The Kitchen – with William Congreve’s Love for Love.
In William Congreve’s witty farce, love and money square off as two brothers attempt to follow their hearts without losing their inheritance. Populated by a lover named Valentine; his clever beloved, Angelica; a less-than-virtuous Miss Frail; and a braggart, Tattle, Love for Love takes a satirical and sardonic look into Restoration-era romance.
November 2, 2019 - NO HOLDS BARD!: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S FIGHT NIGHT 2
NO HOLDS BARD!: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S FIGHT NIGHT 2
A TSU SPECIAL EVENT! Kings and Clowns will duke it out in swaggy, saucy Shakespearean swordplay with wrothful wit and warlike wordplay. Place your bets with Bard Bucks on who you think will drink from the cup of victory! Will Petruchio keep the title and the belt?
May 2, 2019 - THE DRUNKEN UNDERGROUND: ROMEO AND JULIET
ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare
A TSU SPECIAL EVENT! The Drunken Underground is a time to make merry and tackle some of the Bard’s greatest works with a little liquid courage. Actors and audience can enjoy the alchemy of Shakespeare and Pretentious Barrel House’s craft beers in a bit of a live radio environment. TDU is just the thing to lift the spirit(s) as a handful of actors perform a live reading of Shakespeare’s classic plays while imbibing some of Columbus’s best brew. It’s a fun, unpredictable way to make Shakespeare saucy again!
Director- Adam Simon
April 4, 2019 - THE DRUNKEN UNDERGROUND: AS YOU LIKE IT
AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare
A TSU SPECIAL EVENT! The Drunken Underground is a time to make merry and tackle some of the Bard’s greatest works with a little liquid courage. Actors and audience can enjoy the alchemy of Shakespeare and Pretentious Barrel House’s craft beers in a bit of a live radio environment. TDU is just the thing to lift the spirit(s) as a handful of actors perform a live reading of Shakespeare’s classic plays while imbibing some of Columbus’s best brew. It’s a fun, unpredictable way to make Shakespeare saucy again!
Director- Adam Simon
March 18, 2019 - RHINOCEROS
RHINOCEROS by Eugene Ionesco
One of Eugene Ionesco’s early full-length absurdist plays, Rhinoceros is a satirical, darkly comic examination of the dangers of conformity. Inspired by Ionesco’s personal experiences with fascism during World War II, Rhinoceros shows a town trampled as more and more of its citizens are curiously transformed.
Director- Elizabeth Falter
March 7, 2019 - THE DRUNKEN UNDERGROUND: HENRY V
HENRY V by William Shakespeare
A TSU SPECIAL EVENT! The Drunken Underground is a time to make merry and tackle some of the Bard’s greatest works with a little liquid courage. Actors and audience can enjoy the alchemy of Shakespeare and Pretentious Barrel House’s craft beers in a bit of a live radio environment. TDU is just the thing to lift the spirit(s) as a handful of actors perform a live reading of Shakespeare’s classic plays while imbibing some of Columbus’s best brew. It’s a fun, unpredictable way to make Shakespeare saucy again!
Director- Philip J. Hickman
February 18, 2019 - THE BUSY BODY
THE BUSY BODY by Susanna Centlivre
Written in 1709 by English poet, actress, and playwright Susanna Centlivre, this Restoration-era play centers around two women who want to escape the wishes of their guardians, find love, and keep their inheritances in the process.
Director- Maddie Oslejsek
February 7, 2019 - THE DRUNKEN UNDERGROUND: KING LEAR
KING LEAR by William Shakespeare
A TSU SPECIAL EVENT! The Drunken Underground is a time to make merry and tackle some of the Bard’s greatest works with a little liquid courage. Actors and audience can enjoy the alchemy of Shakespeare and Pretentious Barrel House’s craft beers in a bit of a live radio environment. TDU is just the thing to lift the spirit(s) as a handful of actors perform a live reading of Shakespeare’s classic plays while imbibing some of Columbus’s best brew. It’s a fun, unpredictable way to make Shakespeare saucy again!
Director- Adam Simon
January 10, 2019 - THE DRUNKEN UNDERGROUND: HAMLET
HAMLET by William Shakespeare
A TSU SPECIAL EVENT! The Drunken Underground is a time to make merry and tackle some of the Bard’s greatest works with a little liquid courage. Actors and audience can enjoy the alchemy of Shakespeare and Pretentious Barrel House’s craft beers in a bit of a live radio environment. TDU is just the thing to lift the spirit(s) as a handful of actors perform a live reading of Shakespeare’s classic plays while imbibing some of Columbus’s best brew. It’s a fun, unpredictable way to make Shakespeare saucy again!
Hamlet, a tale filled with death, vengeance, and a decent into madness, is one of William Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies. After returning to Denmark to discover his father has been murdered, Hamlet seeks revenge on the murderer, the new king of Denmark, his uncle Claudius. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is still one of Shakespeare’s most influential works and regularly performed even today, although usually sober.
Director- Sara Bodde
December 17, 2018 - EXILES
EXILES by James Joyce: Exiles is James Joyce’s only extant play and draws on the story of “The Dead,” the final short story in Joyce’s story collection Dubliners. The play was rejected by W. B. Yeats for production by the Abbey Theatre. Its first major London performance was in 1970, when Harold Pinter directed it at the Mermaid Theatre.
Director- David Harewood
November 19, 2018 - MYSTERY-BOUFFE
MYSTERY-BOUFFE by Vladimir Mayakovsky: Written on the first anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Mystery-Bouffe is an absurdist, satirical take on early 20th century Russian class struggles. The play follows fourteen proletarians and fourteen bourgeois fleeing flooding in their home countries from around the world as they embark on an epic biblical journey to find Paradise – or at least, something to eat. Along the way, we meet all-too-familiar characters such as the obnoxiously apolitical Compromiser, who can’t understand why everyone won’t just get along, and the know-it-all Intellectual, who would rather pontificate on the meaning of the world’s problems rather than enact change. The play balances its socialist morals with dark humor, witty aphorisms, and a healthy dose of over-the-top musical numbers, creating a script that still feels relevant and side-splittingly funny a century after it was written.
Director- Rowan Winterwood
November 10, 2018 - NO HOLDS BARD!: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S FIGHT NIGHT
NO HOLDS BARD!: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S FIGHT NIGHT
A TSU SPECIAL EVENT! Kings and Clowns will duke it out in swaggy, saucy Shakespearean swordplay with wrothful wit and warlike wordplay. Place your bets with Bard Bucks on who you think will drink from the cup of victory!
October 29, 2018 - THE VAMPIRE
Director- Amanda Phillips
September 17, 2018 - JEHANNE d'ARC
Director- Sonda Staley
August 20, 2018 - RAM-ALLEY: OR MERRY TRICKS
Director- Sara Bodde
July 16, 2018 - THE RECRUITING OFFICER
Director- Andy Falter
June 18, 2018 - ELECTRA
Director- Jennifer Feather Youngblood
May 21, 2018 - THE WOMAN'S PRIZE
Director- Adam Simon
April 16, 2018 - UBU ROI
Viewer discretion advised: This reading might not be suitable for children under the age of 13 or adults with any sense of decency or civility.
Director- David Harewood
March 19, 2018 - MACHINAL
Director- Jennifer Feather Youngblood
February 19, 2018 - R.U.R.
Producer- Adam Simon
Director- Philip J. Hickman
Stage Manager- Megan Lear
House Manager- Jordan Estose
Cast-
Harry Domin- Scott Douglas Wilson
Sulla & Other Robots- Christina Yoho
Marius & Radius- Ben Sostrom
Helena Glory- Beth Josephsen
Dr. Gall & Primus- Jordan Fehr
Dr. Fabry- Jason Speicher
Dr. Hallemeier & Other Robots- Samuel Bowen Partridge
Mr. Alquist- Chris Austin
Counsul Busman- Ken Erney
Nana- Cat Erney
November 20, 2017 - THE WITCH OF EDMONTON
Produced with Tipping Point Theatre Company
Director- Sonda Staley
Stage Manager- Ellie Allen
Cast-
Anne Ratcliffe- Michelle Weiser
Cuddy Banks- Stephen Hanna
Elizabeth Sawyer- Josie Merkle
Frank Thorney- Scott Douglas
Wilson Winnifred- Nikki Davis
Kate Carter- Michelle Sandler
Master Carter- Greg Hoffman
Master Ratcliffe- Bob Stein
Master Thorney- Ken Erney
Sir Arthur- Scott Wilson
Sommerton- Philip J. Hickman
Susan Carter- Ella Palardi
The Devil Dog- Ben Sostrom
Warbeck- Adam Simon
October 16, 2017 - VOTES FOR WOMEN!
Director- Beth Josephsen
Stage Manager- Rebecca Sharrer
September 18, 2017 - OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD
Director- Philip J. Hickman
Stage Manager- Ellie Allen
House Manager- Grace Reinhart
Cast-
Capt. Arthur Phillip/John Wisehammer- Shaun Brown
Maj. Robbie Ross/Ketch Freeman- Casey Merkey
Capt. David Collins/Robert Sideway- Adam Simon
Capt. Watkin Tench/Black Caesar/Aborigine- Chris Casanova Jones
Capt. Jeremy Campbell/Harry Brewer/John Arscott- David Harewood
Rev. Johnson/Liz Morden- Colleen Nerney
Lt. George Johnston/Mary Brenham- Alison Brogan
Lt. Will Dawes/Meg Long/ Duckling Smith- Beth Josephsen
2nd Lt. Ralph Clark- Samuel Bowen Partridge
2nd Lt. William Faddy/Dabby Bryan- Ayla Stirnaman
August 21, 2017 - FASHION, OR, LIFE IN NEW YORK
Director- Andy Falter
Stage Management- Rebecca Sharrer
House Management- Keely Heyl
Cast-
Adam Trueman- Robert “Mac” McDannold
Count Jolimaitre- Stefan Langer
Colonel Howard- John Vincent Quigley
Mr. Tiffany- Victor Little
T. Tennyson Twinkle- Stefan Farrenkopf
Augustus Fogg- Jeb Bigelow
Snobson- Justin Nawman
Zeke- David Harewood
Mrs. Tiffany- Alycia Yates
Prudence- Emily Turner
Millinette- Natalia White
Gertrude- Chloe Beck
Seraphina Tiffany- McLane Nagy
July 17, 2017 - A BOLD STROKE FOR A WIFE
Director- Allison Brogan
Stage Management- Alexa Raasch
House Management- Grace Rinehart
Cast-
Freeman/Simon Pure- Shane Egan
Mrs. Prim- Beth Josephsen
Periwinkle- Stewart Bender
Tradelove- Colton Weiss
Col. Fainwell- Justin King
Anne Lovely- Aileen Targett
Obediah Prim- Trenton Weaver
Betty- Karlie Kaizer
Sir Phillip Modelove- Shaun Brown
Sackbut- Jason Speicher
June 19, 2017 - A MAN'S WORLD
Director- Adam Simon
Stage Management- Alexa Raasch
House Management- Ayla Stirnaman and Grace Rinehart
Cast-
Frank Ware- Susan Wismar
Lione Brune- Aileen Targett
Clara Oakes- Allison Brogan
Kiddie- Gretchen Reed
Malcolm Gaskell- Ross Shirley
Fritz Bahn- Philip J. Hickman
Wells Trevor- David Harewood
Emile Grimeaux- Ben Sostrom