An original tale by Moses Goldberg, one of America’s Theater for Young Audiences master playwrights, The Sapphire Comb by is influenced in theme and style by Japanese anime and Noh spirit plays. The story voices the continuing struggle for balance and survival between humankind and the earth’s natural forces.
Eleven-year-old Hannah waves her “magic” sapphire comb, a remembrance from her mother, over the water each day while singing and dancing to commune with the River Spirit. In a fit of anger, her ferryman father throws Hannah’s sapphire comb into the river, insisting that she quit pretending and help him. As the spring flooding season threatens the riverside farms, the village begins the annual process of sandbagging. As the floods rise and recede, Hannah’s sapphire comb is found on the bank, and the puzzle of her mother’s disappearance is completed with a bittersweet reunion.
Ohio Valley Summer Theater, in its 60th season of community-university theater productions are in their sixth year of offering quality Youth Theater plays to the area schools at a low fee. Professional directors and designers create a performance using local acting students and area talent to give children an experience seeing live theater. We are pleased this year to have Ohio University School of Theater faculty Rebecca Vernooy directing The Sapphire Comb.
Performances for the community are at ARTS/West, 132 W. State St. on December 9th and 10th at 7:30pm and December 11th at 2 pm.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $3 for children. The show will run approximately 45 minutes without intermission.
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OVST Ticket Office
Kantner Hall, 1st floor lobby
S. College St.
Athens, Oh
(740) 593-9696
Summer Hours: Wed-Fri, 2 pm -5 pm
OVST’s Summer Youth Camp information is here:
Bye Bye Birdie Audition Update:
Anyone who was not able to attend this past Saturday can be seen this Saturday, May 7th at 4:00 PM at Glidden 494. The director is especially looking for those of “a certain age” (older folks) who can play various adults in the chorus and roles in specific scenes. Also looking for orchestra members.
Show dates are July 14-17, 21-24 and 28-31
Bring a 1-2 minute prepared musical theater piece for the audition. Sides will be provided.
Roles: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bye_Bye_Birdie#Roles
- Albert Peterson, Conrad Birdie’s manager
- Rosie Alvarez, his Spanish secretary and long suffering girlfriend
- Conrad Birdie, a 1950s rock and roll star a la Elvis Presley
- Teen Chorus, a group of teen singers
- Kim MacAfee, a teenage girl from Sweet Apple, Ohio who is chosen to receive the ‘one last kiss’ from Conrad Birdie
- Mr. MacAfee, Kim and Randolph’s befuddled father whose one dream is realized when the family gets to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show
- Mrs. MacAfee, Kim and Randolph’s mother
- Hugo Peabody, Kim’s boyfriend who doesn’t like Conrad Birdie
- Ursula Merkle, Kim’s hyperactive best friend who is Conrad Birdie’s biggest fan
- Randolph MacAfee, Kim’s precocious ten year old brother
- Gloria Rasputin, the woman whom Mae Peterson tries to get Albert with
- Charles F. Maude, the proprietor of Sweet Apple dive bar Maude’s Roadside Retreat
- Sad Girl, a young New York City girl who is sad about Conrad leaving for the army (featured dance role)
- Deborah Sue, Alice, Penelope Ann, Margie, Helen, Nancy, Suzie, Kim and Ursula’s friends, teenage members of the Conrad Birdie fan club
- The Mayor, the mayor of Sweet Apple
- The Mayor’s Wife, his wife who is secretly a huge Conrad Birdie fan
- Harvey Johnson, the town nerd, just can’t seem to get a date
- Mr. Johnson, Harvey’s father
- Mrs. Merkle, Ursula’s mother
- Maude’s Barflies, featured quartet singers in the song “Baby, Talk To Me”
- Ed Sullivan, the host of the Ed Sullivan Show and the only unseen character
- Sweet Apple Adults, Sweet Apple Kids, Sad Girls, Reporters, Conrad’s Roadies, Ed Sullivan Stage Crew, Shriners, ensemble roles
- Mrs. Mae Peterson, Albert’s crazy mother who hates Rosie
- Stage Crew for The Ed Sullivan Show, a group of people doing the technical work for the show
Auditions will be Thursday, May 19th from 6:30 -8:30 at Ohio University Glidden Hall (The Music Bldg.) Room 494. Please prepare a monologue. Callbacks will be Friday, May 20th from 6:30-8:30. Show dates are June 23-30 and July 1-2.
Rex McGraw, retired professor, experienced actor and director, will return to the Ohio Valley Summer Theater stage to direct To Kill a Mockingbird. McGraw has directed eleven productions for OVST including Little Mary Sunshine and The Sound of Music. After years of teaching, McGraw moved to Athens in 1969 where he taught acting and directing and eventually be-came head of the Professional Graduate Directing Program.
Scripts are available on closed reserve at two Athens libraries. The Ohio University Alden Library (at the circulation desk) has a 2-hour loan. The Athens Public Library on Home St. will let you read it in the library but not check it out. We encourage you to read the play.
Set in Alabama during the Great Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows the journey of Jem and Scout Finch, whose father has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man framed for a crime he didn’t commit. As the trial progresses, Jem and Scout witness their community in a tense tug of war between justice and racism. This timeless classic compels us to take an honest look at our nation’s past and our moral responsibility to each other. Harper Lee found instant fame after To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960. The novel was showered with literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. After Mockingbird, Lee collaborated with childhood friend Truman Capote on his nonfiction masterpiece In Cold Blood, but never published another novel. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2007. Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptations include Winesburg’, Ohio, Cheaper by the Dozen, Up the Down Staircase and Black Elk Speaks.
Place: Maycomb, Alabama
Time: 1935
Character list: 12 Men and 8 Women, Extras
Jean Louise Finch (Scout as a grown woman, Narrator)
Scout (a young girl)
Jem (her brother, a few years older)
Atticus (their father, around 50 yrs. old)
Calpurnia (the housekeeper, African-American)
Maudie Atkinson (a neighbor, younger than Atticus)
Stephanie Crawford (a neighbor, a gossip)
Mrs. Dubose (a neighbor, an old woman)
Nathan Radley (Boo’s older brother and guardian)
Arthur “Boo” Radley (a recluse)
Dill (a young boy)
Heck Tate (the sheriff)
Judge Taylor (the judge)
Reverend Sykes (an African-American pastor)
Mayella Ewell (a young woman)
Bob Ewell (her father)
Walter Cunningham (a farmer)
Mr. Gilmer (public prosecutor)
Tom Robinson (young African-American man)
Helen Robinson (his wife)
Townspeople
Farmers
* Order elegant Orlando Limos and Transportation for business conventions or family vacations to Disneyland.
* Pods
The Ohio Valley Summer Theater will present “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “Bye, Bye Birdie” for the 2011 summer season. Audition information will be coming soon.
To Kill A Mockingbird
June 23-26 & June 30-July 2
(Auditions are Thursday, May 19 AND Friday, May 20 · 6:30pm – 8:30pm at Ohio University’s Glidden Hall Room 494, Please prepare a monologue.)
Bye, Bye Birdie
July 14-17, 21-24 & 28-31
(Auditions are Saturday April 30th 4:30-6:30 pm at the Ohio University Glidden Hall (The Music Bldg.) Room 494. Possible Callbacks on May 7th from 4:30-6:30, Please prepare a song)
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Look for our Winter Show to be announced soon!
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