MLES2GO (Oct. 10-13) offers a blend of comic moments and serious subject matter in its portrayal of young Jordan Belner, who decides to gamble on his future and hitchhike across the country to figure out who he really is. Along the way, he meets an eccentric collection of people who help him confront reality and come to terms with his true self. Los Angeles playwright Michael P. Adams will work with the production team to enrich the script, which was a highlight of last season’s Renaissance Theatre’s Emerging Artists Festival. This production offers a workshop-style staging of this provocative, humorous, and deeply moving play with opportunities for audience feedback.
MLES2GO is produced in partnership with the Emerging Artist Program and performs in Founders Auditorium Oct. 10, 11, and 13 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 12, at 2:30 p.m. This performance includes adult language and mature content.
Medea (Nov. 15-17) is a Greek classic that focuses on a woman who is cruelly thrown aside by her husband, only to commit an unthinkable act of brutality. Translated by Augusta Webster, a 19th-century scholar, poet and suffragist, this production updates Webster’s original text to support her exceptional version of Euripides’ masterpiece. Medea performs Saturday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m., Sunday Nov. 16, at 2:30 p.m., and Monday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m.
The season will conclude with the musical 1776, presented in cooperation with The Mansfield Playhouse. 1776 offers a portrayal of our founders’ struggle to declare their independence from England. The performance follows John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson as they attempt to convince the members of the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence and sign the declaration. With its rich variety of great songs and memorable lyrics, this humorous, insightful, and compelling version of one of history’s great moments will be performed March 7-9 at Ohio State Mansfield, and March 13-15 at The Mansfield Playhouse.
As a special treat, this season also includes a free screening of The Farewell, an award-winning film about love, loss, and family, presented in collaboration with The Bromfield Library and Information Commons and Ohio State’s Center for East Asian Studies, on Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. in Founders Auditorium.
Tickets for MLES2GO and Medea are $6 for students, seniors and educators and $10 for the general public through mansfieldtheatre@osu.edu or 419 755-4045 or at Founders Auditorium in the 45 minutes before each show. Tickets for 1776 are $10-12. All tickets for 1776 are $10 and $12 through https://www.mansfieldplayhouse.com or 419-522-2883 and can be purchased on location the hour before each performance.
For more information, Joe Fahey can be reached at fahey.9@osu.edu or 419-755-4276.
