New Season Preview | Theater: Scaled-down productions go full-steam ahead

While popular traveling Broadway shows won’t be stopping in town this year, central Ohio’s theater companies and comedy troupes are demonstrating pluck and resilience by offering plays, musicals, comedy events and other seasonal fare during the pandemic — usually through online offerings.

To keep cast, crew and theatergoers safe, many groups are choosing shows to produce with small or one-person casts and taking a number of other precautions. These include rehearsing with masks after required testing and temperature checks; scaling down crews by having the director and actors help with lighting, costumes and more; and staging — or videotaping — the pieces with socially distanced actors.

PLAYS

• Curtain Players is presenting a hybrid, drive-in-movie-style theater production of “The Dixie Swim Club” to kick off its 2020-21 season. The play by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten spans 33 years in the lives of five Southern women from college to marriage, parenting, divorce and aging. As actors perform inside the community theater’s space — before a very limited audience — Blue Skies HD Video will stream the production on a large screen outside for people to see from their cars. (8:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18-20 and Sept. 25-26, 5691 Harlem Road, Galena, www.curtainplayers.org)

• In their first collaboration, Evolution Theatre Company and the Abbey Theaterof Dublin will present a streaming production of “The Sissy Chronicles,” writer-performer Mark Phillips Schwamberger’s solo autobiographical exploration of the life experience of a gay man and how social structures define the lives of those deemed different. (Sept. 17-20, dublinohiousa.gov, evolutiontheatre.org)

• Ohio Wesleyan University’s Department of Theatre & Dance will present livestreaming performances of “Inter/Sect,” a student-created theater piece about today’s social issues and the “inherent contradictions of American existence.” (Oct. 2-4, www.owu.edu/theatreanddance)

• Red Herring Productions will stream a production of “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” Burt Grinstead and Ann Stromberg’s 80-minute comedy adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella about split identity and murder in Victorian England. (livestream Oct. 9, restreaming Oct. 16-17; www.redherring.info)

• CATCO will present streaming performances of four free, short, multigenerational plays by playwright-poet Idris Goodwin for ages 6 and up to spark conversations about race in America: “The Water Gun Song,” “ACT FREE,” “Nothing Rhymes with Juneteenth” and “#MATTER.” This will run in association with The HeART of Protest, the King Arts Complex’s series honoring worldwide protests for social justice. (livestream Oct. 24, recording available later at catco.org)

• Otterbein University Theatre will present a fully staged streaming production of “An Enemy of the People,” Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 drama about a public-health threat from water contamination that puts a community in peril despite warnings from a crusading doctor. (Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, www.otterbein.edu/drama)

• The Abbey Theater of Dublin will stream a scaled-down "preview“ of “We Served,” an 11-vignette drama about Columbus veterans created by vets during a year-long writing project. The group hopes to offer a full-scale production in May. (Nov. 11-15, dublinohiousa.gov)

• Ohio State University at Newark will post a recorded reading of Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” with additional dialogue by director Edie L. Norlin. (posted after Nov. 21, newark.osu.edu)

• MadLab Theatre will stream the world premiere of “A Very Covid Christmas,” an evening of short, holiday-themed comedies and dramas from playwrights across the country who were asked to conceive new works specifically written to include COVID-19 safety precautions, including masks, barriers and social distancing for actors. (Dec. 3-12, madlab.net)

MUSICALS

• The Abbey Theater of Dublin will stream “Super Happy Awesome News!,” a virtual musical by composer-lyricist Denver Casado and author Jessica Penzias featuring 16 young artists (ages 9 to 16) about two siblings who launch rival “good news” networks and compete for the title of happiest news show until their vulnerability penetrates the euphoric facade. (beginning Friday, dublinohiousa.gov)

• Short North Stage will stream a new version of “Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly” (Sept. 21-30), a campy off-Broadway musical about gay men putting on a costume-crazy show, enhanced with new songs and sketches by original writer Mark Waldrop and two songs sung by Columbus’s Nina West (“Rupaul’s Drag Race”). Later, it will stream the world premiere of “Quarantine with the Clauses” (Dec. 10-20), a holiday musical comedy send-up of celebrity TV Christmas specials written by Waldrop and composer Jeff Lodin. (www.shortnorthstage.org)

• The Otterbein University theater and dance and music departments will stream a fully staged production of “The Theory of Relativity” — with costumes, scenery, sets, lighting and student actors performing on the Fritsche Theatre stage. The 2014 musical was written for college students by New York composer-lyricist Neil Bartram and author Brian Hill as an unconventional cycle of songs, scenes and monologues examining life experiences with heart and humor. (Oct. 8-11, www.otterbein.edu/drama)

• Gallery Players will present a Zoom appearance by Grammy-nominated actor-singer-educator Alexandra Silber, who appeared in Broadway revivals of “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Master Class.” Silber will discuss her life and varied artistic career, read from her book “After Anatevka” and perform several Broadway songs. (Dec. 19, www.jccgalleryplayers.org)

The Abbey Theatre of Dublin and State of the Arts Productions will coproduce “Songs for a New World,” composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown’s musical with songs about life, love and the choices people make. (live-streaming March 19, with recorded video March 20-27, dublinohiousa.gov)

COMEDY

• Shadowbox Live will stream a 30-minute condensed version of “Let’s Get it On,” a sketch-comedy and music show exploring love, sex and relationships. The spring production was canceled just as it was about to open due to the pandemic, but the company plans to stage the full two-act version in 2021. (Thursday through Sunday, www.shadowboxlive.org)

• Movies aren’t the only form of entertainment offered by the South Drive-in Theatre, with comedians Hannibal Buress (Sept. 26) and Nate Bargatze (Oct. 2) performing live during the pandemic. (www.drive-inmovies.com)

• Comedy sketches in the geeky style of old-time radio serials are performed by It’s All Been Done Presents in its monthly 80-minute YouTube productions of the “It's All Been Done Radio Hour,” including some spooky shorts created for October’s Halloween-themed edition. (Oct. 10, Nov. 12, Dec. 12, Jan. 9, Feb. 13, March 13, www.itsallbeendoneradiohour.com)

• Columbus Funny Bone Comedy Club is hosting a variety of live performers, including D.L. Hughley (Nov. 6-8), John Heffron (Dec. 10-13), Dan Soder (Feb. 18-20) and Michael Rapaport (April 23-24). Safety measures taken for the audience involve required masks, social separation, temperature checks, controlled foot traffic and hand-sanitizer stations. (columbus.funnybone.com)

• The Nest Theatre, on physical hiatus during the pandemic, is offering some comic fare, including student shows and workshops on its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pg/thenesttheatre/events)

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