CCM Announces 2006-2007 Studio Series

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is pleased to announce details for the 2006-2007 Studio Series season. Produced by CCM's OMDA (Opera, Musical Theater, Drama and Arts Administration) division, the Studio Series features 10 works presented in intimate theater spaces, giving student designers, directors and performers additional opportunities to produce and hone their crafts for public audiences.

All studio productions, with the exception of The Dangerous Liaisons in January, are FREE and open to the public. Due to limited seating, ticket reservations are required. For additional information, contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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Oct. 19-21, 2006
Lysistrata
By Aristophanes   

Written in 411 B.C., Lysistrata is one of the world's oldest classic comedies, offering a timeless and satirical glimpse into gender politics and the ridiculous business of war. Sparta and Athens have been fighting for decades with no end in sight, so Lysistrata, an Athenian housewife, contrives a plan to catch the soldiers' attention: encourage the women of Greece to withhold sexual affections from their husbands until peace is achieved.

Director: Sky Heussenstamm
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, Oct. 16, at noon.
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Nov. 2-4, 2006
The Robber Bridegroom
Music by Robert Waldman
Book & lyrics by Alfred Uhry

Based on the darkly comic novel by Eudora Welty set in 18th century Mississippi, The Robber Bridegroom is a rowdy musical fable about a charming rogue, the rich plantation owner's daughter he loves, and the devious thieves, devilish stepmother and hostile, talking head in a box they try to outwit. A punchy bluegrass-inspired score punctuates The Robber Bridegroom's outrageous plot twists.

Director: Robert Wood
Musical Director: Andrew Smithson
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, Oct. 30, at noon.
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Nov. 9-12, 2006
The Lucrezia Legend

The legend of Lucrezia is the story of a woman raped by her husband's friend after the men bet that no wife will remain faithful while husbands are away at war. Lucrezia compels her husband and father to avenge the act and then kills herself rather than live with the memory. Over many centuries, Lucrezia's story has inspired countless works of artistic interpretation. Here, the perspectives of four great artists — Ottorino Respighi, George Frideric Handel, Benjamin Britten and William Shakespeare — are interwoven into one, painting an original and poignant portrait of the complexity of honor.

Directors: Sandra Bernhard & Michael Burnham
Musical Preparation: Kelly Hale
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, Nov. 6, at noon.
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Jan.12 & 13, 2007
The Dangerous Liaisons
Composed by Conrad Susa
Libretto by Philip Littell (English)
Based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Premiered in 1994, Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons reinvents Laclos' classic novel of drawing-room intrigue in pre-revolutionary France, a story that inspired several films including Steven Frears' 1988 version starring John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer. In the selfish pursuit of idle amusement, a wealthy aristocrat and her former lover hatch a seedy bet using their lovers as currency. Things soon turn sinister as each relies on malicious manipulation to swindle, seduce and shame those they touch.

Conductor: Annunziata Tomaro
Director: Benjamin Smith
Musical Preparation: Sylvia Plyler
Location: Patricia Corbett Theater
Admission is $10. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 26, at noon.
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Feb. 15-17, 2007
The Comedy of Errors
By William Shakespeare

One of Shakespeare's early works, The Comedy of Errors exploits the playwright's most favored devices: outrageous circumstances, mistaken identity, and escalating confusion right to the end. Twin brothers, separated by a childhood shipwreck and raised in enemy territories, end up in the same city years later (though unbeknownst to one another). As each is repeatedly mistaken for the other, lovers, servants and government officials spiral into nightmarish madness until inevitably, resolution arrives and all are saved, married or rescued.

Director: Michael Burnham
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, Feb. 12, at noon.
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March 2-4, 2007
Opera Double Bill

Une education manque
Composed by Emanuel Chabrier
Libretto by Rene Chalupt & Albert Vanloo

Le pauvre matelot
Composed by Darius Milhaud
Libretto by Jean Cocteau

These two one-act operas are tied together by the creative thread of French composer Darius Milhaud. In 1924, Milhaud composed additional music for Une education manque, Emmanuel Chabrier's 1879 comedic operetta in which a young groom seeks a lesson in wedding night protocol. Several years later, Milhaud composed Le pauvre matelot, the heartbreaking tale of a sailor's wife whose faithful vigil for his return inadvertently ends in tragedy.

Conductors: Christopher Hill/Blake Richardson
Director: Nicholas Muni
Musical Preparation: Kelly Hale
Location: Dieterle Vocal Arts Center
Admission is free, but limited. Tickets available on the night of the performance at the door only.
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March 8-10, 2007
Cabaret
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Book by Joe Masteroff

Kander and Ebb's most successful musical captures Berlin in the moments leading up to the Third Reich. When American writer Clifford Bradshaw arrives in Berlin in 1929, he discovers the steamy Kit Kat Club and launches a relationship with Sally Bowles, an English singer employed there. As the rise of Nazism tears the city apart, the Cabaret struggles to maintain its reputation as a place to forget one's troubles.

Director: Diane Lala
Musical Director: Roger Grodsky
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, March 5, at noon.
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April 26-29, 2007
Big Love
By Charles L. Mee

In this wild 21st century retelling of Aeschylus's The Danaids, 50 brides are forced into marriage with 50 grooms, launching a series of events that careen from heady drama to physical comedy and culminate in a bloody wedding night massacre. Big Love takes the battle of the sexes to new heights and redraws Greek tragedy in the image of popular American culture, complete with trans-dressing, gymnastic routines, confessional poetry and matrimonial pop music.

Director: Richard E. Hess
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, April 23, at noon.
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May 10-12, 2007
The Cradle Will Rock
By Marc Blitzstein

This controversial musical premiered in 1937 as part of the Federal Theatre Project under the direction of a young Orson Welles. Steeltown, U.S.A.'s crooked political boss, Mister Mister, is steadfastly buying out the businesses and souls of hardworking citizens, until union organizer Larry Foreman refuses his offer and reverses the tide of corporate corruption and greed. When the original production of The Cradle Will Rock fell victim to government censors, the cast and crew found an alternative venue and defiantly went on with the show.

Director: Sky Heussenstamm
Musical Director: Andrew Smithson
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, May 7, at noon.
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May 25-27, 2007
Iphigenie en Tauride
Composed by Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck
Libretto by Nicolas-Francois Guillard

As high priestess of Tauris, Iphigenie, daughter of Agamemnon, is cursed with the task of sacrificing all strangers who set foot on the island as decreed by Thoas, the King, who is obsessed with his own doom at the hands of a stranger. Her resolve is tested when two Greeks are cast upon shore during a wild storm, and one is revealed to be her brother, Orestes. First performed in 1779, Iphigenie en Tauride is considered Gluck's crowning achievement in his quest to craft flowing operatic scores around riveting plotlines, creating a dramatic style later emulated by composers such as Mozart and Wagner.

Conductor & Musical Preparation: Matthew Lobaugh
Director: Brian Robertson
Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission is free. Reservations available beginning Monday, May 21, at noon.

Season subject to change. Rights pending.
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University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
2006-07 Studio Series Season

DRAMA
Lysistrata
By Aristophanes

Director:
Sky Heussenstamm

Performance Dates:
Oct. 19, 2006 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Oct. 20, 2006 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Oct. 21, 2006 ~ 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, Oct. 16, at noon-please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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MUSICAL THEATER
The Robber Bridegroom
Music by Robert Waldman
Book & lyrics by Alfred Uhry

Director:
Robert Wood

Musical Director:
Andrew Smithson

Performance Dates:
Nov. 2, 2006 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Nov. 3, 2006 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Nov. 4, 2006 ~ 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, Oct. 30, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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OPERA
The Lucrezia Legend

Directors:
Sandra Bernhard & Michael Burnham

Musical Preparation:
Kelly Hale

Performance Dates:
Nov. 9, 2006 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Nov. 11, 2006 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Nov. 12, 2006 ~ 2:30 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, Nov. 6, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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OPERA
The Dangerous Liaisons
Composed by Conrad Susa
Libretto by Philip Littell

Conductor:
Annunziata Tomaro

Director:
Benjamin Smith

Musical Preparation:
Sylvia Plyler

Performance Dates:
Jan. 12, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
Jan. 13, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.

Location:
Patricia Corbett Theater

Admission:
Admission is $10. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 26, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183 to order.
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DRAMA
The Comedy of Errors
By William Shakespeare

Director:
Michael Burnham

Performance Dates:
February 15, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
February 16, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
February 17, 2007 ~ 2:30 & 8:00 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, Feb. 13, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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OPERA
Une education manque
Composed by Emanuel Chabrier
Libretto by Rene Chalupt & Albert Vanloo

Le pauvre matelot
Composed by Darius Milhaud
Libretto by Jean Cocteau

Conductors:
Christopher Hill/Blake Richardson

Director:
Nicholas Muni

Musical Preparation:
Kelly Hale

Performance Dates:
March 2, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
March 3, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
March 4, 2007 ~ 2:30 p.m.

Location:
Dieterle Vocal Arts Center

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, Feb. 26, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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MUSICAL THEATER
Cabaret
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Book by Joe Masteroff

Director:
Diane Lala

Musical Preparation:
Roger Grodsky

Performance Dates:
March 8, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
March 9, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
March 10, 2007 ~ 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, March 5, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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DRAMA
Big Love
By Charles L. Mee

Director:
Richard E. Hess

Performance Dates:
April 26, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
April 27, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
April 28, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
April 29, 2007 ~ 2:30 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, April 23, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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MUSICAL THEATER
The Cradle Will Rock
By Marc Blitzstein

Director:
Sky Heussenstamm

Musical Director:
Andrew Smithson

Performance Dates:
May 10, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
May 11, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
May 12, 2007 ~ 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
Admission is free, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, May 7, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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OPERA
Iphigenie en Tauride
Composed by Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck
Libretto by Nicolas-Franois Guillard

Conductor/Musical Preparation:
Matthew Lobaugh

Director:
Brian Robertson

Performance Dates:
May 25, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
May 26, 2007 ~ 8:00 p.m.
May 27, 2007 ~ 2:30 p.m.

Location:
Cohen Family Studio Theater

Admission:
FREE, but ticket reservations are required. Tickets become available Monday, May 21, at noon — please contact the CCM Box Office at (513) 556-4183.
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For more information, visit the CCM Web site: www.ccm.uc.edu.


Musical Theater Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation