Be the first audience to witness the premiere of an original work on stage at The Woodward Opera House.

Classroom Connections in partnership with Knox County Education Service Center*

Friday May 2 • 7:30 PM
Saturday May 3 • 7:30 PM
Sunday May 4 • 2:00 PM
Friday May 9 • 7:30 PM
Saturday May 10 • 7:30 PM
Sunday May 11 • 2:00 PM

Tickets:

$20 Main Floor • $15 Balcony

Presented by:

Title sponsorship is open for this production.  Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Event Sponsors:

Ora and Sue Smith

Venue:

Woodward Opera House  – 107 South Main St, Mount Vernon OH 43050

Synopsis:

In a faraway time in colonial America, before there were theaters or courthouses, the Somerset Tavern served as both. A troupe of actors is accused of treason for a play staged there; by chance their trial for the capital offense convenes in the same tavern, owned by Bridget Brighton, a young woman of mixed race. The traveling Judge, Aubrey Draw, and Bridget were lovers once but have not met in ten years.

Most of the actors have escaped, but Judge Draw insists that the two remaining perform the play so he can rule on the evidence. The old actor playwright, Roland Bannister, and his young protege, Morgan Nightingale, perform a farcical version of their play that is poetic allegory, perplexing the Judge as well as a young lawyer, Edgar Weathervane, who witnessed the play and is obsessed with getting a conviction.

The kindly Bridget is equally obsessed with freeing these innocent men. The conflict between them, and her ongoing romance with the Judge set the stage for exciting reversals, high-jinks, revelations, and an astonishing resolution.

Credits:

• PREMIERE of Original work by Daniel Mark Epstein

DANIEL MARK EPSTEIN is an American poet, dramatist, and biographer whose works have been translated into many languages. His stage plays, including Jenny and the Phoenix, The Midnight Visitor, and Jefferson and Poe have been produced Off Broadway (St. Peter’s Church, Symphony Space) and in Regional Theaters (Baltimore’s Theatre Project); and his radio dramas Star of Wonder, and The Two Menorahs, have become mainstays on National Public Radio. His many honors include the Prix de Rome (Rome Prize) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and an Academy Award for Literature, also from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has taught playwriting at The Johns Hopkins University (graduate writing program) and Towson State University. The author of more than twenty-five books, he will be publishing his collected poems, Constellations, in the autumn of 2025.