A pack of wolves, a school of fish, a tantrum of bobcats – the collective noun for Ohio University’s mascot was the inspiration for its newly minted Tantrum Theater.
The university’s College of Fine Arts has created its own professional company after a near 60-year relationship with a company based in Cape Cod.
Tantrum Theater will produce three shows, 57 performances total, at the Dublin Community Recreation Center’s Abbey Theater this summer. After weeks of rehearsal at Ohio University’s main campus in Athens, professional actors along with select students are ready for the stage.
Why Dublin? Ohio University has been expanding its presence in Dublin since 2014, when its Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in the City’s West Innovation District. So when the group was looking for a new home, it made sense to join its fellow Bobcats in Dublin.
“When Ohio University approached us looking for space, we worked closely with them to make it happen,” says Michelle Crandall, assistant city manager for the City of Dublin. “This partnership represents an investment in the future of performing arts, elevating and expanding cultural arts for the entire community.”
Tantrum Theater brings a new, high-quality entertainment option to the community, but will also provide opportunities for local learning, with educational workshops for high school students in and around Dublin.
“When audiences come to Dublin’s Abbey Theater for Tantrum’s first season, I want them to experience the energy and pull of these stories. I want them to relate to the humanity of these characters and their problems,” says Artistic Director Daniel C. Dennis.
“The stories of our inaugural season get at something we are all striving for. We are all looking for happiness and fulfillment. We’re all looking for some recognition of our worth, some acknowledgement that we’re here and that we matter. We want to know that not only do we fit into a community of some kind, but that we make our communities better,” he says. “A fun B-movie Motown-inspired monster musical, a new play that asks us each to confront our beliefs and a classic Irish memory play about family – I hope audiences will be transported to very different worlds, where they will find people very much like themselves.”
Productions will take place in the Abbey Theater until a more permanent space is identified. The City of Dublin is exploring the possibility of a performing arts center that would likely serve as Tantrum Theater’s long-term home.
Tickets are $27.50 for the general public and $10 for students. For show details and to reserve your seats, visit www.tantrumtheater.org. For more performances taking place this summer, visit DublinOhioUSA.gov/summer-theater.
Sarah McQuaide is a public information officer for the City of Dublin. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
Little Shop of Horrors. Images courtesy of Tantrum Theater
Little Shop of Horrors
May 31-June 25
Just your typical comedy-horror-rock musical about a boy, a girl and a carnivorous houseplant.
Poor, hapless Seymour only wants to impress the girl of his dreams. Will cultivating a bloodthirsty plant gain him the fame and fortune he needs? Just a few bodies later, and suddenly Seymour is standing in a flower shop on skid row battling a deadly threat to humanity’s very existence. Bring your green thumb and join us for this delightfully twisted cult-movie romp about love, murder and the American Dream.
Music by Alan Menken; based on a film by Roger Corman; screenplay by Charles Griffith; directed by Daniel C. Dennis
Tammy Faye's Final Audition
Tammy Faye’s Final Audition
July 5-16
Reveal yourself.
Tammy Faye Bakker was the sweetheart of Christian television in the 1980s until fraud and sex scandals brought her world crashing down. In this fever dream at the end of her life, Tammy Faye enlists the men she loved to help her get back on TV and tape one last media extravaganza. Merri Biechler’s new play wipes clean the mascara and tears to make known the naked truth, and ask: to whom, and for what, do we so desperately devote ourselves?
A new play by Merri Biechler; directed by Dennis Lee Delaney
Dancing at Lughnasa
Dancing at Lughnasa
July 26-Aug. 13
Can love set you free?
Journey to the heart of Ireland to experience the pulsating energy of a Celtic harvest festival, and remember for a moment a simple life filled with laughter and hope. In one of Ireland’s most beloved and powerful plays, five indomitable sisters dance through memories of family, tenderness and heartbreak – as the world tumbles toward revolution.
Rian Friel’s award-winning Irish masterpiece; directed by Sheila Daniels
