ADA, Ohio -- Ohio Northern University's Ninth International Play Festival opens Wednesday with a focus on Native American theater. The festival will feature the work of guest artists from the Iroquois Confederacy, a collection of Native American nations in upstate New York and Canada.
Plays were commissioned from Eric Gansworth, a member of the Onondaga nation who is a professor of English at Canisius College in Buffalo, and Vickie Ramirez, a member of the Tuscarora nation and an alumna of the Public Theater's Emerging Writer's Group in New York City. Both writers are on the Ada campus this week, conducting workshops and participating in symposia, according to Catriona Macphie Hynds, managing director of the Freed Center for the Performing Arts.
Gansworth's Rabbit Dance tells of the encounter between two white teenagers and two Native Americans selling beadwork in Niagara Falls Park. Ramirez's Standoff at Highway #37 is set during a land dispute. When the government attempts to build a highway across reservation land, the Native Americans stage a protest. The National Guard is called in, and a Native American guardsman must fight his own people.
Their works, both one-acts, will be presented at 8 p.m. Wednesday through April 9 and 2 p.m. April 10 in the Freed Center. A preshow discussion will be at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday and a postshow discussion will take place on April 8.
At 8 p.m. April 9, Gloria Miguel will present her one-woman play, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, directed by Steve Elm of the Oneida nation. Miguel, of Kuna and Rappahannock ancestry, is a co-founder of Spiderwoman Theater, a feminist Native American theater in New York City.
The festival will feature performances by professional actors Monique Mojica, Kateri Walker, and Jake Hart and student actors including Hayley Reynolds of Sylvania.
"This is one of our biggest festivals," Hynds said. "Not so much in the size of it or the distance that our authors have traveled, but in the number of Native American professionals we have on campus for it."
The festival will also feature story-telling, an art exhibit by Melanie Printup Hope, and a whole range of artistic experiences related to the Native American culture, she said.
Tickets for the Ninth International Play Festival are $15 for adults, $12 for nonstudents and seniors, and $9 for children. Information: 419-772-1900 or freedcenter.com.
Also opening
● The Toledo Repertoire Theatre's EdgyRep series presents The Mercy Seat, Neil LaBute's drama about a man, Ben, who works at the World Trade Center. When the Center is attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, Ben is away from his job, in a tryst with his mistress (and boss), Abby. Knowing that their families believe them to have been killed, Ben and Abby debate the opportunity to disappear into a new life together. For the reading, J. Judson Lohman directs Ben Lumbrezer as Ben and Kate Abu-Absi as Abby. Like many of LaBute's plays, the dialogue is sexually explicit. The performance is at 8 p.m. Saturday in the theater at 16 10th St.; tickets are $10. Information: 419-243-9277.
● Tornado Warning, Part One opens at 8 p.m. Saturday in the South Wing of the Oliver House, 27 Broadway, as a production of the North Coast Theater. Written by Christine Child, the play, which was honored by the Ohio Arts Council, explores the lives and dreams that haunt residents of what was once the Black Swamp. Performers include Kristen Bewley, Julian Garcia, Madge Levinson, Kat Reeder, Matt Taylor, and Matt Wikander. Additional performances will be April 9, 16, 23, and 30. Tickets are $10. Information: 419-255-0416.
● Genoa Civic Theatre opens Joseph Kesselring's dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace Friday in the Town Hall Opera House, 509 1/2 Main St., Genoa. The stage and film classic, about two elderly sisters and their most peculiar hobby, will be presented at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through April 10. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students. Information: 419-855-3103.
● The Watercoolers comes to the River Raisin Center for the Arts, 114 South Monroe St., Monroe, for one performance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The New York-based comedy group uses songs and sketch comedy to expound on everything from the frustrations of technology to school fund-raisers. Tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $15 for students. Information: 734-242-7722 or riverraisincentre.org.
● Sandusky State Theater presents In the Mood at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The musical revue features the sounds, dances, and costumes of the 1940s, with music by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Erskine Hawkins, the Andrew Sisters, Frank Sinatra, and more. Tickets are $10 to $25 for the show only, $28 to $43 for a dinner theater package, with the meal catered by Creative Cuisine. The theater is at 107 Columbus Ave., Sandusky. Information: 419-626-1950; toll free at 877-626-1950; or www.sanduskystate.com.
Contact Nanciann Cherry at: ncherry@theblade.com or 419-724-6130.
First Published March 30, 2011, 11:10 p.m.
