Digital Commons @ Otterbein

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  Educating Rita

  Otterbein University Theatre and Dance Department

  Educating Rita is a witty yet poignant look at a working class woman’s attempts to change her social circumstances through pursuit of an Open University qualification. Rita is a twenty-six-year-old working-class hairdresser, married to Denny and living round the corner from her family. She has enrolled on an Open University course in an attempt to discover herself and better her circumstances. Rita has realized that she is out of step with most of her family and friends as she is not prepared to settle for what she has already got. Her tutor is Frank, a frustrated poet and academic, who works as a lecturer at a university. He is an alcoholic and, to begin with, is less than enthusiastic about taking Rita on as a student. However, he is fascinated by her take on life and realizes that she has academic potential. Under his cynical guidance, Rita grows in confidence and understanding. After leaving her husband, Rita moves in with a fellow student and wholeheartedly embraces the bohemian, student lifestyle, much to Frank’s dismay. Frank cannot stand the pretentious, pompous attitudes of her new friends, but Rita does not understand his cynical reaction. With her newfound knowledge, Rita starts to distance herself from Frank, believing him to be bitter and unappreciative of his poetic talent. She becomes more arrogant and false in her behavior, even altering her accent to try and fit in with the middle class students. However, after her flatmate attempts suicide, Rita realizes how ridiculous her lifestyle has become. She takes her exam and passes with flying colors. After being reported for lecturing whilst drunk, Frank faces a forced two-year sabbatical in Australia. He and Rita part as friends, with the future unclear for both of them, yet full of possibilities. Educating Rita is one of Willy Russell’s best known plays, drawing on every emotion to produce a profoundly moving, yet also hilarious two-hander.

  https://stageagent.com/shows/play/6466/educating-rita

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  Charley's Aunt

  Otterbein University Theatre and Dance Department

  Charley and Jack love Amy and Kitty. Amy is about to go away, and Charley thinks he may miss his opportunity to ask for her hand. Then he discovers that his aunt, a Brazilian woman he hardly knows, is coming for lunch. How fortuitous! Now the aunt can chaperone while the boys ask the girls to marry them. Naturally, things don't go as planned. Donna Lucia, the aunt, is late, and their friend, Lord Fancourt Babberley (Babbs) shows up in drag. He is convinced to pretend to be Donna Lucia, and a wild afternoon of mistaken identity, young love, old love, angry uncles, and one beautiful, exotic aunt ensues. In the end, just as it looks like Uncle Stephen is going to ruin everything, the real Donna Lucia steps in and graciously puts an end to the madness. All the lovers end up together and happy, except for Uncle Stephen, who was starting to fall for Babbs!

  https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1950/charleys-aunt

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  Black Coffee

  Otterbein University Theatre and Dance Department

  Accomplished physicist Sir Claud Amory has constructed a workable formula for one of the most deadly weapons known to man – the atom bomb. Hercule Poirot, with the help of Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp, is called in after the formula is mysteriously stolen and Sir Claud is callously murdered.

  A superbly crafted whodunit with endless red herrings, subplots of infamous spies and an astonishingly prophetic storyline about weapons created through ‘bombarding the atom’. One of Christie’s most gripping country house murder mysteries.

  https://www.samuelfrench.com/p/1120/black-coffee