Shows and Roles:

Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian
directed by Buz Davis
Rehearsals: Aug 26-Sep 21/Performances: Sep 22-Oct 13

Sid Greenberg – host of finance radio show
Bernie – Sid’s producer operator
Spike – radio sound engineer
Dan Woodruff – late 30’s to late 40’s, Barry’s operator and best friend, the Ying to Barry’s Yang
Stu Noonan – 40’s to 50’s, radio station producer
Linda MacArthur – late 20’s to mid-30’s, attractive associate producer
Barry Champlain – late 30’s to late 40’s, a Jewish radio personality with a caustic sense of humor and a knack for cutting people down with his controversial political views
Kent – teenager, smart ass prankster
Dr. Susan Fleming – radio psychologist
Dr. Fleming’s Operator

The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris, as adapted by Joe Mantello
and The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Ginna Hoben
directed by Lewis Magruder
Rehearsals: Nov 4-30/Performances Dec 1-22

Crumpet – early 30’s
Mary – late 20’s to mid-30’s

Slow Descent from Heaven by Catie O’Keefe
directed by Ed Cohen
Rehearsals: Jan 13- Feb 8/Performances Feb 9-Mar 2

Molly ages 26 to 43 years old – Strong willed, independent scientist
Sid ages 31 to 39 years old – Grounded, practical guy in love with Molly
Dietrich ages 30 to 44 years old – Ambitious Russian scientist, Molly’s former coworker and lover
Beth ages 59 to 66 years old – Midwestern mother wanting more for her son (Sid) in his relationship

Miss Witherspoon by Christopher Durang
directed by Mark Seamon
Rehearsals: Mar 17-Apr12/Performances Apr13-May4

Veronica – A smart but worried woman, mid-forties to late fifties

Maryamma – A spirit guide in the netherworld, she may be any age. She is intelligent, and has a grace of movement and loveliness of spirit. She is also forceful when she needs to be. She wears a sari, and her ethnicity is Indian – that is from India.

Actress 1 – plays Mother 1 (thirties, a new mother somewhere in Connecticut, thrilled to have a new baby, sensible, nice) and Mother 2 (thirties, drug addict much of the time; cranky to have a baby; not trying to be mean, but not fighting it either)

Actress 2 – plays Teacher (any age, but best forty to fifty-five, African American, a bit over-worked, but a good teacher, intelligent, wants to help when she can) and Woman in a Hat (African American, a surprise visitor in the netherworld, proud of her appearance, wears an impressive “going-to-church” hat, sassy and pointed in her comments)

Actor – plays Father 1(thirties, also thrilled at have first baby, prosperous, sensible, nice), Father 2 (Hell’s Angel type, a drug addict, zones out a lot), Sleazy Man (British guy named Stanley, hangs out in the playground selling drugs to children), Dog Owner (nice guy, thirties, pretty average, loves his dog), Soothing Voice and Wise Man (another visitor in the netherworld, dressed in long white robes, he is articulate and a somewhat powerful wizard.)

# # #

“We’re also making changes to our performance schedule,” adds Managing Director Devon Campailla. “Each of our main stage shows will run four weeks, opening with a Saturday performance. The second weekend will have performances on Friday and Saturday and the subsequent weekends will run Thursday through Saturday. This will give audiences a wider selection of weekends to choose from to attend our shows.”

Auditions for the season will be announced shortly. Those interested in design and production positions should send resumes to jobs@newedgecliff.com. High school and college students interested in internships should apply online.

NEXT Season Line Up

Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian
September 22nd-October 13th, 2012
Directed By Buz Davis

Talk Radio opens our 15th anniversary season, commemorating NET’s inaugural, CEA-nominated production of Bogosian’s Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll in 1998. Rush Limbaugh doesn’t hold a candle to Cleveland’s WTLK radio host, Barry Champlain. On the eve that Barry’s show is to go national, he shows no loss for words with his callers, who range from a desperate, soon-to-be-teen-mom, a man knowledgeable in nuclear power and those who just want to hear their voice on the radio. Fueled by coffee, Jack Daniels, cocaine and the voice on the other end of the phone line, he puts on his finest performance yet. Immersed once again in the pool of boring, emotionless, uneducated voices that feed his career, he is left to question his ability to maintain his role. With every passing minute of airtime, not even Barry knows if it’s a performance for the new syndicate or perhaps a final show for just himself. “The most lacerating portrait of a human meltdown this side of a Francis Bacon painting…”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, adapted for the stage by Catie O’Keefe
October 20th, 2012
Directed By Bob Allen

NET’s annual Sweet Suspense Radio Drama returns with a family friendly radio style adaptation of the Oscar Wilde classic. This one night only event includes a recreation of an early radio studio complete with live sound effects by Mike Martini. Intermission will feature an assortment of desserts and sweets from some of Cincinnati’s finest bakeries, restaurants and caterers. Where others have run screaming in terror, the Otis family seems quite comfortable in their new haunted house. After moving to England and into Canterville Chase, this family of Americans finds nothing frightening about the famous Canterville ghost. In fact, his attempt to replenish an old blood stain is nothing but annoying and his efforts to scare the family members usually end in the ghost hiding in fear. It’s not until the young daughter,Virginia, takes an interest in helping the murderous spirit, that the family and the ghost find peace and quiet. The production will once again be under the direction of Bob Allen.



The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello
and The 12 Dates of Christmas by Ginna Hoben
December 1st-22nd, 2012
Direct by Lewis McGruder, featuring an all new cast!

Everyone’s favorite elf Crumpet, the elf fixated on spastic children, obnoxious parents, nutty co-workers and, oh yeah … One Life to Live, is back in our alternative holiday favorite! Then, in 12 Dates of Christmas…what happens when Mary sees her fiancé making out with his co-worker on national TV at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? She dumps him and then spends the next year being set up, hooked up, strung up, and fed up as she navigates her life “alone” as a New York actor in her thirties. “Hoben has created a woman’s show to join the annual, male-dominated Christmas lineup, but like Santaland Diaries, it is a tale of real life and holiday hope touching us all.” — Eric Minton, Shakespeareances.com



An Original Play by Resident Playwright Catie O’Keefe
February 9th-March 2nd, 2013
Directed by Ed Cohen

We bring resident playwright Catie O’Keefe and director Ed Cohen together for our winter show with the world premiere of a new full-length play. NET produced Ms. O’Keefe’s Darker in the Fringe Festival last year to rave reviews and her adaptations of our last two Radio Dramas have been well received. Title to be announced in our season brochure this
summer.

Miss Witherspoon by Christopher Durang
April 13th-May 4th, 2013
Directed By Mark Seamon

In the wonderfully delightful and strange world of Christopher Durang, Veronica finds herself flung between different lives as she is reincarnated again and again. She emerges as a new baby and even as a dog – reliving different lives to clear her aura. Miss Witherspoon is the name given Veronica by her spiritual guide Maryamma, and it seems to follow her through every life she enters into. But there is more than just a name that connects Veronica to her many reincarnations. Her life, her experiences and those around her all seem to be connected. As she ventures from one life to another looking, she searches for many of the same things that all people search for… answers to life’s biggest questions…like, “What come next?” NET brings back Mark Seamon, who directed their recent production of Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty. “This is Durang at the top of his metaphysical, apocalyptic, high-and-pop cultural game…thoroughly lovable. And funny.” —NY Newsday. “A delightful eighty-minute crazy-quilt fantasy.” — Associated Press.

Season Subscriptions available online at newedgecliff.com beginning June 15th!
Single Ticket Sales begin July 1st
Box Office: 888.588.0137

When Greg confesses to his girlfriend of four years that she’s not physically perfect, it not only affects their lives, but the lives of their close friends Carly and Kent, whose relationship is anything but perfect. Playwright Neil LaBute (Fat Pig, The Shape of Things) takes a long hard look at both physical and emotional beauty and the obsessions we have with both. The Associated Press calls LaBute’s reasons to be pretty, “…his most compassionate, appealing work to date.”

reasons to be pretty
April 12-28, Thur-Sat at 7:30pm.
pay-what-you-can preview April 11th
Columbia Performance Center, 3900 Eastern Avenue.
Near Terry’s Turf Club, Allyn’s, Bella Luna, Tostado’s, and The Precinct.
Tickets: $23 adults, $18 seniors, and $15 students.
Special NET/Flex pricing is available for groups of 4 or more.

or call box office, 888.588.0137

All proceeds benefit New Edgecliff Theatre’s Operating Fund.

Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door.

Or call the box office at 888.588.0137

New Edgecliff Theatre announces an exciting addition to NET’s performance line up with the regional premiere of Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas. This chilling one-man show features NET Executive Director Michael Shooner and is directed by Brian Robertson. St. Nicholas will run in NET’s newly-created major production slot, Feb. 23-March 10. Leaving his wife and children in Dublin to pursue his obsession, things become complicated in London when he finds himself in the employ of a coven of vampires! Already a metaphorical vampire himself, his confrontation with very real ones forces him to face his own demons and earn some measure of redemption. The New York Times says, “The narrative swings through so many forms of storytelling – from self-serving lies born of drunkenness to a proper Brothers Grimm-like fable…McPherson’s ear for detail is devastating.”

St. Nicholas was written by Dublin playwright Conor McPherson. His plays include The Seafarer (premiered on Broadway in 2007), Poor Beast in the Rain, Port Authority, Dublin Carol (premiered on Broadway in 2002), The Weir (premiered on Broadway in 1999), and This Lime Tree Bower. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 2006 for Shining City, which premiered on Broadway in 2006; nominated for the 2002 South Bank Show Award for Best Play for Port Authority; received the 1999 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play, the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright, the Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright and was a finalist for the Lloyds Bank Playwright of the Year Award for The Weir; and was the joint winner of 1997 George Devine Award and the winner of the Meyer Whitworth Award for St. Nicholas.

New Edgecliff founder Michael Shooner returns to the NET stage for the first time since his CEA-nominated turn as Dysart in 2009’s Equus. Other roles at NET have included Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross, Teach in American Buffalo and Cliff in The Woolgatherer. His first one-man show was also NET’s inaugural production, Eric Bogosian’s Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, in 1998. He was seen in the Cincinnati Playhouse production of The Hostage and has also performed at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company in The Weir, Romeo & Juliet and All My Sons.

Originally from Los Angeles, Brian Robertson has spent much of his time working in film and television in the area of cinematography, as well as working as a director and stage manager in Theatre and Opera. He received his MFA in Directing from CCM. Locally, Brian has been teaching in the NKU Theatre and Dance department since 1998, as well as functioning as a guest director and instructor at CCM. He has worked for Cincinnati Opera, Sarasota Opera, Bay View Music Festival, Greenbrier Valley Theatre, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Opera North, and Des Moines Metro Opera among others.

St. Nicholas

February 23 – March 10, 2012

Thursday through Saturday

7:30pm

at the Columbia Performance Center, 3900 Eastern Avenue

near Terry’s Turf Club, Allyn’s, Bella Luna, Tostado’s and The Precinct.

Adults $23, Seniors $18, Students $15

Or call the box office at 888.588.0137

NET is a grateful recipient of the League of Cincinnati Theatres’ Local Guest Equity Support.

Don’t miss this theatrical event!

featuring Michael Shooner • directed by Brian Robertson

February 23rd-March 10th, 2012
Tickets $23 Adults / $18 Seniors / $15 Students

or order by phone: 888.588.0137

7:30pm Curtain • Columbia Performance Center • 3900 Eastern Avenue
near Bella Luna, Tostados, Allyn’s, Terry’s Turf Club and the Precinct

Intended for Mature Audiences Only

December 1st-17th, 2011
7:30pm Curtain
Columbia Performance Center
3900 Eastern Avenue

or reserve tickets by phone at 888.588.0137

for more information about True Theatre, please visit their website at truetheatre.com

Edgar Allen Poe has long held the gruesome imaginations of many with his takes on horror and death. What better time of year to enjoy them than Halloween?  This year, New Edgecliff ’s Playwright-in-Residence Catie O’Keefe (Darker, Extraction, and The Space Between My Head and My Body) adapts two of Poe’s haunting tales for the ever-loved Sweet Suspense Radio Drama: The Oval Portrait and The Masque of the Red Death. Both tales–dark, gritty and wonderfully gruesome–show us true obsession in its many forms. New Edgecliff Theatre brings these stories to life, complete with live sound effects and the atmosphere of an old-time radio theatre. The audience will also enjoy a sampling of delectable desserts from area restaurants, making this suspenseful evening truly “sweet”!

Featuring Live Sound Effects by WMKV’s Mike Martini
directed by Bob Allen

October 29th, 2011
7:30pm Curtain
Columbia Performance Center
3900 Eastern Avenue

Tickets $35 Adults / $20 Kids 13 and Under
admission includes dessert buffet at intermission
all proceeds benefit New Edgecliff Theatre’s Operational Fund

or order by phone: 888.588.0137

Rarely produced, powerful work leads off season

New Edgecliff Theatre once again opens its season with a late 20^th century classic – a powerful, electrifying work by the playwright widely regarded as one of the finest American playwrights of the late 20th Century. While perhaps best known for his earlier plays The Hot L Baltimore, Fifth of July and Talley’s Folly, Burn This is a viscerally dramatic play, and its Broadway premiere most certainly helped to propel the careers of John Malkovich and Joan Allen.

The place is a Manhattan loft shared by Anna, a lithe young dancer-choreographer, and her two gay roommates – her collaborator, Robby, who has just been killed in a freak boating accident, and Larry, a world-weary, caustically funny young advertising executive. As the play begins Anna is recovering from Robby’s funeral, comforted by her wealthy, well-meaning boyfriend, Burton, a sci-fi screenwriter whose persistent proposals of marriage Anna finds herself unable to accept. Then suddenly, Robby’s older brother Pale bursts on the scene. He has come to collect his brother’s belongings. Menacing, profane, dangerous and yet oddly sensitive, Pale is both terrifying and fascinating and, in the end, stays on to transform the action of the play and the lives of those in it.

Artistic Director Jim Stump says, “I had been considering Burn This for a later season, but with Lanford Wilson’s untimely death this past March, I felt it would serve as an appropriate memorial to this passionate voice of the theatre.”

Tim Waldrip directs.  The cast features Nathan Neorr as Pale (following noteworthy turns at NET in Fool for Love and Night of the Iguana) and Gina Cerimele-Mechley as Anna, with strong support from Jason Burgess (Larry) and John Wilmes (Burton). Design team includes Melissa Bennett, sets; Glen Goodwin, lights; Jim Stump, costumes; Kevin Semancik, sound; and Nicole Garrisi, props.

For anyone interested, Director Tim Waldrip has a goosebump-raising story of the serendipitous route that led him to this production, beginning many years ago when he was at first disappointed, then blown away by Malkovich’s replacement, Eric Roberts.

Intended for PG audiences only.

Burn This
Sept.29 – Oct. 15, Thur-Sat at 7:30pm.
Columbia Performance Center, 3900 Eastern Avenue.
Near Terry’s Turf Club, Allyn’s, Bella Luna, Tostado’s and The Precinct.
Tickets: $23 adults, $18 seniors, and $15 students.

Purchase/reserve tickets: www.newedgecliff.com or call box office, 888.588.0137.

Opportunities are also available this season for set designers, costumers, prop masters, and sound designers. All positions are stipend paid.  If you are interested in any of these design positions, or would like more information, contact New Edgecliff Theatre at jobs@newedgecliff.com.

Available Roles

Burn This

Anna: ( 25-35 years old), a dancer who wishes to be a choreographer; beautiful, slender, and strong. As the play opens she is grieving for her gay roommate, Robbie, who has just died in a boating accident.

Burton: (30-40 years old), is handsome, tall, athletic; a successful screenwriter and Anna’s boyfriend. For Burton, screenwriting is not an artistic passion, but is a means of making a lot of money. He was a privileged child and he has never lost anything important before.

Larry: ( 25-35 years old) Anna’s other roommate; intelligent, an also gay; works in advertising. A confidant of Anna’s, LARRY is aware of Anna’s love for Pale long before she admits it. Larry helps break the tension of the play with some light comedy.

Pale: (35-45 years old), Robbie’s older brother who appears to collect his brother’s belongings. Pale is described as very sexy in a blue-collar kind of way. He manages a restaurant and is separated from his wife and children. He has a foul mouth and admits he knew Robbie was gay but speaks contemptuously of that lifestyle.

Reasons to be Pretty

The characters in reasons to be pretty are two working class, twenty-something couples in an outlying suburb somewhere in the United States.  All are flawed, but at their core they are sympathetic.

Greg: the play’s protagonist.  He works the night shift in a food packing plant with his long-time friend, Kent.  Greg is intelligent and has a love of literature that he often uses as an escape.  He alternates between typically jerkish male behavior and genuine vulnerability and sensitivity.  He makes a journey toward understanding and ultimately takes responsibilities for his failings.

Steph: a hairdresser who finds out that her boyfriend, Greg, doesn’t think she’s pretty.  This launches her on a journey of her own.  Her fragile self-esteem is ruled by her perception of herself as odd-looking rather than attractive.

Kent: someone we hate to like and like to hate.  He is a vulgar, arrogant, overgrown child whose main preoccupations are sex and sports.  He has bullied Greg to remain locked in an immature macho friendship.  He is a boorish, hyper-masculine brute who is charming enough to get whatever he wants.

Carly: Kent’s wife and Steph’s best friend.  She works at the plant as a uniformed security guard.  Beautiful but gruff, she is a put-upon character with a toughened exterior and desperate vulnerability.  She possesses the shaky confidence of a born beauty who is scared that all she has to offer is her looks.