Our 2008–09 season brings to our audience a wonderful variety of theatrical experiences. We begin in the fall with Oscar Wilde’s romantic comedy An Ideal Husband. The winter production of the classic Broadway musical My Fair Lady will carry you into the world of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. The season wraps up with Jeffrey Hatcher’s touching, life-affirming, and humorous adaptation of Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie. Please join us for our entire season of moving and delightful productions.

by Oscar Wilde
Director: Robert Clements
Performance Dates:
   October 2-4
   October 9-11

Oscar Wilde’s romantic comedy is filled with political ambition, blackmail, mistakes of our youth, and romantic intrigue.
Sir Robert Chiltern, the brilliant politician, perfect gentleman, and ideal husband, is about to be asked to join the Prime Minister’s cabinet. He is then blackmailed with a dark secret from his past by the scheming and vindictive Mrs. Cheveley, which brings his career and marriage to the verge of collapse. The plot swirls around Robert, his wife, his sister, and his best friend, Sir Arthur Goring, as they scheme to resolve the threat from Mrs. Cheveley.
This scintillating and dazzling comedy moves at a lively pace as it explores human frailty, social hypocrisy, and forgiveness. An Ideal Husband was an instant success at its debut, and it still continues to delight audiences 100 years later.

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by Lerner and Loewe
Director: Rebecca Baker
Performance Dates:
   February 5-7
   February 12-14

There were 10 good reasons why My Fair Lady should have never made it on Broadway, according to CBC Radio Music Host Robert Harris. One reason was that the leading lady (Julie Andrews) was virtually unknown at the time, and another was that Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) couldn’t sing! Instead, Lerner and Loewe’s masterpiece became their biggest and longest-running hit.
Based on the play, Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, the script weaves together entertainment and transformation. Eliza’s metamorphosis from guttersnipe to dazzling, high-class beauty is stunning, but the real transformation is the one inside. Through Henry Higgins’ prodding and provoking, Eliza becomes a strong, self-reliant woman. And as Higgins recognizes Eliza’s value as a person — regardless of social distinctions — he begins to change too. Whether or not he falls in love is left to our imagination, but one thing is sure — we, along with Higgins, celebrate in Eliza the true worth of the human spirit.

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by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher
Director: Diane Conrad Merchant
Performance Dates:
   March 26-28
   April 2-4

Tuesdays with Morrie is the autobiographical story of the friendship of Mitch Albom, an accomplished journalist, and Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor. Sixteen years after graduation, Mitch happens to catch Morrie’s appearance in a televised interview and learns that his former professor is battling Lou Gehrig’s disease. When Mitch reconnects with Morrie, what begins as a simple visit develops into a weekly pilgrimage and one last class in the meaning of life.
Together with Mitch Albom, acclaimed American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has faithfully adapted the story for performance, capturing all the resonance of the original dialogue and bringing to the stage two of the most genuine and honest characters the theatre has seen in a long time. Described by the New York Daily News as “a touching, life-affirming, deeply emotional drama with a generous dose of humor ...” and by The New York Times as “making the language of the book crisper, cleverer, and more palatable ...,” the play will end the Cedarville University season with a warm and thought-provoking commentary on the gift of everyday life.

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NeXtage Production

by David Rogers
Performance Dates: November 20-22

Flowers by Algernon is the compelling story of Charlie, a mentally retarded man, and the strange interweaving of his life with that of Algernon, a mouse. Experimental surgery has been performed on Algernon increasing his intelligence fourfold. The operation is tried on Charlie, who rapidly changes from a moron to a genius far more intelligent than his teacher, Alice Kinnian, and the doctors who created the operating technique. As Charlie approaches the peak of his brilliance, Algernon shows frightening symptoms of regression. The play becomes a race against time in which Charlie tries to keep his new intelligence long enough to save himself and thus continue what he and Alice have found. The production will take place at 8 p.m. each evening on the Alford Auditorium stage. NeXtage is sponsored by Alpha Psi Omega, the Cedarville University chapter of the National Honorary Theatre Society