Ophelia Theatre Group in Astoria, Queens, New York, will present the original plays Some Night by Sarah Victoria Bennett and Your Alice by Billie Aken-Tyers as part of the company’s “Turning the Page” season, featuring adaptations and original plays that find their inspirations in classic works.
The season kicked off with Kelly Mcready’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.
“OTG’s ‘Turning the Page’ season is our most ambitious to date, pairing two incredibly talented female writers with two timeless classics to create new, vibrant and engaging theatrical experiences,” said artistic director Eric Ruiter. “With our ‘Character above concept, story above all else’ mission statement guiding us, we are excited to give fresh new voices to some of the most iconic female-driven stories in theatre history.”
Bennett’s Some Night, directed by Eric Ruiter, is inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream and will be offered March 3–25.
The cast includes James Jelkin as Rob, Elizabeth Scopel as Faye, Megan Magee as Natalie/Titania, Nick Denning as Theo/Oberon, Ethan Crystal as Den, Ashley Grombol as Lon, Landon Sutton as Hayden, and Zach Rich as Harry.
Here’s how it’s billed: “For people of the starry-eyed variety, some nights are more life changing than others. In times gone by, Athenians have flown to the forest in the name of love, acting troupes have gone to great lengths to be acknowledged and rewarded for their art, and fairies have wreaked all manner of mischief upon the mortal world for the sake of self-aggrandizement. But has anything really changed? Some Night follows an eclectic band of characters as they pursue their dreams of love, power, fame, and fulfillment while struggling to reconcile their own ideas of fantasy and reality. This original comedy pays homage to the happenings of a famous midsummer night while bringing the magic to today’s baffling and yet still enchanting world.”
Featuring an original score by Stephen Murphy, Aken-Tyers’ Your Alice, also directed by Aken-Tyers alongside Michael Bradshaw Flynn, is adapted from Alice in Wonderland and will be offered April 28–May 20.
The cast includes Eliza Shea as Alice Liddel, Charles Dodgson as Samuel Adams, Andy Dispensa as The Caterpillar, Tamara Sevunts as The Cheshire Cat, Kaitlyn Schirard as The Queen of Hearts, Ian Petersen as The White Rabbit, Michael Tubman as The Mad Hatter, Lawryn Lacroix as The March Hare, Brittney Moss as The Doremouse, Megan Magee as Tweedledum, and Zach Rich as Tweedledee.
Here’s how it’s billed: “One golden afternoon on 4 July 1862, Charles Ludvig Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) began to tell a story that would be held in the hearts of children and adults alike for the next 150 years. But what about the first ears that heard this story? Your Alice explores the complex and dynamic friendship between Mr. Dodgson and his ‘Dreamchild’ muse Miss Alice Liddell, the inspiration behind Alice in Wonderland. As they sail down the Oxford river, the songs, words and whimsical characters of Wonderland are pitted against the demons of a man struggling to keep himself afloat.”
The Ophelia Theater is located at 2112 30th Road in Astoria, New York. For more information, visit OpheliaTheatre.com.
