At a special event for donors on March 27 — World Theatre Day, in fact — Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati revealed the five productions, including three regional premieres, that it will stage for its 39th season. Producing Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers said, “Our 39th season is all about what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes, from garbage collectors to hairstylists. It’s about what we carry within us that nobody sees from the outside. No one would recognize us if we were turned inside out to show our love, our pain and our emotion. There’s a lot of underlying humor in these plays, and that’s deliberate. It’s the idea of being in tough situations but still finding joy, strength and inspiration to go forward.”
The Garbologists, Sept. 14–Oct. 2, 2024. Lindsay Joelle’s comedy gets its regional premiere. An unlikely pair of sanitation workers — Danny, a gruff white guy who’s a New York City sanitation worker and Marlowe, a determined, Black Ivy-League-educated young woman who is assigned to work with him — butt heads before they discover common ground. This off-beat buddy comedy features polar opposites who bicker and seem unwilling to listen to one another. But before long, they need to figure out how to work together.
Alice in Wonderland, Dec. 4–29, 2024. The last time ETC produced this stage version of Lewis Carroll’s imaginative tale it was 2018. This will be the sixth iteration of the holiday musical by playwright Joseph McDonough and composer David Kisor. (They’re updating the score, and exuberant, colorful new costumes are promised.) It’s a jaunty modern retelling of the story of a lost girl, a cool cat, a wild hare and the original “dancing queen.” Keeping up a tradition of holiday fairy tales for the whole family that started in 1997, these productions are beloved alternatives to traditional holiday fare.
I Need That, Feb. 8–March 2, 2025. A new comedy by Cincinnati native and award-winning playwright Theresa Rebeck, this show had its recent Broadway debut starring Danny DeVito as Sam, an obsessive pack rat bordering on hoarder lost in his own possessions. Rebeck will be back home to direct her show’s regional premiere for ETC. Sam, a grumpy guy faced with the threat of eviction unless he cleans up his property, is unwilling to let go of anything, despite pleas from his daughter and his friend of 30 years. This is a funny, heartwarming script about determining what’s trash and what’s a treasure..
The Sound Inside, April 5-27, 2025. ETC offers another regional premiere with Adam Rapp’s riveting story about Bella Baird, a brilliant writer and Yale creative writing professor who prizes her solitude. Confronted with a challenge she can’t tackle alone, she partners with Christopher, a maverick, enigmatic student. As their lives and stories become intertwined in unpredictable ways, Bella asks an unthinkable favor of Christopher that neither one is sure can be fulfilled. The play is a series of puzzle boxes, according to one critic: Open one and you’ll find another, but even then you might be wondering how it will turn out.
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, May 31–June 22, 2025. ETC wraps up its season with yet another regional premiere of a show that was just entertaining Broadway audiences a few months ago. This one is set in a bustling hair-braiding salon in Harlem populated by a lively group of West African immigrant hair braiders. They are creating works of art on the heads of neighborhood women. The boisterous and heartwarming story of dreams and secrets is told on one sweltering summer day. Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play was produced by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in 2022.
At the March 27 event, Meyers announced a $10 million campaign that ETC intends to complete in time for its 40th season in 2025-2026. Kicking this drive off is a $1 million gift from Cincinnati philanthropists Harry and Linda Fath; eight others have pledged a total of $500,000.
