Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's 2023-2024 Season Includes Visits from Dracula and Johnny Cash

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Photo: Mikki Schaffner Photography

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's all new mainstage theater complex designed by BHDP Architecture.

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park today announced its upcoming season, launching in August with a musical biography, Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash. The 64th season will offer an all-new production of A Christmas Carol, adapted and staged by Blake Robison, the Playhouse’s producing artistic director, on the stage of Moe and Jack’s Place – The Rouse Theatre, which had its grand opening in March. The holiday season will also feature the interactive Catholic comedy, Late Night Catechism on the Rosenthal Shelterhouse stage.

Other attractions of the season include three plays by award-winning playwrights: Sanctuary City by Martyna Majok, the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize; Stew, a 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist, by Zora Howard; and Clyde’s, the most-produced play in the United States during 2022-2023 by past Pulitzer Prize winner, Lynn Nottage. Two adaptations of renowned tales are included: The world premiere of a new version of Dracula and a stage version of Chaim Potok’s 1967 novel, The Chosen. Qui Nguyen’s romantic comedy Vietgone will be presented to conclude the season.

Here's more about these productions.

• Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash (The Rouse Theatre, Aug. 26-Oct. 1). Five actor musicians will perform renditions of the Man in Black’s musical catalogue.
• Sanctuary City (Rosenthal Shelterhouse, Sept. 16-Oct. 22). Martyna Majok’s play is about two children of U.S. immigrants who must find their places in the world in the wake of 9/11.
• Clyde’s (The Rouse Theatre, Oct. 14-Nov. 5). Lynn Nottage, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner (for Ruined in 2009 and Sweat in 2017), tells the story of a group of people recently released from prison who go to work making sandwiches at a truck stop. Timothy Douglas, who has staged marvelous renditions of August Wilson’s plays for the Playhouse, will direct.
• Late Night Catechism (Rosenthal Shelterhouse, Nov. 3-Dec. 17). This one-nun comedy is one of the longest-running shows in Chicago and U.S. theater history. Part catechism class, part stand-up comedy routine, the show involves the audience as Sister’s class of Catholics in training.
• A Christmas Carol (The Rouse Theatre, Nov. 24-Dec. 30). Charles Dickens’ beloved tale of Ebenezer Scrooge is getting a brand new Playhouse production with a new set, costumes and lighting design especially created for the new mainstage. Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison will stage his own new adaptation. (Tickets for A Christmas Carol are not included in season subscriptions).
• Dracula (The Rouse Theatre, Feb. 3-March 3, 2024). The classic vampire tale gets a new rendition, and its world premiere will be staged by Joanie Schultz, the Playhouse’s associate artistic director.
• Stew (Rosenthal Shelterhouse, March 2-April 7, 2024). Three generations of Black women gather in Mama’s kitchen to cook an important meal. Closely held details of the lives of mothers and daughters rise slowly to the surface in a funny and intimate story.
• The Chosen (The Rouse Theatre, April 13-May 12, 2024). Two boys from very different Jewish communities became friends in Chaim Potok’s classic 1967 novel. Their story is a heartfelt exploration of Jewish culture and the human ability to reach across differences. Aaron Posner will stage his adaptation; he adapted another Potok novel, My Name Is Asher Lev, which Ensemble Theatre produced in 2010.
• Vietgone (Rosenthal Shelterhouse, April 27-June 2). Vietgone is about two very new Americans who meet in a refugee relocation camp in Arkansas during the Vietnam War. Their romantic coming together is told with irreverent humor, hip-hop and theatrical storytelling.

Subscriptions for the eight-show season are presently on sale. Subscribers get first access to the new production of A Christmas Carol. More information is available at cincyplay.com or by calling the Playhouse box office at 513-421-3888.