Free theater festival to debut this summer College will convene professional non-profit theater troup to stage two classic plays for everyone

While the economy has forced a wide variety of artistic endeavors to make cuts in programming, Oberlin College is moving forward with the inauguration of the Oberlin Summer Theater Festival (OSTF), a professional nonprofit theater company whose productions will be admission free and family friendly.

Paul Moser, associate professor of theater and chair of Oberlin College's theater and dance program, is the founder of OSTF and producing artistic director. The 2009 season will offer two classic plays -- Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie" opening June 26 and William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" opening July 3.

Both productions will present something new for audiences. In "The Glass Menagerie," "we want to capture the playwright's original expressionistic impulse in our production, so we will be doing a lot with projections and other special lighting effects," says Moser.

"'The Tempest' will be a 90-minute adaptation of the original masterpiece and promises to be quite magical, featuring an original music score, all kinds of special effects, puppets, clowning, and more. We want the show to appeal to everyone -- ages 8 to 81," he said.

Performances will take place Tuesdays through Sundays, June 26 through July 18, in Hall Auditorium.

To accommodate families, the curtain will raise at 7 p.m. for all evening performances, except those on Friday, when the plays will begin at 9 p.m. to allow those attending the evening band concerts in Tappan Square also to attend. To make attendance easier, especially for older audience members, and to allow out-of-town patrons the opportunity to see two shows on the same day, there will be 2 p.m. matinees on both Saturday and Sunday.

Moser sees the company's mission as twofold. One is "to serve Lorain County and the larger northeastern Ohio community by presenting free productions of meaningful theater classics." The second is to develop "an outstanding intergenerational acting ensemble, composed mostly of Oberlin graduates, who will return to Oberlin each summer to collaborate with a community of like-minded professional artists." The acting company will consist of a combination of local equity actors, Oberlin College alumni from around the country, and current OC students.