Spring Break
Students, professors help OxACT produce 'funny' play
Brett McAdoo
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Community
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The play is a musical comedy based on a Roman farce about a slave trying to gain his freedom. Several Miami students make up the play's cast, including junior Sam Coffey, sophomores Amelia Bergmann, Sarah Martin and Bradley Walker and first-years Jake Brennan, Austin Smith and Megan Weaver. Miami zoology professor Mike Robinson and theater director Mike McVey are also actors.
The audience will encircle the stage area of Forum in a unique performance style called theater-in-the-round, a style Brewer said he enjoys directing.
Brewer said OxACT brings together residents of Oxford and the surrounding communities, as well as students from both Miami and Talawanda, in a unique way that allows these often divided publics to experience all the elements of theater production.
With a total cast of 20, Brewer said he enjoys the play's town and gown mix of members.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for college students to meet with Oxford residents," Brewer said.
Brewer founded OxACT 30 years ago, but while greatly involved in the theater's first 20 years of existence, has reconnected his participation in the past three years directing a few performances including Fiddler on the Roof last season.
Miami senior theater major and Forum stage manager Mel Brenner is working with Brewer for the second time. Echoing Brewer, she said she benefits from the chance to work with residents of the community.
"I see everyone now at Kroger, and it's helped make Oxford more of a second home to me," Brenner said.
Though the chemistry between students and residents is great for the theater, OxACT President Susan Meikle said a constant problem they have is keeping people helping out back stage amid the core group of Oxford residents and patrons who support them.
"(We're) always in need of extra hands who are willing to help out and pitch in behind the scenes," Meikle said.
Meikle, who became president eight years ago, said she knew very little about theater when she first joined the board. However after her daughter began acting when she was in third grade, Meikle stood behind OxACT and the special relationship it forms with all of its members.
As stage manager, Brenner said she enjoys watching the journey that performances take from their early stages of production.
"Seeing something that's just words on paper (at first, and) how that transforms to real life" is the best part about OxACT and plays like Forum, Brenner said.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is playing at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Oxford Community Arts Center, 10 S. College Ave. Tickets are $10 for students, $12 general admission and can either be reserved by calling OxACT at (513) 523-6228 or purchased at the door the night of the show.
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