Madame Bovary, A Musical is Paul Dick's adaptation of Flaubert's novel about an imaginative, free-spirited woman who is trapped in a stifling marriage to a pedestrian, bourgeois husband. She tries to escape in a series of love affairs which finally lead to disaster. This musical is brought to the stage by the same team that produced last season's successful musical adaptation of "Wuthering Heights". 
(mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story is a play with music that reveals a side of Hattie McDaniel's life that few people knew. Hattie achieved stardom by becoming the first African-American to win an Academy Award, but she paid a high price for fame. By playing a succession of maids and cooks, most notably Mammy in Gone With the Wind, she became the target of an unrelenting campaign against "Mammyism" led by Walter White of the NAACP, who thought her roles were shameful and degrading to their race. Despite her own efforts to bring dignity and humanity to her roles, within seven years of winning her Oscar, her film career was virtually destroyed.The play is set in 1952 at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodlands Hills, California, where Hattie is battling breast cancer. In her weakened state of mind, she imagines that Walter White has come to visit her and possibly reconcile their differences. For the first time Hattie directly confronts her most vocal critic to prove to him that she was in fact a credit to her race. In recounting her miraculous life story as the daughter of a slave who became a world-renowned movie star, Hattie proudly illuminates a life that was too often misunderstood.
Elephant Girls takes place during a Kozy Kitchen party that the perfect housewife Claire decides to host for her sister (Elizabeth), her mother (Francis) and her friends (Suzie and Jasmin). After an unexpected guest (Robina Abdul—Claire's daughter's Afghani math tutor) stops by, Claire struggles to keep the party light and humorous. At first the group greets Robina with a mixture of awkwardness, forced politeness, curiosity and unconscious racism. As the humor, conversation and wine flow, they seem to work their way toward a genuine connection and understanding. It is only after a tragic accident occurs—and a subsequent attempt to cover it up—that the women learn each other's true characters. They find themselves exploring the complexities of human behavior and the consequences of their own life choices. What happens to a little girl in the absence of love? What happens when strangers half a world away take up her cause? Inspired by National Geographic's famous cover photo The Afghan Girl, Elephant Girls culminates in six women spiraling into a maelstrom of white-hot emotion that leaves their relationships forever changed. 
REAL DANGER begins with a surprise reunion between two friends nine years after graduation from college. Edward, who is en route from New York to Canada for a back-country excursion in a canoe, initiates the reunion with his friend and soccer teammate Ferdy, who is living with Vickie in Cleveland, Ohio. Edward has made contact because he needs to apologize to Ferdy for an old wrong. As the play progresses, however, Edward learns about Vickie's outstanding career as a professional photographer, a career that has taken her into dangerous places and relationships. He learns about how Ferdy and Vickie met and how they decided to become fugitives for fear that Vickie's former lover would kill them if he could find them. For Edward, the reunion moves quickly away from his original purpose and becomes a series of shocking surprises that he could not have envisioned when he made the decision to seek out his old friend. 
EATfest is the Emerging Artists Theatre Company's semi-annual showcase of new works by emerging playwrights. 
The unforgettable image of a woman's ghost clawing at the window of a lonely farmhouse chills the spine once more in Paul Dick's newest production, Wuthering Heights: A Romantic Musical, adapted from Emily Bronte's classic novel. It is a story of undying love, even beyond the grave. This moving, heart breaking, dramatic story is set to a soaring, beautifully romantic score. Series A - Tue & Fri at 7pm, Sat at 5pm
My Sister the Cow by Gregory Fletcher, directed by Paul Adams with Amy Bizjak, Jason Hare and Lue McWilliams. Blackout by Vladimir Maicovski, directed by Anthony Luciano with Danny Mullock and Maureen Sebastian. Star Train by Susan Merson, directed by Melissa Atteberry with Ryan Hilliard, Yvonne Roen and Jarret Summers. Perfectly Normal Family Dinner by Matthew J. Hanson, directed by Deb Guston with Ron Bopst, Jack Herholdt, Irene Longshore, Christine Mosere and Matt Stapleton.
Series B Wed & Sun at 7pm, Fri at 9 pm
The Secret of Our Success by Staci Swedeen, directed by Derek Jamison with Patrick Arnheim, AJ Handegard and Aimee Howard. Nagasaki by Kevin Brofsky, directed by Kel Haney with Irene Glezos and Steven Hauck. Mr. Company by Marc Castle, directed by Max Montel with Deb Armelino, Jason Bowcutt and Sarah Dacey Charles.
Series C - Thu & Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 5pm
What We Talk About by Emily Mitchell, directed by Ian Streicher with Blanche Cholet, Betty Hudson, Vivian Meisner and Suzanne Savoy. The Test by Caitlin Mitchell, directed by Chris Maring with Brian Louis Hoffman, Kyle T. Jones, Maya Rosewood and Kelly Scanlon. Mom, Stoned by Bekah Brunstetter, directed by Kevin Dodd with Michele Fulves, Stacy Mayer and Rhoda Pauley.
Written by GREGORY FLETCHER and directed by TOM WOJTUNIK, "EDENVILLE" is a romantic comedy that follows Jules on his rollercoaster ride towards that promised paradise: life with Mr. Right. Just when he thought it was safe to celebrate his first anniversary with Mr. Right, he finds himself back on the single's scene in search of a concept: does Mr. Right really exist, and if so, how does one meet him exactly?
"THE KITCHEN TABLE": Wednesdays at 7:00 pm, Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 2:00 pm
Written by PETER LEVINE and directed by TROY MILLER, "THE KITCHEN TABLE" chronicles one man's coming of age between the 1950s and the present. This nostalgic 90-minute memory play, told through flashback, canvasses a life full of funny and rich memories of his Jewish childhood in Brooklyn as well as those about the sudden loss of his entire family.
"ROCK THE LINE": Thursdays at 7:00 pm, Saturdays at 2:00 pm, Sundays at 5:00 pm
In "ROCK THE LINE," by KATHLEEN WARNOCK, directed by STEVEN MCELROY, seven hardcore fans meet in the parking lot of a club in a Rust Belt town to renew their faith in rock and roll and its patron saint, Patti Roxx. Having traveled long and hard to be at the show, their love of her music is the best thing in most of their lives. But before the doors even open, they must first face each other.
NEUROfest was partly inspired by the work of famed neurologist and author Oliver Sacks ("The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat", "Awakenings", et al), a writer well regarded for his exploration of the creative revelations made through neurology. Science has long since been a bedfellow to the arts, and NEUROfest will combine the two in a festival of over 20 plays, seminars and readings about neurological conditions, ranging from aphasia to savantism to autism to Tourette's. Many of the conditions have been popularized by Oliver Sacks' work. Others are lesser known, but all show the human mind both hampered and augmented by its neurological state.
The line-up for the festival is as follows:
CJD
Condition dealt with: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (a relative of Mad Cow)
A multimedia one man show written and performed by a neurologist about his experience with a patient with CJD, augmented with live music performance. Written and directed by James Jordan.
IMPOSTERS
by Justin Warner
Directed by Ari Laura Keith
Glass House Productions
Condition dealt with: Capgras syndrome
After a brain injury, a son believes his parents have been replaced with exact duplicates of themselves, triggering a series of events that threatens to unravel the entire family. Impostors won the Kennedy Center-ACTF playwriting contest for the Mid-Atlantic region, and was also a finalist for the Princess Grace Award. Impostors will run simultaneously at the Union Theatre in London.
STRANGERS and LINGUISH
Written and directed by Edward Einhorn
Untitled Theater Co. #61
Conditions dealt with: Amnesia (Korsakov's Syndrome) and Aphasia
LINGUISH posits a disease which causes aphasia, the neurological disorder that takes away one's ability to use language. Four relative strangers are among the first to be affected, and are thrown together in quarantine. As the disease affects them, they are forced to try to find new ways to communicate. In STRANGERS a man and a woman are in what seems to be a doctor's waiting room. Is it? If so, what's wrong?
SYNDROME
by Kirk Wood Bromley
Performed and directed by Timothy McCowen Reynolds
Inverse Theater Company
Condition dealt with: Tourette's
Syndrome is a play about a man sitting in his room attempting to muster the courage to meet his parents for dinner. We quickly discover that there are reasons for his anxiety, stemming from his submission to a "spectrum of psychological disorders" that have taken over his mind. Nothing, however, is really wrong with him.
TABULA RASA
Words by Robert Lawson, Music by Henry Akona
Directed by Henry Akona
Music Direction by Ekaterina Stanislavskaya
High Fidelity Theater
Condition dealt with: Autism
An opera featuring interlinked stories of two children, both lost in the woods. One, a 19th century tale inspired by stories of the Wild Boy of Aveyron and other children who grew up in the wild. The other, the 21st century tale of a young girl lost in the forest of mood altering medications. Tabula Rasa examines the effects of nature and nurture, and the fundamental meaning of language and human relationships.
WELCOME TO TOURETTAVILLE!
by Jonathan Ospa, June Rachelson-Ospa, and Daniel Neiden
Music by Jody Gray, Doug Katsaros and Daniel Neiden
Directed by Daniel Neiden
Condition dealt with: Tourette's Syndrome
A musical inspired by a young boy's dreamworld where 4 aliens, Tick, Blinky, Screamer, and the guru of all Tourettians, The Big Bleeper, befriend and inspire him toward self-acceptance. The musical was co-written by June Rachelson-Ospa and her 7 year old son Jonny Ospa.
NEUROshorts
(NEUROshorts is one entire evening)
THE BOY WHO WANTED TO BE A ROBOT
by Edward Einhorn
Directed by Barry Weil
Evolve Theater Company
Condition dealt with: Autism (Aspergers)
A fairy tale set on another planet, this is a Pinnochio story in reverse, about a child who grows up in a robot country and just wants to be a robot like everyone else.
VESTIBULAR
by: Kelly R. Haydon
Directed by: Jolie Tong
Monkey Business Productions
Length: 20 minutes
Condition dealt with: Meniere's disease
As vertigo routinely attacks a former dancer stricken with Meniere's Disease, an informal conversation with his nurse turns into a revelation that challenges the idea of dependency as a passive force
THE TASTE OF BLUE
by Alexandra Edwards
Directed by Julia Martin
The Transformative Theater Company
Conditions dealt with: Synesthesia, Eidetic memory
The sound of the saxophone is blue. The letter O is blue. And blue tastes good. A woman describes her world, in which every sense calls up another. When the world turns gray, she must turn to her own imaginary landscape, filled with memories, to find something delicious.
DOCTORS JANE AND ALEXANDER
by Edward Einhorn
Directed by Ian Hill
GeminiCollisionWorks
Condition dealt with: Dementia
A found text play about the playwright's mother, a psychologist who now suffers from dementia, and her father, the discoverer of the Rh factor.
Plus:
For One Night Only!
CINCINATTI
by Don Nigro
Directed by John Clancy
Theater Company: Clancy Productions
Condition dealt with: Brain tumors
A one woman show by Nancy Walsh, a portrait of madness—originally performed after the removal of a brain tumor from Nancy Walsh, allowing her to only say things she had already memorized. Done in conjunction with a seminar.
IMPOSTORS is being produced as part of NEUROfest, afestival of plays dealing with neurological conditions. Presented by Untitled Theater Company #61, NEUROfest explores the nexus of science and art.