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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>FOR: Rabbit Run Community Arts Association<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> P. O. Box 235, 49 Park St.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> Madison, OH 44057<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>CONTACT: Karen Ziegler, Director of Marketing<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> 440-428-5913<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>DATE: August 14, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood Opens at Rabbit Run Theater<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>A Dickens of a Summer at Rabbit Run Theater ends with a bang with the production of the rollicking and zany <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood. </i>This musical murder mystery by Rupert Holmes opens Friday, Aug. 17 and runs through Saturday, Sept. 1.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</span></i><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> is the last in a series of shows produced this summer at Rabbit Run based on the life and works of Charles Dickens in celebration of his 200<sup>th</sup> birthday. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>A show within a show, <i>Drood</i> opens with the Music Hall Royale acting troope playfully mingling with the audience as they make their way to center stage to perform their flamboyant rendition of this play with no ending.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>John Jasper, a choirmaster with a Jekyll and Hyde demeanor, is madly in love with his music student, the young and beautiful Rosa Bud. Jasper’s nephew, Edwin Drood, is also in love with Miss Bud and is, in fact, her fiancée. Enter brother and sister, Neville and Helena Landless, exotic emigrants from Ceylon. Neville, too, falls for the fair Miss Bud. A dinner party is arranged, wine is served, tempers flare, and not long after Drood disappears, for good. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Who done it? No one knows, for Charles Dickens died before revealing the culprit to the world. In true music hall tradition, the play is thrown open to the audience as the acting troope, amidst much mayhem, leads the audience in determining who the villain really is. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“Playwright Rupert Holmes has taken a somewhat dark literary work and turned it on its head by placing it in a turn-of-the-century English musical hall”, said Brint Learned, director. “The show is just plain fun for the audience as well as the cast. I believe Dickens would have cheered with the end result. He was the consummate showman and would have loved the pure theatricality and light-hearted irreverence of the production.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“It has been a pleasure this summer to be able to welcome Equity actor George Roth to the Rabbit Run family. He has performed in our last three productions, and at every turn has shared his immense talent and experience to help to make this season the best it could be.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br>Roth portrays the Chairman who serves as a master of ceremony and narrator as well as doubling, with the switch of a hat, as Mayor Sapsea. Roth studied theater at Yale University and</span> <span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>at the Central School for Speech and Drama in London and has appeared professionally on stage and screen over the past 25 years including the feature film <i>Batman </i>(1989)<i> </i>and television’s <i>Murphy Brown </i>and for the National Theatre of Great Britain<i>. </i>His regional theatrical appearances include The Cleveland Playhouse, Actors’ Summit in Akron and True North in LaGrange.<i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Edwin Drood is played by Kelly Smith. Smith recently performed at Rabbit Run as Madeline Bray in <i>The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby</i>. She is a junior at Baldwin Wallace University with a double major in theatre and business. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Brian Altman is portraying the quasi-villainous John Jasper. Altman has performed at The Beck Center for the Arts, Lakeland Civic Theatre and Erie Playhouse as well as appearing in numerous shows at Rabbit Run.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Other appearances include Heather Arata as Rose Bud; David Malinowski as the butler Bazzard; Tom Hill as Durdles; Sandy Kosovich Peck as Princess Puffer; Kyle Lorek as Neville Landless; Kelsey Bowens as Helena Landless; Jason Goldston as the Deputy and Carl Simoncic as the Reverend Mr. Crisparkle.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Tickets are available on line at <a href="http://www.rabbitrunonline.org/">www.rabbitrunonline.org</a> or at the box office at 440-428-7092, Wednesday through Sunday, 3 to 7 p.m. Tickets are $19/adult and $17/senior, student. For group ticket sales call 440-428-5913.</span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>An added bonus this summer at Rabbit Run Theater is a season-long online ticket lottery. Individuals, both adults and students, may register online to win a pair of tickets to one of the Dickens productions this summer. The online ticket lottery is supported in part by the Ohio Humanities Council and through the generosity of a private donor. To enter this free ticket lottery, visit <a href="http://www.rabbitrunonline.org/">www.rabbitrunonline.org</a>. One entry per person per week.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Rabbit Run Theater is one of the few barn theaters still in operation in Ohio and is located at 5648 W. Chapel Rd., Madison. Rabbit Run operates under the auspices of Rabbit Run Community Arts Association, a comprehensive, non-profit fine arts association in Madison. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>RRCAA receives partial funding from the Ohio Arts Council, the Ohio Humanities Council and the Lake Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation and the Lake County Visitors Bureau. Corporate and foundation sponsors include, ideastram, WCPN, the Behm Family Foundation, Fredon Corporation, McDonald’s Damon Morgan Corporation, Phoenix Residential Centers, Inc. and Regal Vineyards. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>