Somerset Tavern: A Comedy by Daniel Mark Epstein

Be the first audience to witness the premiere of an original work on stage at The Woodward Opera House.

Classroom Connections in partnership with Knox County Education Service Center*

Tickets:

$20 Main Floor • $15 Balcony

Presented by:

Title sponsorship is open for this production.  Email producer@MTVarts.com

Event Sponsors:

Ora and Sue Smith

Venue:

Woodward Opera House  – 107 South Main St, Mount Vernon OH 43050

Synopsis:

In a faraway time in colonial America, before there were theaters or courthouses, the Somerset Tavern served as both. A troupe of actors is accused of treason for a play staged there; by chance their trial for the capital offense convenes in the same tavern, owned by Bridget Brighton, a young woman of mixed race. The traveling Judge, Aubrey Draw, and Bridget were lovers once but have not met in ten years.

Most of the actors have escaped, but Judge Draw insists that the two remaining perform the play so he can rule on the evidence. The old actor playwright, Roland Bannister, and his young protege, Morgan Nightingale, perform a farcical version of their play that is poetic allegory, perplexing the Judge as well as a young lawyer, Edgar Weathervane, who witnessed the play and is obsessed with getting a conviction.

The kindly Bridget is equally obsessed with freeing these innocent men. The conflict between them, and her ongoing romance with the Judge set the stage for exciting reversals, high-jinks, revelations, and an astonishing resolution.

Credits:

• PREMIERE of Original work by Daniel Mark Epstein

DANIEL MARK EPSTEIN is an American poet, dramatist, and biographer whose works have been translated into many languages. His stage plays, including Jenny and the Phoenix, The Midnight Visitor, and Jefferson and Poe have been produced Off Broadway (St. Peter’s Church, Symphony Space) and in Regional Theaters (Baltimore’s Theatre Project); and his radio dramas Star of Wonder, and The Two Menorahs, have become mainstays on National Public Radio. His many honors include the Prix de Rome (Rome Prize) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment

for the Arts Fellowship, and an Academy Award for Literature, also from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has taught playwriting at The Johns Hopkins University (graduate writing program) and Towson State University. The author of more than twenty-five books, he will be publishing his collected poems, Constellations, in the autumn of 2025.

*ATTENTION EDUCATORS

Please contact Taylor Gingery, Knox County Education Service Center Gifted Coordinator, to arrange for your class to attend the school performance.  No charge to schools.

Connect your classroom to our teaching artist. Mr. Epstein is available to host in-classroom sessions on playwrighting and the premiere of an original work. Email education@MTVarts.com for further information and to arrange a class visit.

“There are many benefits for students in observing a new play come into the world, especially with the playwright in residence. I will be available to them from day one to talk about playwriting, and the special circumstances of producing a new work. This is subject to traditions and conditions that are different in important ways from producing a “classic” or previously produced work. I have a great deal of experience with this process. I taught playwriting on the college and graduate level for more than a decade. I succeeded Edward Albee teaching at Johns Hopkins.”
Daniel Mark Epstein