Sat 6/5 @ 2:30 & 7:30PM
Last year, Akron’s Rubber City Theatre announced that it had become the first theater in the city to commit to an Actors’ Equity contract and up its level of professionalism. It did so just before it announced its 2020-21 season. Oops.
During that downtime, it offered some virtual productions but now it’s dipping its collective toe back into live theater. It will present the world premiere of a new work, On the Line, by composers/writers Amy Burgess and Rachel Dean, at Lock 3 in downtown Akron on Saturday June 5.
It’s a show with a local hook, set in a rubber factory in Akron in 1945, where working women, tapped for factory work with so many men overseas fighting, are learning about the perils and joys of being a working woman. The storyline, however, comes from a more-than-400-year-old source: that’s right, it’s yet another adaptation of a Shakespeare play, in this case, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with a twist.
It follows the adventures of a “lovers’ quartet”: factory forewoman Helen, machinist Billie, the factory owner’s daughter Ellie, and a female naval lieutenant-turned- filmmaker Sandra “on a collision course with their burgeoning feelings for each other and the uncertainty of a changing world.” New York-based Tess Primack and Alexis Sims (pictured) and northeast Ohio actors Lana Sugarman and Anna Popa fill these lead roles.
Tickets are $25-$35; bring a chair or a blanket. Digital tickets will be available for $20. Find more info at rubbercitytheatre.com/on-the-line.