MANSFIELD – A season full of possibility awaits audiences of the Renaissance Theatre as the entertainment venue announced their upcoming season with the theme, “Just Imagine.”
More than 900 people cheered their way through the 2018-19 lineup of the Renaissance Theatre, with no show receiving more applause than the theatre’s spring musical, “Mamma Mia.” The ABBA-inspired show opens on March 2.
Rounding out the popular Broadway series at the Renaissance will be “Newsies: The Broadway Musical” kicking off the season in July and August, “Annie” in November, “Avenue Q” returning in April, and “The Last Act,” a Renaissance original production penned by Artistic Director Michael Thomas in May.
Onstage productions weren’t the only thing to celebrate at the Renaissance on Tuesday. Rand Smith, president of the Renaissance Board of Directors, provided an update on the theatre’s “Imagination District” in partnership with Little Buckeye Children’s Museum.
“The vision we see at the Renaissance for where we want to take the community and the arts is truly unique,” Smith said. “Park Avenue West and this building will go through a transformation not seen in decades.”
The Renaissance expanded its footprint in December 2016 with the purchase of a 15,000 square-foot building at 166 Park Avenue West. The goal was to transfer education classrooms, create a smaller black box theatre, and open a state-of-the-art recording studio for local artists.
The new building will also feature the brand new Black Box Series. The space, now called Theatre 166, will host a collective of actors, artists, musicians, and art advocates, who will explore their artistic visions while cultivating and promoting original works, new interpretations of overlooked masterpieces, and re-examining seldom-seen classics. The anticipated season will include “The Light in the Piazza,” and “Sunday in the Park with George.”
The Renaissance’s MY Theatre will once again offer sensory-friendly concerts for individuals with special needs and their families during the performances of Disney’s “Aladdin, Jr.” and “Once On This Island.” The hugely popular Teddy Bear Concert Series will return with “Aesop’s Fables,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “The Science of Sound,” a collaboration production with Little Buckeye Children’s Museum.
The Mansfield Youth Orchestra and Youth Strings, which showcase nearly 150 outstanding musicians from over twelve counties in Central Ohio, will perform their annual Fall and Spring concerts. The Renaissance Youth Opera Theatre will round out the Education Series with performances in January of “Hot Mikado” and an original work by Michael Thomas called “Marco Polo Jones; The Road to Shanghai,” and in May RYOT will present “Thespis” paired with Michael Thomas’ piece, “Hercules!”
Movies will be back at the Renaissance Theatre featuring the Stephen King Film Festival over the summer and through the fall. The newly added Family Film Series will showcase four recent classics on the Renaissance big screen.
Comedy is also returning to Renaissance. On October 17 is the adult-only show “The Naked Magicians.” And, on February 16 Cleveland’s Tammy Pescatelli will perform with comedians Rocky Laporte and Josh Sneed.
Returning again to the podium, Octavio Más-Arocas and the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra will host an exciting kick-off concert on September 22nd titled “Spanish Fiesta”, a passionate collection of Spanish-inspired compositions. Sing Out! will take place on October 21st and feature the Mansfield Symphony Chorus with a number of local high school choruses.
One week later will feature the symphony performing a Halloween “spooktacular”, costumes and all, and ringing in the Holidays will be the ever-popular Holiday Concert on December 15th.
The season continues on February 9th with “Russian Spectacular” featuring Russian Masters such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Borodin. March 23rd will see a collaboration with Jeans n’ Classics to feature the timeless music of Elton John.
Ending the season on May 11th, the symphony will be joined by the chorus to perform some of the best-loved music of the French Masters and will feature the Renaissance’s Mighty Wurlitzer in Saint-Saens’ Third Symphony.
Beatle-mania will be coming to the Renaissance on September 29th with BritBeat: A Multimedia Concert Journey Through Beatles Music History. Country legend, Aaron Tippin, will celebrate his silver anniversary as a recording artist on our stage on October 12th, and on February 2nd the timeless music of Fleetwood Mac will enthrall fans with Tusk: Tribute to Fleetwood Mac. Rounding out the series will be a Broadway legend, voice of two Disney princesses, and a Tony award-winning actress, Lea Salonga on April 29.
