MANSFIELD — A Richland County probation officer gave me the best compliment possible Friday on the stage at the Mansfield Playhouse. “You’re good,” he said. “I felt like I was in the moment.” That’s exactly the goal of the Crisis Intervention Team training, an effort by the mental health community to help law enforcement officers […]
Mansfield Playhouse
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Ready to laugh? Mansfield Playhouse announces 2025-2026 schedule
MANSFIELD — Doug Wertz will be the first to tell you there are two keys to a successful community theater schedule. First, pick out shows audiences want to see. Second, pick out shows local community theater actors want to do. Wertz, the longtime Mansfield Playhouse artistic director, believes the 95 E. Third St. community theater […]
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Looking for some loose nuts? Check out ‘Squirrel Lake’ at the Mansfield Playhouse
MANSFIELD — Michael McQuillen had seen his daughter perform on stage and decided it was time to get in on the fun himself. “My daughter goes to Ashland and she’s been in a couple of Kroc Center productions,” he said. “It’s always been a blast watching her. It looks like they are having so much […]
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34th class of law enforcement officers trained in crisis intervention to graduate
MANSFIELD — The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Richland County and theRichland County Mental Health & Recovery Services Board will graduate the 34thclass of law enforcement and first responders on May 16. CIT stands for “Crisis Intervention Team” and refers to a collaborative effortbetween law enforcement and the mental health community to help lawenforcement […]
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Blues Fest coming to Mansfield Playhouse on Saturday with 3 bands
MANSFIELD — Frank Boyd Jr. has had the blues since he was 2 years old. “The blues touches my soul, man. My dad was a blues guitar player. I grew up listening to him play. “My mom said I ought to love it because when I was 2 years old, he had me on his […]
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He’s back: Ryan Kiley returns to Mansfield Playhouse stage for ‘Who’s on First?’
MANSFIELD — Ryan Kiley spent a quarter of a century making audiences howl with laughter at the Mansfield Playhouse. And then, five years ago, like a wind whipping down the plain, the powerful comedic actor from Mansfield just stopped after a hilarious turn in “Leading Ladies.” That show staged in February 2020 — the final […]
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Mansfield Playhouse launches $7.5 million drive for new community theater
MANSFIELD — Chriss Harris agreed only to meet and talk with Doug Wertz about a potential capital campaign to build a new Mansfield Playhouse. But the area’s fundraising guru wasn’t convinced about the idea — until she sat down and spoke to Wertz, a former teen actor who has now been associated with the East […]
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It’s a farce: Mistaken identities, hilarious plot twists roll quickly in new Mansfield Playhouse show
MANSFIELD — Suzanne Allen and Lynne Rouzer are community theater veterans, as comfortable on stage as in their real lives. But they had never met one another until a cold January evening during Mansfield Playhouse auditions for the comedic farce, “Said the Spider to the Spy.” However, it didn’t take long for the duo to […]
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Go down the rabbit hole with ‘Alice in Wonderland’ at the Mansfield Playhouse
MANSFIELD — Morgyn Beasley isn’t really the kind of person who is often late. But you would never know it watching the 15-year-old rush around the Mansfield Playhouse stage as the White Rabbit in Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland Jr.” “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” the White Rabbit exclaims early in the […]
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‘Wonderland Wives’ challenges fairy tale princess norms at Mansfield Playhouse
MANSFIELD — What if the princesses didn’t live “happily ever after” in the ways made famous by the Brothers Grimm in their 19th-century fairy tales? Find out this weekend and next at the Mansfield Playhouse with the Second Stage, for-adults-only production of “Wonderland Wives.” It’s Disney royalty gone bad. Really badly. Cinderella has dropped her […]