By Sarah Waters

Adapted by Laura Wade

By arrangement with Knight Hall Agency Ltd and Greene and Heaton Ltd. Tipping the Velvet was first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith on 18 September 2015.

An English Language Amateur Production

TIME/SETTING

1890's London…mostly!

DATES

November 21 - 23 & December 4 - 7 @ 8pm. 12/7 @ 2pm. The Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater, 19 South College Street, Athens OH 45701

CONTENT ADVISORY

This production contains simulated sexual acts as well as adult themes and language.

SYNOPSIS

In 1887, oyster girl Nancy Astley falls in love with Kitty Butler—a male impersonator. Giddy with desire, Nancy follows her to London where adventures (and mistakes) in passion, performance, and pleasure await!

NOTES ON THE PRODUCTION

Caitlin Lopez, Director

The Picaresque Novel

“Tipping the Velvet” is an adaptation of the debut novel of the same name by Sarah Waters, first published in 1998. Set in Victorian England, it follows the life of Nancy Astley, a young woman from a small seaside town, who becomes romantically and sexually involved with women after falling in love with a male impersonator at her local music hall. 

The book is written in the style of a picaresque novel. This genre originally rose to prominence in Spain during the 16th century and derives its name from the Spanish word “pícaro,” meaning a rogue or scoundrel. The protagonist of the picaresque novel is typically a poor or low class man who behaves in a rakish manner - navigating the world with wit, trickery, and survival instincts. This morally ambiguous character’s tale is usually told in episodic adventures which often show their interactions with various social classes. This was meant to highlight the inequities and hypocrisies of society while keeping the main character on a trajectory of self growth and discovery that leads them to an ultimate change of heart (or at least a change of actions) in response to what they have experienced. By the Victorian era, elements of the picaresque could be found most famously in the works of Charles Dickens (a la “David Copperfield” or “The Pickwick Papers”).

The Music Hall

In this adaptation by Laura Wade, the playwright has leaned into the British music hall as a way to frame this genre’s episodic structure, and to marry the passion of the text with the heightened melodrama of live theater. To an American audience, the British music hall can be compared most closely with the vaudeville circuit of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They existed concurrently and both were collections of variety acts featuring everything from acrobats, to vocalists, to dancers, comedians, and more. 

Music hall specifically began as performances attached to local pubs, as a tactic to drive more sales of alcohol. The venues that were eventually built to house these performances were also attached to these pubs and had their own dedicated bars inside where working men could see an act, and local sex workers could ply their trade to those working men. Music halls at first were known for their rowdy and raucous crowds who not only sang along with the songs they knew, but also started fights or fires if the acts weren’t good enough. The chairman of the music hall essentially acted as an emcee for the evening, announcing the acts and attempting to keep the peace by demanding attention with his gavel and directing the flow of the performance. By the end of the 19th century most music halls had become “tamed” by more traditionally structured theater and were family friendly events. 

The Music

The music hall is of course nothing without music. The script for “Tipping the Velvet” specifies the moments of musical interlude that occur, but leaves the choices of those pieces of music to the discretion of those producing it. In its original production at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2015, 20th and 21st century pop songs were chosen for the production - leaning into the anachronism of time and place that Waters herself utilized in the book. 

In the latest edition of the novel, she states in the afterword, “Tipping the Velvet was never meant to be a work of historical realism. Instead, it offers a 1990s-flavoured lesbian Victorian London, complete with its own pubs, clubs, and fashions. (…) The very patchiness of lesbian history, I was trying to say — the very leanness of the lesbian archive — invites or incites the lesbian historical novelist to pinch, to appropriate, to make stuff up. I wanted the novel not just to reflect that, but to reflect on it, to lay bare and revel in its own artificiality.”

To take a page from Waters own queering of history, this production has chosen to use songs exclusively from Sapphic artists who have shaped popular music over the past 100 years. Funnily enough, the only exception to this is “Piccadilly”, a song that was made popular by Hetty King, a male impersonator of the late music hall. While she may not have been a “Tom,” we tip our hat to her as one of the inspirations for Kitty Butler. 

We celebrate the work and identities of these women, and encourage you to sing along if you happen to know the tune.

THE SONGS

Pink Pony Club (Artist: Chappell Roan)

Morgan Sprouse

Will Fletcher

The Audience

Lili Marlene (Artist: Marlene Dietrich)

Kitty Butler ………….. Grayce Roderick

Piccadilly (Artist: Hetty King)

Walter Bliss ………….. Benjamin Nickols

Ensemble

I Only Want to Be With You (Artist: Dusty Springfield)

Kitty Butler ………….. Grayce Roderick

Nan King ……………… Oakley Aughtman

Miss Chatelaine (Artist: k.d. lang)

Vocalist ……………….. Victoria Skok

Vocalist …………..…… Liv Speck

Good Luck Babe (Artist: Chappell Roan)

Nancy Astley ……….. Oakley Aughtman

Vocalist ……………….. Victoria Skok

Vocalist …………..…… Liv Speck

Make Me Feel (Artist: Janelle Monae)

Diana Lethaby ……….. Rebecca Larson

Vocalist ……………….. Victoria Skok

Vocalist …………..…… Liv Speck

Ensemble

At Seventeen (Artist: Janis Ian)

Nancy Astley ……….. Oakley Aughtman

One Way or Another (Artist: Blondie)

Kitty Butler ………….. Grayce Roderick

Ensemble

Without You Without Them (Artist: Boygenius)

Florence Banner ……….. Alexandra MacKeown

Vocalist …………………….. Victoria Skok

Vocalist ………………..…… Liv Speck

You Don’t Own Me (Artist: Lesley Gore)

Nancy Astley ……………..….. Oakley Aughtman

Ralph Banner …………….….. Ryan Zornack

Florence Banner ………..….. Alexandra MacKeown

Ensemble

DRAMATURGICAL NOTE

Claire Waldrop, Dramaturg

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We, The School Of Theater and Tantrum Theater, acknowledge that, from the time of Ohio University’s founding in 1804, it has occupied the traditional homelands of the Shawnee people, as well as the Wahzhazhe (who are also known as the Osage), who lived in Southeast Ohio before them. As the first federally legislated public university in the United States of America, Ohio University was an integral part of the U.S.’s westward expansion and empire building. 

Welcome to the 2024-2025 OHIO Theater Season!

We are often asked if we choose themes for our production seasons. We purposely do not choose themes to give creators the widest variety of options for projects. And yet…sometimes a theme chooses us. The 2024-2025 season embraces queer voices and identities in surprising ways. The stories being told ask us to widen our understanding of what it means to belong, and how we can grow as a loving community to make space for all experiences. There is a lot of joy in this season and hope; hope for connections, and hope for moving forward. 

We begin the season with Steven Strafford directing A Little Night Music, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Hugh Wheeler. This story of love and lust with spectacular music reminds us why we’re willing to show up for each other, even when it’s complicated. 

Second-year MFA directing candidate Sarah Curtis directs Euripides’ Trojan Women in a production that feels as contemporary as the nightly news. The script is, and always has been, a reminder of the horrors of war and offers us insights into our human experience.

Tantrum Theater, OHIO’s professional theater, brings professional directors, stage managers, designers, technicians, and actors to work side-by-side with our students. In the fall, Sullivan Canaday White directs Kate Hamill’s new adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. This fast-paced comic romp is not your grandmother’s P&P! In the spring, Steve Pacek directs and choreographs the musical The Prom, which tells the story of four has-been Broadway stars who champion a high school student who wants to bring her girlfriend to the prom. Descending on the small midwestern town, they attempt to steal the spotlight with hilarious and moving consequences. 

Vibrancy Theater, the School’s student-run theater “creates a playground for student theater-artists and generates a space for Black, Indigenous, Students of Color to develop artistic leadership skills.” Vibrancy produces Robert O’Hara’s Black queer odyssey Bootycandy directed by third-year MFA directing candidate Devin Ty Franklin. 

Third-year MFA directing candidate Caitin Lopez directs Tipping the Velvet, a turn-of-the-century adventurous romp through London where oyster girl Nancy falls in love with male impersonator Kitty. The Sarah Waters’ novel is adapted by Laura Wade and promises passion, performance, and pleasure!

You, our audience, are an integral part in this community building because live theater can’t happen without you. We welcome your energy and support for our students’ work and hope you’ll join us for what will be a thrilling year.

2024

A Little Night Music

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler

Directed by Steven Strafford

What if who you were meant to be with for the rest of your life arrived back to you after fourteen years? What if there was a snag? What if the snag was his marriage to a much younger woman?  Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music will fill your night with beautiful music, laughter, and a story of how love (and lust) makes fools of us all. 

E.E. Baker Theater in Kantner Hall

October 3-5, 2024 @8pm and October 5 @2pm

Trojan Women

By Euripides

Directed by Sarah Curtis

Euripides’ Trojan Women is a timeless Greek tragedy that explores the devastating consequences of war, focusing on the experiences of the women of Troy. It serves as an indictment on the horrors of conflict and showcases the resilience of the human spirit. Brendan Kennelley’s translation tells this classic story in a new way, giving the traditions of Greek tragedy a contemporary bite. This production brings us into the modern world and places this story closer to home.

Virginia Hahne Theater

October 17-19, 2024 @8pm and October 19 @2pm

TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS

Pride and Prejudice

By Kate Hamill, adapted from the novel by Jane Austen

Directed by Sullivan Canaday White

Jane Austen’s greatest tale of latent love has never felt so full of life. Kate Hamill’s boisterous and highly theatrical adaptation explores the absurdities and thrills of finding your perfect (or imperfect) match in life. Because what turns us into greater fools than the high-stakes game of love?

Forum Theater

October 24-26, October 31-November 2, November 6-9, 2024 @8pm

November 2 & 9 @2pm

Tipping the Velvet

By Sarah Waters, adapted from the novel by Laura Wade

Directed by Caitlin Lopez

In 1887, oyster girl Nancy Astley falls in love with Kitty Butler—a male impersonator. Giddy with desire, Nancy follows her to London where adventures (and mistakes) in passion, performance, and pleasure await!

An English Language Amateur Production

E.E. Baker Theater in Kantner Hall

November 21-23 and December 4-7, 2024 @8pm

December 7, 2024 @2pm

2025

TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS

The Prom

Music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin

Directed & Choreographed by Steve Pacek

Four eccentric, and washed-up Broadway stars are in desperate need of a new stage. So when they hear that a small midwestern town is the backdrop for a heated debate around a brave high school student who simply wants to bring her girlfriend to prom, they decide to put a spotlight on the issue...and themselves.

February 27-March 1 and March 5-7, 2025 @8pm

March 1 and 8, 2025 @2pm

Forum Theater in the RTV Building

First Year MFA Directors’ Projects

Titles To Be Announced

Directed by Abigail McNeely, Castor Kent, and George Carpenter

March 4-7 and 26-29, and April 9-12, 2025

PlaySpace in Putnam Hall

VIBRANCY THEATER PRESENTS

Bootycandy

By Robert O’Hara

Directed by Devin Ty Franklin

A Black queer odyssey navigating childhood and sexuality, O’Hara’s semi-autobiographical comedy offers us rage, reflection, and... a rack of ribs. What lengths are you willing to take to be embraced as you are, and does safety always outweigh authenticity?

April 10-12 and April 16-19, 2025 @8pm

April 19, 2025 @2pm

E.E. Baker Theater in Kantner Hall

Fringe Festival

Produced by Roberto Di Donato

In spaces on and around campus

April 22-26, 2025

Please join us for the entire season and take the journey with us as we embrace these stories and support our students!

Merri Biechler

she/her/hers

Director, Associate Professor of Instruction

School of Theater

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

The School of Theater is proud to have the support from the following sponsors, without whose support, this performance would not have been possible: The Ohio Performing Arts Series, and The Visiting Artist and Scholars Committee

HOW TO REACH US

School of Theater 

307 Kantner Hall

19 South College Street

1 Ohio University

Athens, Ohio  45701

740.593.4818

Email: [email protected]

FIRE NOTICE

Illuminated signs above each door indicate
emergency exits. Please check for the nearest
exit. In the event of an emergency, you will be
notified by theater personnel and assisted in
the evacuation of the building.

SEATING POLICY 

Everyone must have a ticket. Sorry, no
children in arms or on laps. Patrons who
leave the theater during the performance
will be reseated at the discretion of house
management. Those who become disruptive
will be asked to leave the theater.