Theatre 166, the Black Box Theatre of Renaissance Performing Arts, opened only last October in a building that took months to be emptied and renovated. The work has paid off and now the theater is in its second season.
The second production of the 2019-20 season will be The Last Five Years starring Ryan Shreve and Matti-Lynn Chrisman. The show dates are October 25-26 at 8:00 PM and October 27 at 3:00 PM.
Directed by Ryan Shealy, this Drama Desk winner is an emotionally powerful and intimate musical about two New Yorkers in their twenties who fall in and out of love over the course of five years.
The show’s unconventional structure consists of Cathy, played by Matti-Lynn Chrisman, telling her story backward, while Jamie, play by Ryan Shreve, tells his story chronologically. Within the show, the two characters only meet once, at their wedding.
“I’ve loved this show since high school. It was the first time I realized musicals don’t always have to play by the normal rules of storytelling. You already have a cast that is telling a story through song; so why not tell it in a non-linear way. Oddly enough, by taking away the realistic story structure; you actually heighten the emotional realism of each scene,” said Shealy.
Tickets are $25 and are on sale now at the Renaissance Box Office, via phone at (419) 522-2726, and online at RenTickets.org. The production is part of the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center Black Box Series. The Last Five Years is sponsored by Coffy Creations Photography and Nanogate Jay Systems, LLC.
Source, Photo: Renaissance Performing Arts Association
