Teen play ‘The Ogreling’ returns for Halloween

Press release alert: Here are some theatrical folks exploring what it means to be a monster.

Matthew Webb as Ogreling and Emily Levickas as Mother in “The Ogreling.” | Leisa Thompson

Spinning Dot Theatre, launched in 2014, creates meaningful international theater for kids and their families. For everyone, really. Through inventive storytelling — often with music, movement, shadow puppets, professional actors, and more — we invite our audiences to think about our world.

“The Ogreling” by Suzanne Lebeau of Canada is a dark and wondrous play about the son of an ogre who decides to escape his destiny. First, he must overcome three trials, challenges to his instincts and his troubling desires. From his father, he inherited an appetite for flesh; but, from his mother, he received a hunger to live at peace with the world. Cinematic shadow puppetry, movement and music combine to create Lebeau’s looming fairytale world. Directed by Tyler Calhoun, Jenny Anne Koppera and assisted by Kelly Joyce Fielder, “The Ogreling” is Spinning Dot Theatre’s most recent repertory company creation and will be performed in October.

The cast includes repertory veterans Tae Hoon Yoo (“Big Fire”), Vicki Morgan and Emily Slomovits. Joining the company are Matthew Webb and Jedì Curva, dual-cast as the Ogreling, and Emily Levickas as Mother. 

Schedule

When: Friday, Oct. 20, 8 p.m.
Where: The Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington St, Ann Arbor

When: Saturday, Oct. 21 and Sunday, Oct. 22,  8 p.m.
Where: Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron Street, Ypsilanti.

Price: Suggested donations are $10 and tickets are first come, first served, available 30 minutes before each performance. Recommended for ages 13-25.

Info: 734-585-5134 or spinningdot.org.