Actors' Theatre of Columbus to Stage THE COUNTESS OF MONTE CRISTO

In 1982, Actors' Theatre of Columbus (ATC) kicked off its first season with a single production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The success of that season proved that Schiller Park was an excellent venue for open air Shakespearean theater, and the troupe has continued this tradition for 35 years. "To Tell the Truth," Actors' Theatre's 2016 season, features four plays that ask questions about how far relationships can be strained and even broken by dishonesty, falsehood and slander.

ATC will perform its 100th production in Schiller Park with a world premiere adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (June 23 - July 17) by Philip J. Hickman and Jennifer Feather Youngblood. Based on the classic swashbuckling tale of vengeance and redemption, The Countess of Monte Cristo tells the story of a young woman betrayed in the name of greed and spite by people she trusted who transforms herself into an agent of self-styled justice and returns to the glitter and intrigue of upper-class Paris twenty years later to carry out her revenge.

Co-adapter and co-director Jennifer Feather Youngblood has been involved for the past 25 years in various capacities with regional theatres including Actors' Theatre, Columbus Children's Theatre, and MadLab Theatre. Some of her favorite roles include The Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Lady Bountiful inThe Beaux' Stratagem, and The Jinn in The Jinn. While she is an internationally-produced playwright,The Countess of Monte Cristo is the first full-length script she has worked on to be produced locally.

"To paraphrase something Philip (Hickman) has said, Actors' Theatre has a mission to produce classical theatre, but it would be a disservice to both theatre and the community if the story is always told by or about white men," shares Youngblood. "As Alexandre Dumas was himself an outsider, a man of African descent amongst the aristocracy of France during the Napoleonic era, we felt that the perspective shift was in keeping with the spirit and intent of the source material."

"This show has everything: we have swashbuckling and romance and plotting and escapes, we have conspiracy and bravery and murder and hope," Youngblood continues. "The world of post-revolutionary France in the early 19th century, with all its mores and manners, intrigue and injustices, splendor and mystery, was a very fun world for my co-director Adam Simon and I to create and bring to the stage."

Performing in her first show with Actors' Theatre is McLane Nagy in the titular role of Amelie Dantes. McLane grew up in New Richmond, Ohio and has been acting from a young age. After graduating from BGSU with a B.A.C. in acting, she moved to Cincinnati where she became a part of the theatre community there as an actor, drama teacher, and stage manager. She is now happy to call Columbus home.

ATC's 2016 performance season will continue with Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (July 21 - August 7), and Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (August 11 - September 4).

Each performance runs Thursday-Sunday at 8 pm at Schiller Park's Amphitheatre Stage in German Village. Outdoor summer shows are free and open to the public, though donations are encouraged and vital to the continued success of Actors' Theatre. Inaugural memberships with Actors' Theatre have been created for the 35th anniversary season and are available by visiting http://theactorstheatre.org/membership/.

Support for Actors' Theatre is made possible by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, and The Columbus Foundation with media support from WCBE 90.5 FM.

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