Touchstone Theatre Brings Internet Sensation Dr. Horrible To The Stage 10/14-24

This October, Touchstone Theatre adapts the cult hit Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, bringing it to the stage for its professional East Coast premiere. The show will run two weekends from October 14-24, 2010.

Created during the writer's strike, Dr. Horrible was originally conceived as an internet mini-series by Joss Whedon, famous for genre work like Buffy, Firefly, and Dollhouse. Aided "only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met," Whedon's aim was simple: to continue working creatively, in spite of the strike, and to show how much could be done with very little. Dr. Horrible aired online in July of 2008, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion.

Now, the Touchstone Ensemble is delving into the script. Ensemble Member Jp Jordan stars as Dr. Horrible, an aspiring super-villain who boasts about his exploits via video blog and whose attempts at world domination-and getting the girl-are constantly thwarted by his nemesis, the dashing and dim-witted Captain Hammer, played by Philadelphia actor and 5-time Barrymore Nominee, Rob Nedoff.

Working with already inherently theatrical material, the Touchstone production utilizes live video feed, action figures, and rapid-change costumes to create the various settings contained in the play, including a Laundromat, a van heist on a city street, and the secret laboratory from which Dr. Horrible posts his video blog. All elements of the production strive to recapture the spirit of the original webseries while bringing new interpretation to flesh it out as a fully realized theatrical production.

Director Christopher Shorr reports, "The Touchstone stamp will be most evident in the way we've approached casting. A company of seven actors will perform more than twenty roles. [...] To accomplish these feats, as artists, we will use our creative powers, and as the audience, people will use the power of their imagination. That seems like the hallmark of Touchstone theatricality to me."

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog runs from Thursday October 14 through Sunday October 24. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows start at 8:00 pm, with Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. Regular admission is $25, with $15 tickets available to students and seniors; group rates available. Thursday nights, Touchstone offers "pay what you will at the door," where audience members who buy their tickets at the theatre that night may name their own purchase price. Other tickets may be purchased by phone at 610-867-1689, or online at www.lvartsboxoffice.org.

Celebrating thirty years, Touchstone Theatre produces and presents both original and classic productions, with a dedication to the renewal of theatre as a vital art form. Touchstone works to foster collaboration on a local and national level through educational and youth empowerment programs, using theatre as a community-building tool. Visit us on the web at www.touchstone.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.