A Shakespeare play in a unique setting and a pair of popular musicals are planned by Kent State University at Trumbull Theatre in 2024-25.

Eric Kildow, director and associate professor of theater at Kent-Trumbull, said they will venture off-campus for a production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in downtown Warren’s David Grohl Alley at Modern Methods Brewing Company.

“Doing some kind of Shakespeare downtown is something we’ve been kicking around,” he said. “With our equipment, the bandshell at the amp (Warren Community Amphitheatre) is probably not a really good option for us, but we have a working relationship with Modern Methods.”

Kent-Trumbull started its monthly Sips & Scripts playreading series at the downtown brewery and now does it at Modern Methods’ Darlene Lounge.

“They do shows all the time back in the alley, so what if we did Shakespeare in the alley?” Kildow said. “We haven’t done a Shakespeare comedy since ‘Much Ado (About Nothing)’ a few years back, and Peter Byrne (an English professor at Kent-Trumbull who will direct it) was very interested in taking that on.”

There still are several logistical challenges to figure out. Right now the show is slated for March 2025, although it could move to April. Modern Methods has heavy vinyl curtains at each end of the covered portion of the alley and a heater to somewhat control the temperature in the space.

The set will need to be simple enough that it can be taken down after every performance instead of leaving it up throughout the run of the show. And Kildow isn’t sure what the seating capacity will be.

However, there’s a long history of staging Shakespeare’s works in nontraditional settings and shifting the time period, costuming and other elements.

“You can take these works and interpret them in a number of different ways without torturing the text itself into submission,” Kildow said.

The season will open in November with “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” a stage production based on the 2001 movie starring Reese Witherspoon as a sorority girl who enrolls in Harvard Law School to win back her boyfriend and ends up proving her talents extend beyond her fashion sense. It ran for nearly 600 performances on Broadway in 2007-08 and received seven Tony nominations. It also was the subject of an MTV reality series “The Search for Elle Woods,” a competition to cast the replacement for Laura Bell Bundy as the star of the show.

Kent-Trumbull always does a musical in the summer, but Kildow added a second musical in the fall for the current season and wanted to continue that arrangement.

“It’s fun and people do enjoy it, and learning how to work in musicals is important for our students,” he said. “That’s sort of the bread and butter of the American theater industry. Increasing the number we do not only serves the community well, in my opinion, but it serves our students.”

The Summer Stock musical in July 2025 will be “Matilda: The Musical,” based on the Roald Dahl book about a precocious and telekinetic young girl who clashes with the principal at her school. It ran for nearly four years on Broadway and received 13 Tony nominations (winning three). A film adaptation of the musical premiered on Netflix in 2022.

After recent summer productions like “Rent” in 2022 and this summer’s “American Idiot,” which only had roles for adults and older teens, “Matilda” will feature many parts for younger children. In the past, Summer Stock musical choices regularly featured large, all-ages casts.

“We’re getting back to standard practices with the summer musical,” Kildow said.

Young performers also will have opportunities for the holiday production “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” which is based on a popular children’s book by Barbara Robinson. For that show, Kent-Trumbull will partner with the Hart School of Performing Arts, which offers classes for children on campus.

“Having them here is beneficial for everyone involved,” Kildow said. “There are not a lot of year-round youth arts outlets around Warren.”

Auditions for the two Summer Stock productions in the 2023-24 season, “American Idiot” and “The Magic of Books,” will be held this month, and auditions for “Legally Blonde,” the first show for 2024-25, will be scheduled at the start of the fall semester so new students can participate. Auditions for all Kent-Trumbull productions are open to community members as well.

2024-25 season

November — “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” directed by Liz Conrad

December — “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” a co-production with Hart School of Performing Arts

March 2025 — “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Peter Byrne and staged in David Grohl Alley at Modern Methods Brewing Company

July 2025 — “Matilda: The Musical,” directed by Melanie Lucas