This school year the Ashland University Theatre Department has decided to go on a journey back in time with their play selections to the Victorian era at the Hugo Young Theatre.

The “Treasured Classics” series has played through two of their three selections, with “Little Women” hitting the stage in November and “Three Sisters” playing in February.

For the final selection, the AU Theatre Department will present “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes’ Mystery,” written by Ken Ludwig and based on the novel “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Every year, there seems to be a common theme with the shows put on by the AU Theatre Department.

“I always try to find shows that have a common link to them,” Ashland Performing Arts Coordinator Tricia Applegate said.

This year’s link features plays that were based on either plays or novels written during the mid to late parts of the 19th century and early 20th century, a time period known as the Victorian Era.

Each year also contains a cycle of plays.

“We were due for a comedy,” AU Theatre Director Theresa Durbin-Ames said, “Baskerville fit in perfectly with the theme we were presenting this year.”

Also according to Durbin-Ames, every four years, the third play could be a comedy, a drama, a tragedy, or a history.

The Case of The Hound of The Baskervilles is transformed from a mystery into a humorous murder case as five different actors play more than 40 characters in the set.

Along the way, the characters try to find a way out of “a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises, and deceit.”

The show has previously received a rave review from the organization Broadway World – “A play that is ingeniously funny and will keep you guessing until the curtain call.”

The show is set to debut in the Hugo Young Theatre on Wednesday, April 3 at 2 P.M.

Tickets are $10 a person, and to find out more information, call the AU box office at 419-289-5125, or visit www.ashland.edu/tickets.
AU Theatre and it’s “Treasured Classics” are ready to wrap up the season with a mystery bound to make people laugh.