CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Staging “The Hobbit” is a tall order for any theater. Goblins, dwarves, wizards and a dragon don’t exactly fit neatly inside a 139-seat black box. But that challenge is what excites director Erin E. Dolan about Dobama Theatre’s production of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic adventure.

“It’s a story that’s just timeless,” Dolan said of the play, which runs Dec. 4-Jan. 4, and doubles as the theater’s holiday production. “There are good guys and bad guys. There’s a hero’s journey. Tolkien had so many characters that everyone can find someone to relate to.”

Indeed, the source material is so epic that it took director Peter Jackson three movies to tell the story of Bilbo Baggins, who leaves the Shire to join a group of dwarves on a quest to reclaim their kingdom from a fi

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