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BULLSHOT CRUMMOND - Farce by Ron House, Diz White, Alan
Sherman, John Neville Andrew s and Derek Cunningham, Director -
Stina Seeger-Gibson 3M,2F (Jul. 5 - Sept. 1, 2007 / Auditions May 13
& 14, 2007)
This parody of low budget 30s detective movies typifies British
heroism. Teutonic villain Otto von Brunno and his evil mistress
crash their plane in the English countryside and kidnap Professor
Fenton who has discovered a formula for making synthetic diamonds.
Bullshot Crummond is called to the rescue. Otto paralyzes Crummond
with a fiendish ray. He rams a stick of dynamite in Crummond's mouth
which will explode when the next person enters the room. Rosemary
enters, but the static electricity in her fur wrap averts the
detonation. They pursue in a hair raising car chase, but plunge over
a cliff. They sneak into the dungeons where the professor is being
tortured, but Crummond hopelessly loses the ensuing saber duel.
Unperturbed, Crummond finally triumphs by shooting the rest of the
cast. "Uproarious." Int. Herald Tribune . "Marvelous." London Sunday
Telegraph.
THE GINGERBREAD LADY - Drama by Neil Simon, Director - Bonnie
Ross
3M,3F (Oct. 18 - Nov.10, 2007 / Auditions - Aug 25, 26 & 27)
Maureen Stapleton played the Broadway part of a popular singer who
has gone to pot with booze and sex. We meet her at the end of a ten
week drying out period at a sanitarium when her friend, her
daughter, and an actor try to help her adjust to sobriety. But all
three have the opposite effect on her. The friend is so constantly
vain that she loses her husband; the actor, a homosexual, is also
doomed, and indeed loses his part three days before an opening; and
the daughter needs more affection than she can spare her mother.
Enter also a former lover, who ends up giving her a black eye. The
birthday party washes out, the gingerbread lady falls off the wagon
and careens onward to her own tragic end.
MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS - Comedy by Ron Hutchinson, Director
- Marj Nylund
3M,1F (Dec. 27, 2007 - Jan 19 2008, w/ New Year=s Eve Gala Mon. Dec.
31, 2007 / Auditions Nov 4 & 5, 2007)
“An affectionate portrait of the legendary movie producer David O.
Selznick and his collaborators” a lot of fun dispenses a good deal
of insider’s dope on the professional and personal dynamics that
fueled the production [of Gone with the Wind] plenty of genuine wit
in the dialogue, and the characters are drawn with such affection
that one can’t help but cheer for them.” - NY Post. “A Hollywood
dream-factory farce. At once a hyperventilating slapstick comedy, an
impassioned love song and a blazing critique of Hollywood just when
you think it’s all fun and games [ Hutchinson ] turns the tables -
he has a gift for enveloping you in blackness. And then, with a
single line, he also can lift the heavy cloud and get on with the
hilarity.”- Chicago Sun Times. “Consumers of vintage Hollywood
insider stories will eat up Hutchinson’s diverting conjecture as to
what actually happened behind those closed doors, a scenario given
extra spark by the fractious interplay among the three men and their
wildly contrasting demeanors, it’s the hell-bent determination and
entrepreneurial insanity of the independent producer to which
Hutchinson pays tribute.” - Variety. “Frankly, my dear, this is one
funny play! A rip-roaring farce! [with] witty, pointed dialogue and
hilarious situations!” - NY Daily News.
THE DINING ROOM - Comedy/Drama by A. R. Gurney, Director -
Kaline Klaas
3M,3F (Mar. 6- Mar. 29, 2008 / Auditions Jan. 13 & 14, 2008)
The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do
household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast
and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is
comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes, some funny, some
touching, some rueful which, taken together, create an in-depth
portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP. The
actors change roles, personalities and ages with virtuoso skill as
they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern
grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids.
Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father
lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from
boarding school to discover his mother's infidelity; a senile
grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Chris tmas dinner; a
daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home,
etc. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce,
ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range,
compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
STEEL MAGNOLIAS - Comedy/Drama by Robert Harling, Director -
Drew Froom
6F (May 8 - May 31, 2008 / Auditions Mar. 23 & 24, 2008)
The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana ,
where all the ladies who are "anybody" come to have their hair done.
Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether
or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy
dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon,
Ouiser, ("I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for forty
years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging
sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter,
Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a "good ole
boy." Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but
humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward
tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a
diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden
realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on
the underlying strengthCand loveCwhich give the play, and its
characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny
and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
KINDLY LEAVE THE STAGE - Comedy by John Chapman, Director -
Stina Seeger-Gibson
3M,5F (Jul. 10 - Aug. 30, 2008 / Auditions May 18 & 19, 2008)
The marriage of Rupert and Sarah is on the rocks and their friends
Charles and Madge, both of whom are lawyers, agree to handle the
divorce. After the curtain has been up a few minutes, Rupert forgets
his lines, has a brain storm and threatens to kill Charles in full
view of the audience because he's been having an affair off stage,
with Rupert's real wife, Madge. Quite true as it happens. The rest
of the cast try to ignore the incident and forge ahead with the
original play but Rupert picks up a knife and advances on Charles,
who is forced to take cover in a large cabin trunk which is on the
set at the time. A real life marital comedy now evolves. The
situation is further complicated when the actor playing the old
father, Edward, makes his entrance. He is an ageing Shakespearean
star, once famous for his King Lear but now an alcoholic on the
skids. He happens to have asked his new agent to the performance
that night. Edward is blissfully unaware that the play has switched
from art to life. Out of loyalty to a fellow actor, the rest of the
cast do their best to accommodate the poor chap, but he gradually
begins to crack up, especially as some of his cues are coming from a
cabin trunk. The play is a light hearted tilt at the complete
theatricality of stage folk.
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