Audition News
Mrs. California
By Doris Baizley; Directed by Sam Rush
A crowd-pleasing comedy that pokes fun at "Homemakers' contests" popular in the post World War II 1950s. The scene is 1955, at a Los Angeles hotel, where the four finalists for the Mrs. California pageant vie for the state title of "ideal woman" and for prizes that include a New Freedom All Gas Kitchen. Dot, Mrs. Los Angeles, and the other contestants must demonstrate their prowess at ironing a man's shirt, sewing an apron from an original pattern, setting a table, preparing a meal, and delivering a monologue entitled "My Proudest Moment." Distracting Dot are her friend and fellow ex-WAVE Babs who keeps sabotaging the other contestants' equipment and her local gas company sponsor who objects to her "wrongheaded" choice for monologue topic: saving an American naval force from submarine attack during World War II. Doris Baizley is also the author of Sexsting, winner of the 2004 Guthrie/Playwrights' Center Two-Headed Challenge. Director Sam Rush is production coordinator for Smith College Theatre and co-founder and producing director of the critically acclaimed New Century Theatre, a professional summer theatre in Northampton, Mass.
Roles: Cast of seven, parts for women and men include: Dot, Mrs. Los Angeles; Babs, her neighbor; Dudley, Dot's Gas Company sponsor; Mrs. San Francisco; Mrs. Modesto; Mrs. San Bernardino; Stage Manager, plus voices of male and female judges.
Auditions: September 8 and 9 from 7-10 p.m. (Tues and Wed.) and callbacks on Sept. 13 from 7-10 p.m. (Sunday). Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, Smith College. Auditions are open to all Five College students and to the general public.
Performances: Thursday-Saturday, October 22-24, and Wednesday-Saturday, October 28-31, 8 p.m., in Theatre 14 at Smith College.
Scripts: Copies of the play will be available to peruse in the Josten Library, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, Green Street, Northampton, Smith College.
Questions: E-mail director Sam Rush or call (413) 585-3249.
Las Meninas
By Lynn Nottage; Directed by Ellen W. Kaplan
Inspired by a forgotten piece of history, the playwright created a hilarious and heart-wrenching play about a romance between Louis XIV's Queen, Marie-Therese, and Nabo Sensugali, an African dwarf sent as a gift for her royal amusement. These two lonely people find comfort in an illicit love, for which Nabo pays with his life. Their affair produced a daughter, Louise Marie, who was immediately whisked off to a convent with the intent that she'd never be heard from again.... Lynn Nottage is a major African American playwright. Her 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined has also received an OBIE, the Lucille Lortel Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play, a Drama Desk and an Outer Critics Circle Award (Manhattan Theatre Club, Goodman Theatre). Director Ellen W. Kaplan is professor of acting/ directing at Smith College, a Fulbright Scholar (Costa Rica), twice Fulbright Senior Scholar in Hong Kong, and recipient of multiple NEH and Mellen grants. Her play Pulling Apart received the 2006 Moss Hart Award, and was also a finalist for the O'Neill Playwrights' Conference. Last winter at Smith she directed her translation and adaptation of Cuentos de Eva Luna before sold-out audiences.
Roles: Cast of seven with parts for males and females include: Louise Marie-Therese; Queen Marie-Therese; King Louis XIV; Nabo Sensugali; Queen Mother/Mother Superior; Painter/Doctor; LaValliere; and Courtiers/Servants. Multiple roles for actors of color. Needed are dancers and actors who move well.
Auditions: September 8 and 9 from 7-10 p.m. (Tues and Wed.) and callbacks on
Sept. 13 from 7-10 p.m. (Sunday). Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Mendenhall Center for the
Performing Arts, Smith College. Auditions are open to all Five College students and to
the general public.
Performances: Friday-Saturday, December 4-5, and Wednesday-Saturday,
December 9-12, 8 p.m., in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre at Smith College.
Scripts: Copies of the play will be available to peruse in the Josten Library, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, Green Street, Northampton, Smith College.
Questions: E-mail director Ellen W. Kaplan or call (413) 585-3207.
