Centre Stage Hosts New Play Festival Auditions 8/9-10

New Play Festival Auditions: Centre Stage will present its 8th annual New Play Festival October 18-23, 2010 featuring the works of four finalists selected from submissions of playwrights. These plays will be presented in staged readings that begin each evening at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Date: August 9-10

Time: 7:00

Location: Centre Stage

Needed: Readers for characters and stage directions

FYI: 9 Females, 11 Males, 5 Stage Direction Readers

A Strange Disappearance of Bees by Elena Hartwell

BEEKEEPER (RUD): Older woman, spare, no nonsense.

LISSA (pronounced like Melissa, not Lisa): Younger woman, capable, warm, sensual.

CALLUM: Man, big presence, commands attention.

ROBERT: Man, polished, aura of success. Half-Vietnamese.

CASHMAN: Older man, comfortable with who he is even in his disappointments.

Faith by James McLindon

SIMON: A thirteen year old boy, a saint in training

THERESA: Simon's mother, early thirties

OWEN: A high school guidance counselor and chemistry teacher, thirties

THE HARBINGER: A visitor to our world who appears as a beautiful young woman

Dreams of Angels by Robert E. Jamison

ROB FINDLEY: Senior at Stillman High School. 18 years old.

EMILY NICHOLS: Junior at Stillman High School, Rob's girlfriend. 16 years old.

LUCILE NICHOLS: A high school English teacher in Stillman, SC. Emily's mother and Rob's teacher. 40 years old.

HAMP NICHOLS: Lucille's husband, sheriff's deputy in Compson County, SC. Emily's father. Just over 40 years old.

Identity Crisis by Peter Snoad

ALAN GUTHRIE: early 30's, white*

David Guthrie: white, his identical twin brother*

MARCIA SILVERSTEIN: early 30's, white, Alan's fiancé

FRANKIE WHITE: early 30's, black, Alan's old college roommate**

SYLVIA SILVERSTEIN: late 50's-60's, white, Marcia's Mom

Max SilverSTEIN: late 50's-60's, Marcia's Dad**

* played by the same actor

** played by the same actor

The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry

Date: September 12 - 13

Audition Time: 7:00

Location: Centre Stage

Callback Time: 8:00
Character Descriptions:

Adolph Freitag - a businessman, late 40s

Boo Levy - Adolph's sister, a few years older

Reba Freitag - Adolph's sister-in-law, middle 40s

Lala Levy - Boo's daughter, 20s

Sunny Freitag - Reba's daughter, 20

Peachy Weil - a visitor from Lake Charles, 20s

THE STORY: THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1939. Gone with the Wind is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta's elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. Especially concerned is the Freitag family: bachelor Adolph, his widowed sister, Beulah (Boo) Levy, and their also widowed sister-in-law, Reba. Boo is determined to have her dreamy, unpopular daughter, Lala, attend Ballyhoo, believing it will be Lala's last chance to find a socially acceptable husband. Adolph brings his new assistant, Joe Farkas, home for dinner. Joe is Brooklyn born and bred, and furthermore is of Eastern European heritage-several social rungs below the Freitags, in Beulah's opinion. Lala, however, is charmed by Joe and she hints broadly about being taken to Ballyhoo, but he turns her down. This enrages Boo, and matters get worse when Joe falls for Lala's cousin, Reba's daughter, Sunny, home from Wellesley for Christmas vacation. Will Boo succeed in snaring Peachy Weil, a member of one of the finest Jewish families in the South? Will Sunny and Joe avoid the land mines of prejudice that stand in their way? Will Lala ever get to Ballyhoo? The family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations along the way. Events take several unexpected turns as the characters face where they come from and are forced to deal with who they really are.

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