BWW Blogs: Memorial Day Weekend Theatre Happenings on the California Central Coast

BroadwayWorld.com brings you theater recommendations from San Luis Obispo's own Curt Miner.

As we celebrate the 3 day Memorial Day Weekend, there are any number of theatre and live performance opportunities just waiting to be a part of your holiday weekend festivities here on the California Central Coast!

The San Luis Obispo Little Theatre's (www.slolittletheatre.org) production of Sherlock's Last Case runs through June 20.

Someone is trying to kill Sherlock Holmes!  Now the greatest detective on earth must solve the case of his life.  Come travel back to Arthur Conan Doyle's foggy Victorian London to witness hair-raising twists and turns, scenes of odd happenstance and outbursts of comic brilliance.  As the sinister plot unravels, you'll be drawn inexorably to a stunning climax that will take your breath away.  But will it also take our hero's ... forever?  Come guess who's who and what's what in this fiendishly clever thriller that been thrilling audiences around the country!

"SHERLOCK'S LAST CASE is certainly a wonder...throwing social consciousness to the wind and simply entertaining an audience with delightful theatrical sleight-of-hand."  - LA Daily News

"...the play combines light, occasionally absurd, humor with all the twists and turns of a first-rate whodunit.  An extremely entertaining night of theatre!"  - Hollywood Progress

[NOTE: attended the Saturday evening performance of opening weekend, and this is one of the cleverest whodunit productions I've ever seen on stage - WELL worth an investment of your time and entertainment budget!]

In addition, SLOLT's Summer Children's Theatre program (act@slolittletheatre.org) will hold auditions (ages 7-18) for A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Shelagh Garren, on June 3 & 4 (callbacks on June 5; performances August 6-15).  Call (805) 781-3889 X14 for an audition appointment or for more information. 

Kelrik Productions (www.kelrikproductions.com) will be presenting Cabaret June 4-26 at Unity in San Luis Obispo.

Upcoming performances at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center (www.pacslo.org) include RSVP XV: Chiaroscuro - a transmedia series celebrating electroacoustic diversity and compositional risk on June 1 & 3, and Variable Velocity Performance Group's The Treasure of Presence June 3 & 4 (Spanos Theatre).  

The God Is Still Speaking Players (follow them on Facebook or at www.sloucc.org) will hold auditions for their next production, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, July 19 & 20, with performances scheduled for the first 2 weekends in September.

In Oceano, The Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville (www.americanmelodrama.com) presents the first production of a new play by Neal LaVine, Back After This Break, through June 13.  Each performance is followed by a "School Daze Vaudeville Revue."

The Santa Maria Civic Theatre (www.smct.org) will hold auditions on June 1 & 2 for this year's Summer Fairy Tale Doc, Doc ... Goose! (performances July 9-18).

The Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (www.pcpa.org), the Central Coast's Resident Professional Theatre Company, located on the Allan Hancock College Campus in Santa Maria, will present the musical comedy murder mystery Curtains at the Solvang Festival Theater June 17 - July 3.  [NOTE: Saw a Saturday matinee of this production during its Marian Theatre run in Santa Maria and it is absolutely WONDERFUL!]

Ryan Cordero (rccor385@gmail.com) and Sorcerer Productions (check them out on Facebook) recently closed a successful run of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Clark Center Studio Theatre.  What's next on the drawing board for what some are calling the most exciting and creative theatre company on the Central Coast?  I'm hearing rumors of a production of The Drowsy Chaperone as part of a full season slate of possibly as many as 5 productions ... stay tuned!

Other upcoming performances at the Clark Center (www.clarkcenter.org) in Arroyo Grande, include The Frog Princess May 28-30 and Into the Wood, Sr. June 4-6 by the Pismo Beach Youth Theatre, ballet pieces from Snow White, Giselle, and La Bayadere by Everybody Can DANCE and the Santa Maria Civic Ballet June 5 & 6, and Coastal Dance & Musical Academy's We Are The World June 20.

Murder in Mind Productions (http://murderinmind.com) will present Bewitched: De-Witched at the Spyglass Inn, located at 2703 Spyglass Dr in Shell Beach, July 4 - September 5.  Reservations are required.

The Pewter Plough Playhouse (www.pewterploughplayhouse.org), located in Cambria, closed their production of Finishing Touches on February 28.  The theatre will now be closed for a time while it installs a new fire sprinkler system - stay tuned for details on its reopening and next show! 

The Houselights Theatre (www.houselightstheatre.org) completed a successful remount run of their popular summer musical Always ... Patsy Cline at the Spanos Theatre On the Cal Poly campus this past August.  Stay tuned for details concerning their next show (and where it will be held - they are looking for a new place to call home ... got any suggestions?).

The Theatre at the Old Grammar School (TOGS) in Cambria will present Hamlet July 9-31.  Contact Emma Duncan at (805) 574-0073, or eduncan@gm.slc.edu for more information.

Up Paso Robles way, the Pioneer Players (www.pioneerplayers.org) finished a successful run of Oliver at the Templeton Performing Arts Center in January.  Next up was supposed to be a summer musical production of Fiddler on the Roof, but performance rights were unavailable.  Then the plan was a production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown.  Now, they are working on a "special project" that has taken them in a different direction at this point, and they will be making an announcement before the summer starts.  Stay tuned!

Also in Paso Robles, the Paso Robles Youth Arts Foundation (http://pryaf.org) has held auditions for its production of Twelfth Night for actors ages 8-18.  Performance dates are July 9-18.  For more information call (805) 238-5825.

The Central Coast Shakespeare Festival (www.centralcoastshakespeare.org) has held auditions for its summer productions of Twelfth Night and The Gamester.  Performances will be held July 9 - August 14.

Whether you're looking for comedy or drama, classic or contemporary, play or musical, dance or a transmedia production - we've got it all here on the beautiful California Central Coast ... so get out there and support the performing arts (and enjoy some wonderful LIVE entertainment while you're at it)!

Curt Miner ... your BroadwayWorld.com guy on the ground with the California Central Coast theatre "news & views" 

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