AUDITION DATES:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2024 at 2:00 PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2024, at 7:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM
NOTE: Auditions are set in Mid-November because the final production of the GCA 2024 Season, “Beauty and the Beast,” opens in early December and will be gearing up for opening in late November. It is necessary to have auditions sooner so that “Noises Off” will be able to start rehearsals just after “Beauty and the Beast” opens.

AUDITIONS WILL CONSIST OF READINGS FROM THE SCRIPT. THE DIRECTOR WOULD LIKE ACTORS TO BE FAMILIAR WITH THE CHARACTERS, SO CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS ARE BELOW. AGES ARE GIVEN IN THE DESCRIPTIONS, BUT THERE IS SOME FLEXIBILITY IN HOW THESE ROLES MAY BE CAST IN THE GCA PRODUCTION.

BRITISH ACCENT IS IMPORTANT TO “NOISES OFF” – THE PLAY CONTAINS A MIX OF AMERICAN ACCENTS AND BRITISH. MOST OF THE CHARACTERS ARE AMERICAN ACTORS WHO PLAY BRITISH CHARACTERS, SO BOTH ACCENTS WILL BE NECESSARY. ACCENTS ARE NOTED IN THE DESCRIPTIONS BELOW. NON-ACTOR CHARACTERS ARE AMERICAN. PLEASE ATTEMPT TO USE AN ACCENT, WHEN APPROPRIATE, AT AUDITIONS TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. ACTORS WHO ARE CAST WILL BE GIVEN TOOLS AND ASSISTANCE TO DEVELOP THEIR ACCENTS FOR PERFORMANCES.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS:
FEMALE CHARACTERS:
DOTTY OTLEY (offstage)/MRS. CLACKET (character on stage) – Late middle-aged: AS DOTTY: A late-middle-aged American actress. Forgetful. Dating Garry, though she attempts to make him jealous by meeting with Freddy. AS MRS. CLACKET: A Cockney Housekeeper for the Brent’s home in England. Hospitable, though slow.

BROOKE ASHTON (offstage)/VICKI (character on stage) – 20’s: AS BROOKE: A young inexperienced American actress. Pays no attention to other performers, either in performance or backstage.  She seems as though she is not really present – like she is somewhere else inside her head.  Is always losing her contact lenses. One-third of a Lloyd–Poppy–Brooke love triangle. AS VICKI: An English woman who works for the tax authority and is trying to woo Roger.

BELINDA BLAIR (offstage)/FLAVIA BRENT (character on stage) – 30’s: AS BELINDA: Cheerful and sensible, a reliable American actress. She may have feelings for Freddy. AS FLAVIA: Phillip Brent’s English wife. She is dependable, though not one for household duties.

POPPY NORTON-TAYLOR – 20’s: American Stage Manager. Emotional and over-sensitive, and envious of Brooke, whom she understudies. Carrying Lloyd’s child. One-third of a Lloyd-Poppy-Brooke love triangle.

MALE CHARACTERS:
LLOYD DALLAS – Middle-aged:  The director of the play “Nothing On.” Temperamental. One third of a Lloyd–Poppy–Brooke love triangle.

GARRY LEJEUNE (offstage)/ROGER (character on stage) – 30’s: AS GARRY: An American actor who never finishes a sentence.  Always is completing sentences with, “you know…” Easily fired up, repeatedly tries to attack Freddy after believing that Dotty was cheating on him with Freddy.   Speech affectations disappear onstage but are ever present offstage. Dating Dotty. AS ROGER: An English Real estate agent who is attempting to rent Flavia’s and Phillip’s home, but uses it for his own personal benefit.

FREDERICK FELLOWS (offstage)/PHILLIP BRENT & SHEIKH (characters on stage) – 30’s: AS FREDDY: An American actor with a serious fear of violence and blood. Gets nosebleeds easily. Often questions the meaning of his lines and moves. Blames himself often for things going wrong. AS PHILLIP BRENT: An Englishman who lives out of the country with his wife Flavia to avoid paying taxes. He enters the country knowing that if he is caught by Inland Revenue, he will lose most of the year’s income. AS SHEIKH: A Middle-Eastern, interested in renting Flavia’s and Phillip’s home and is the spitting image of Phillip.

SELSDON MOWBRAY (offstage)/BURGLER (character on stage) – Elderly: AS SELSDON MOWBRAY: An elderly alcoholic Englishman who hides his bottles onstage. If he is not in sight while rehearsing, the stage crew must find him before he passes out. Is hard of hearing when he wants to be. AS BURGLER: Old Cockney man in his seventies, breaking into the Brent’s home.

TIMOTHY ALLGOOD – 20’s: An over-worked American Assistant Stage Manager. Understudies Selsdon and Freddy.

For any additional questions about auditions, contact Director Steven Arnold by email at [email protected].

Yale’s SOBs (The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus) pose on campus.

On All Hallows’ Eve in 1938, twelve of the sweetest voices at Yale converged on Mory’s Temple Bar to form an a cappella group unlike any other. The group went without a name until they capitalized on a backhanded compliment received at a party – heard above the tinkle of ice was “These SOBs are good!”

These groundbreaking singers invoked the talents of Orpheus, minstrel to Olympus, and the legacy of Bacchus, god of revelry, knowing quite well that good music and good spirits are essential to the success of any party. Since that fateful night, the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus has seamlessly fused the ancient traditions of music and revelry with the hip attitude of every rock band that has ever made thousands of teenagers scream for an encore.

The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus is the second-longest-running collegiate a cappella group in the nation. They have an enormous repertoire spanning more than seven decades that includes traditional, jazz, blues, rock and roll, and original compositions. They also pride themselves on injecting a healthy dose of comedy into their performances to make each concert engaging and unique. They have brought their unique blend of showmanship all around the nation and the globe: from the White House to the shores of Aruba to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Their blend of musical excellence, spontaneity, and laughter has kept audiences around the world entertained for 85 years and promises to continue to do so for decades to come. Don’t miss this wonderful event!

Tickets are $25.00 and may be purchased via the GCA website at www.garfieldcenter.org anytime, or may be purchased by calling the GCA Box Office at 410-810-2060 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 AM to 3 PM.

Chestertown playwright Earl Lewin has written a new play about the ways in which finding one’s true inner self can change the lives of everyone involved. “Tinker Street,” will be presented as a staged reading at the Garfield Center on Saturday, October 12th as a pay-as-you-go fundraiser. Tickets will not be sold in advance.

The Garfield Center is in its earliest stages of formalizing a capital campaign to address facility needs including the need for a new stage and rigging, electrics, and a variety of other needs. Stage Consultants, of Highland Park, New Jersey, is performing a needs assessment for the Garfield Center that will become the foundation for fundraising in a structured campaign to start over the year. A variety of early fundraising presentations will occur prior to the formal kickoff of the campaign.

A new work, Lewin will bring the script to the Garfield stage to workshop it and gauge its success as a performance piece. Staged readings are typically presented for this purpose. The presentation will not involve a formal ticketing process. Rather, attendees are encouraged to make a pay-as-you-go type of donation in the lobby upon arrival.

“Tinker Street” is a very timely play about self identity and transitioning. In the play, we meet Jamie (who has thus far been known as Jimmie to friends and family) as she makes a courageous confession to Harry, her best high school friend, about her self discovery and identity. Her inner search, and her courage to become her true self, ignites a series of events that impacts the lives of everyone she knows. Her mother, Mary, doesn’t know how to help. Her father can’t accept it. As their marriage disintegrates, Mary’s search for knowledge and acceptance leads to a local bar where she discovers that everyone there is coping with something. Friendships bloom for Mary, bringing growth and understanding. As for Jamie, her need for support from Harry, who she has trusted her whole life, holds them tenuously together as their lives develop and change through college years and into their careers. But can this enlightened friendship survive when Harry marries into a very right leaning family?

Earl Lewin is a Temple University graduate with a BA in theater and an MS in radio, television, and film. He lives in Chestertown. He is a published playwright with forty years of professional experience in writing, directing, and producing for film, video, and theatre. He operates BC Productions to create and support staged readings and full productions of his plays.

Lewin has assembled a top-notch cast of local talent to participate in the reading on stage. The cast includes: J.W. Ruth, Patrick Pearce, Michelle Christopher, Frank Lamont, Herb Ziegler, Amy Moredock, Bonnie Hill, Peggy Chiras, and Tom Dorman.

“Tinker Street” will begin at 7:00 PM on Saturday, October 12th. The GCA lobby will open at 6:00 PM and the House doors will open for general admission seating at 6:30 PM.

Separate audition dates and times for kids and adults.

The Garfield Center for the Arts will produce Disney’s Beauty and the Beast live on stage for 11 performances in December. To audition, please note the following separate dates and times for kids and adults.

KIDS: There are 2 audition dates. The first opportunity is on Tuesday, August 20th starting at 5:00 PM. The second opportunity is on Saturday, August 24 starting at 12:30 PM.

ADULTS: There are 3 audition dates. Those dates are Saturday, August 24th starting at 2:00 PM, Monday, August 26 starting at 6:30 PM, and Tuesday, August 27th at 6:30 PM.

IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE VISIT THE FOLLOWING LINK TO READ ALL INFORMATION ABOUT PROPERLY PREPARING FOR YOUR AUDITION:
https://www.garfieldcenter.org/gcaevents/category/auditions/
ONCE THERE, click the link for the Beauty and the Beast auditions and read everything the director wants you to know about to be ready for the audition.

A cow on strike. A woman stuck in a tub. An unhelpful customer service agent. Strangers worry over missing an important event. A video game hero stymied at every turn. Zombies eat lunch at a cafe. A long delayed reunion brings hope. Pressure threatens the perfect date. These are the stories that will provide the thrilling, enlightening, hilarious and occasionally touching moments you will find in the Garfield Center’s 2024 edition of Short Attention Span Theatre.

Known also by its participants as SAST, Short Attention Span Theatre is the Garfield Center’s annual short play program. It had its earliest roots in 2005, when it was called 8×10 – The 10-Minute Play Project. The name was changed to Short Attention Span Theatre in 2008. Over the years, iit has seen both the premiere of many original plays by local playwrights as well as featured the performances of hundreds of local actors. The Garfield Center’s SAST has remained a successful, yearly program that has grown every year in attendance and popularity.

Of the 8 scripts for presentation this year, 6 of them are by local playwright participants in Live Playwrights’ Society, an Eastern Shore writer’s forum the Garfield Center helped to establish in 2009. This is the most LPS scripts ever produced in the same year at SAST.

LPS Member and Annapolis playwright R.A. Pauli’s script, “The Very Angry Cow,” features a talking cow on strike, a farmer’s wife with a secret and a mediating farmer who just needs the herd to go back to work. Michael Moore plays the Cow, Wendy Wiseman plays the Farmer’s Wife and Chris Neiman plays the Farmer. The piece is directed by the GCA’s Executive Director Steven Arnold.

In “Brunhilda Got Stuck in the Tub,” by playwright Brent Lewis, an LPS member from Centreville. A woman can’t extricate herself from the bathtub, even with a growing assortment of well-meaning oddballs there to help. The play features Hester Sachse as Brunhilda, Dylan Lyles as Dickie Bird, Craig Stump as Dr. Ners, Sharon Herz as Mrs. Anita Ners, Patrick Pearce as Professor Ninny. The play is directed by Brianna Johnson.

A well-meaning recipient of a package, meant for someone else, attempts to get it returned, but an extremely inhospitable customer service agent stands in the way. The comedy, “The Wrong Box,” was also written by R.A. Pauli of Annapolis. Featuring Jordan Dixon as the Caller and Joseph Fox as the Customer Service Rep, it is directed by Patrick Pearce.

LPS Playwright Mark Sullivan wrote and directs his script “Tribulations.” Two strangers, a man and woman, find themselves alone in a bar during suspicious circumstances, causing speculation about what happened to everyone else. The performance will feature Allison Jones as Maggie and Dominic Delcoco as Clancy.

“Moon Logic,” by Chicago playwright David Lipschutz, takes place in a choose-your-own-adventure game, where the hero can’t seem to find the right way to get the job done. Directed by Adrienne Wrona, performers include Nic Carter as the Narrator, Dylan Lyles as Sir Llewellyn, and Izzie Squire Southworth as Princess Nightingale.

In “Bone Sandwich,” also by Centreville’s Brent Lewis, two Zombies at a cafe discover turbulence in their relationship. Directed by Michael Moore, the cast features Dominic Delcoco as Spencer, Addyson Crooks as Enid, and Amanda Fry as the Waitress.

In “For The Record,” by F. J. Hartland of Johnstown, PA, a bittersweet and heartfelt reunion, between an estranged father and son, uncovers surprising revelations and exposes the problem with long-held but unspoken assumptions. Directed by Shannon Carter, Patrick Pearce plays Arlo, the father, and Bob Walton plays Spencer, the son.

In “Always A Gentleman,” a man tries to prevent the worst possible ending to a blind date, even as a narrator describes every painful detail. The play by Jon Clark, an LPS member from Centreville, casts Dylan Lyles as David, Kaitlyn Wright as Keri and Sam Holdgreve as the Narrator. It is directed by Nic Carter.

Mark Sullivan is the Producer of SAST, with production organization, design, construction and technical support from Nic Carter, Steven Arnold, Butch Clark and Benji Price. Brianna Johnson is the Production Stage Manager and Production marketing graphics are by Francoise Sullivan.

Short Attention Span Theatre opens June 21 and runs three weekends through July 7, with performances at 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 PM on Sundays. Tickets may be purchased online at www.garfieldcenter.org or via our Box Office hours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 AM to 3 PM. Ticket buyers may either stop in at the theatre during Box Office hours, or call at 410-810-2060.