Having successfully put on our first of two productions for 2016, Guiulford Center Stage needs just a few more actors for the fall. We were pleased to have many of you from Brattleboro and other towns visit us this past weekend for our one-acts. Though we’re particularly aimed at making Guilford Center a more viable village, and enjoying the fact that many of our actors and audience members are from Guilford, we are also rewarded by the participation from other towns.
This past weekend’s shows had actors from Westminster West, the West River Valley, Brattleboro (of course!) and Bernardston, Mass., among other towns, along with our Guilford ones.
A final round of actor auditions will be held for the October production of A Battle of Wits at Guilford Center Stage. Two sessions of auditions will be held: on Tuesday, June 14, from 6 to 8 pm, and Saturday, June 18th from 10 am to Noon, at Broad Brook Grange, 3940 Guilford Center Road.
The play is the rarely-staged and only known extant work by Charles W. Henry, born in Guilford in 1850, and one of the two principal scenic theater curtain painters of northern New England during the heyday of the genre from 1890 to 1940. On a tour to his native Guilford around 1900, Henry painted four curtains and a series of scenic flats, which are still in use at Broad Brook Grange. His family-based theater company toured the region, and he wrote a lot of their material, including A Battle of Wits, a comedy-melodrama set at the outbreak of World War I.
William Stearns, of Brattleboro, will direct the production, which will be performed on Columbus Day Weekend. Bring a piece to read/act out if you like. Passages from the Battle of Wits will be available. Those who attended the auditions for the recent one-act plays are welcome to re-visit to read from the Henry play.
There are no set appointments for auditions: Just show up during the times indicated. Those wishing to see a sample page of dialogue may contact Don McLean at inscapevt@myfairpoint.net to have that e-mailed to you.
The play has a cast of five principal and one supporting actor, along with minor roles with a few lines, as well as a couple of non-speaking parts. This audition is primarily to cast actors in their 20’s or 30’s, one female role and two male.
