People have been asking Guilford Center Stage about our upcoming play, as both the playwright and the play will be new to our audience.
We were chatting with a high school teacher, Marc Considine, way up in Hardwick, Vermont, about Charles Henry, who painted the four theater curtains at Broad Brook Community Center, and also some at Hardwick Town House. He coaches a very ambitious after-school drama club at Hazen Union High School, and had produced the Charles Henry play, “A Battle of Wits”, which we also staged in 2016.
He mentioned that he had written scripts for his students, and we asked him to send us one his kids had performed at a regional high school drama festival, and that’s the play we’re performing.
“Love Lost Diaries” will have three performances at Broad Brook Community Center: Friday and Saturday, May 3 and 4 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday May 5 at 2:00 pm. One of the lead actors in that 2016 play, who has appeared in almost all our productions, Julie Holland, is directing this show.
Creating characters he knows well, Considine’s play features a trio of chatty high school girls,
who have an interesting after-school pastime: They watch the obituaries and sneak into unoccupied houses looking for spare cash. In this play, they are pulled into the lives of the deceased couple.
Nina Bond is stage manager, with scenic design by Ada Brown. Lighting consultants are Katia Morosan and Maria Pugnetti, and Noah Holland is light and sound board operator. Producer of this 12th Guilford Center Stage production is Don McLean.
Cast members are Valentine Chute, Julie Holland, Brandy Reynolds, Dyana Lee, Rich Cianflone, Nina Bond, Archer Holland and Bob Brown.
Director Julie Holland says: “There’s so much to enjoy about this play. For one, it’s not long. The 14 scenes are all short but meaningful and to the point.
“The audience will enjoy the spunk of the high school characters as they read the main story in the diaries and reflect on their own relationships. They’ll also enjoy the characters living their lives together in the main story as their emotions in their life events are very relatable. We get some reflections about the way things were in history around WWII, but also modern times.
“As this play spans the decades, older audience members will enjoy the music from the 40’s, 60’s and 80’s while the younger audience members will know the music from the 2000’s as I have added in many songs during the set changes and in the house music before the show and during intermission. I’m so excited to bring this play to the public, young and old, and very lucky to have the cast that came forward during my open auditions. We have mostly new faces at Guilford Center Stage this Spring!”
Broad Brook Community Center is located at 3940 Guilford Center Road, and is fully ADA-accessible, with an elevator to the second floor theater space. Tickets for Love Lost Diaries are $14 at the door, or you may visit Brown Paper Tickets at bpt.me/6247266.
Photo by Eric Jones: Julie Holland, Valentine Chute, and Brandy Reynolds read a diary.
