GUILFORD — Guilford Center Stage announces open auditions for the play, Our Town, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, and Thursday, Feb. 9, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Broad Brook Community Center, 3940 Guilford Center Road.
The Thornton Wilder classic, directed by Ian Hefele, will be performed the first weekend in May, marking the return of theater to Guilford after a three-year Covid hiatus.
Those interested in auditioning may arrive anytime during the session; no appointment is necessary. They should prepare or bring a short dramatic reading of their choosing. The director will also suggest a reading from the play script.
Rehearsals will begin in mid-March for about six weeks, and many individual scenes will be rehearsed in small groups, so most actors will not have to be at all rehearsals.
Hefele has appeared on stage in three previous Guilford shows, as well as in performances with many companies in the area. He has directed Ten Minute Plays with Actors Theatre Playhouse and a full-length play, The Road to Mecca, with Vermont Theatre Company
Wilder’s Our Town, which was written in and based on the nearby town of Peterborough, New Hampshire, is one of the most often performed American plays. While thus a departure for Guilford Center Stage, this tenth production continues the group’s interest in plays with a regional setting.
When it debuted in 1938, Our Town was a radical departure from the prevailing mode of American theater, with its lack of scenery and elimination of the standard theatrical convention of the “fourth wall” separating the players from the audience.
Our Town is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. A full range of ages is represented among the characters, and there are both major roles and small ones, with possibilities for actor doublings.
Those unable to make these audition dates should contact Hefele at 802-246-7096. Email him at ian.hefele@gmail.com, and copy your message to don.inscape@gmail.com. Information about Guilford Center Stage may be found at facebook.com/GuilfordCenterStage, and at broadbrookcommunitycenter.org.