Cranbrook Community Theatre is getting set for their upcoming season. The theatre will be having a casting call for upcoming shows on Monday, September 9 at 7 p.m. at the Stage Door.
The week after that they will be having their annual general meeting.
Terry Miller, active board member, said for the 2013/14 season, instead of having auditions for each show individually, they are doing a casting call.
"So all the directors will be in the room for four different plays," Miller said. "It's an opportunity for us to see who's interested in getting involved. It's a real low-pressure thing."
The casting call is under the direction of production manager Jennifer Inglis. Prospective actors will fill out a form, head onstage with others and be given a couple things to do by the directors, both as a group and individually.
“When it’s all done, the directors will pour over their notes and then make their decisions and maybe make some call backs,” he said.
The theatre group is looking for one male between the ages of 10-20 years old, six males between 20-60 years old and four females between 20-70 years old.
Also on that night they will be inviting those who work backstage; lighting, stage hands, sound crews, makeup, and front of house.
“We need lots and lots of backstage people, so that same night we’re asking them to come out as well and they can register their interest,” said Miller, adding they can hopefully draw from that list for stage people for the season as well.
They’ve also invited other theatre groups in the area, such as the Kimberley Summer Theatre and Wild Horse Theatre groups, to come out and see what they are up to.
“All the groups in the area are quite collaborative and we all share,” he said.
Cranbrook Community Theatre begins its planning for the next year in January, first finding directors.
“Our theatre is very director driven, so the directors choose their script, something they want to do and bring it to the board,” he said. “We try to have our schedule laid out by the summer.”
The theatre has two primary functions, one is to put on shows and the other is to look after the Studio Stage Door building. Miller said they are nearing the completion of a $100,000 renovation on the building. The renovations are just another reason to come out and see the plays, and include some ease-of-access and other improvements.
Inglis said she is looking forward to the 2013/14 season.
“The selection of shows will appeal to a wide variety of tastes while providing a creative challenge for the directors, actors, and crew members,” Inglis said.
The season starts Nov. 29 with “Visiting Mr. Green” written by Jeff Baron and directed by Tanya Laing Gahr. Corporate executive Ross Gardiner is charged with reckless driving after narrowly missing 86-year-old widower Mr. Green. Gardiner is ordered to visit Mr. Green every week for the next six weeks. The two men start off being resentful of the situation and as the show develops family secrets are revealed and old wounds are opened.
“The story revolves around the relationship that they develop and the history that each of them bring to the relationship,” he said.
“Visiting Mr. Green” runs Nov. 29-Dec. 14.
In late January 2014, the theatre will be putting on two one-acts to the Stage Door Theatre. “The Exquisite Hour” by Stewart Lemoine features first time director Elizabeth Ross. Set on a summer evening in 1962, “The Exquisite Hour” introduces the audience to bachelor, Zachary Teal, who over the hour, and a couple of glasses of lemonade, listens to the sales pitch of encyclopaedia saleswomen Helen Darimont. The second one act, directed by Bob McCue, is set in the exam room of an army recruiting office. Terrence McNally’s “Next” is the story of a middle-aged, down on his luck, divorced father who has mistakenly been drafted and the, by the book, career officer who won’t give him a break.
The final show of the season is “The Foreigner” by Larry Shue and directed by David Stock. Charlie, who is painfully shy, is left in a rural Georgia fishing lodge by his friend “Froggy” who tells the locals Charlie is from a foreign country and doesn’t speak English. Left on his own, and assumed to be a foreigner, Charlie is privy to the secrets and plans of the locals and that’s when the fun begins. “The Foreigner” hits the stage in April 2014.