Richmond Community Theatre will hold auditions for A.R. Gurney, Jr.’s play “The Dining Room,” Thursday. Registration for auditions will begin at 6:30 p.m. Auditions will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the theatre on Harrington Square, 109 E. Washington St. in Rockingham.
The play is set in a single dining room of a typical well-to-do household. Yet in the play 18 scenes from different households overlap and intertwine. It is a kind of mosaic of interrelated scenes — some funny, some touching, some rueful — all with the same focus, the dining room and what it means to each of the characters. Some of them want to hold fast to its tradition and culture. Others feel it is time to get rid of the dining room.
The play has a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids. Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from boarding school to discover his mother’s infidelity; a senile grandmother doesn’t recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, etc. Moving swiftly and smoothly through the varied scenes, the play is a theatrical experience of exceptional emotional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
It is possible to do the play with six actors: three men and three women, playing the whole range of characters. But it is also possible to do the play with 52 actors, an actor for each character. Richmond Community Theatre hopes to get as many actors involved as possible. The characters range in age from 6 years old to 70. This is an excellent piece for a novice actor to get started in theatre as the scenes range from only two pages long to seven pages.
For more information on the play, the characters, the rehearsal and performance schedule: visit the theatre’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/richmondct and go to The Dining Room Auditions event page. Scripts will be available for check-out with a deposit of $5 at the box office. Call the box office at 997-3765, or e-mail the Director Shelly Walker at rctdirector@gmail.com.
Ricmond Community Theatre is a 501c3 organization working together in conjunction with the City of Rockingham. It was established in 1977. It is the fifth oldest community theatre in operation in North Carolina.
Post a Comment
