Tag Archives: production
SOAP’s Wild Guys contribute to new theatre
This marks the Players’ second donation to Adopt-a-Seat: SOAP contributed $1000 in 2010 after their production of the Neil Simon comedy, Rumors.
SOAP has just obtained the rights to produce The Long Weekend by Canadian playwright Norm Foster. Two couples spending a weekend at a country cottage base their friendship on a string of hilarious lies and deceit. Gradually the truth is revealed, but only the audience gets to find out the last and greatest secret. The biting comedy is slated for production on the last two weekends in October.
Photo Credit: Penelope Johnson
SOAP's Wild Guys contribute to new theatre
This marks the Players’ second donation to Adopt-a-Seat: SOAP contributed $1000 in 2010 after their production of the Neil Simon comedy, Rumors.
SOAP has just obtained the rights to produce The Long Weekend by Canadian playwright Norm Foster. Two couples spending a weekend at a country cottage base their friendship on a string of hilarious lies and deceit. Gradually the truth is revealed, but only the audience gets to find out the last and greatest secret. The biting comedy is slated for production on the last two weekends in October.
Photo Credit: Penelope Johnson
SOAP auditions for comedy The Long Weekend
The Long Weekend opens at the summer home of successful lawyer Max and his wife Wynn. The couple invite Wynn’s old high school friend Abby and her husband Roger for a weekend getaway. Polite exchanges quickly give way to thinly masked animosity as old jealousies and insecurities resurface. Pompous Max dislikes Roger’s bohemian life as a novelist, while Roger in turn feels threatened by Max’s financial success. Wynn and Abby each secretly dread the other’s criticism of their lifestyle and tastes. Much of the comedy stems from the contrast between the public niceties and the private barbed remarks. Surprising revelations and sharp, biting dialogue turn the weekend into a hilarious disaster as the whole facade of friendship collapses.
At a recent read-through of the play, SOAP Board members were literally weeping with laughter and gasping out the dialogue. The script moves at a whip-cracking pace. The one-liners are snappy and cleverly resurface through the play even funnier than before. The plot is tight but never improbable, and best of all there are several unexpected twists, with a satisfying humdinger in the final few minutes of the play.
The Long Weekend requires four actors: two women of a similar age and their husbands. Director Ted Osborne will consider actors from mid-30s to mid-50s for the roles. Male ages can be more flexible.
The play will be produced over two weekends in late October. Cast read-throughs will begin in May, with some occasional rehearsing during the summer, and more intense rehearsing beginning in September. Cast schedules will be considered when booking rehearsal times. For more information, contact SOAP @ telus.net or director Ted Osborne at 250-495-2776.
Tickets on sale October 31 for The Wild Guys
A great show for guys … and the gals who love ’em.
For more information, contact SOAP @ telus.net
SOAP auditions seek four Wild Guys
Andy, a CEO and men’s movement advocate, and Robin, a crystal-gazing New Ager, coax Stewart, an unsuspecting grocer, and Randall, a sceptical lawyer, into reluctantly participating in primitive rituals and communal hugs. The weekend quickly unravels when the guys become lost and discover all their food has disappeared. The result? Hockey cheers and Neil Young singalongs! This play is a satire on men’s self-help encounters of the type made famous by drum-beating poet Robert Bly and the new-age, touchy-feely movement that supported it.
The four male characters range from mid 20s to early 60s. The dialogue is fast-paced, funny, and easy to memorize. The roles are of equal size. Newcomers welcome. The production is scheduled for November, with rehearsals progressing from two to three times per week.
Auditions are on Sunday August 28 from 7 – 9 p.m. at the Osoyoos Art Gallery (upstairs, west entrance), at the corner of 89th and Main; and on Monday August 29 from 7 – 9 p.m. at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre 34274 -95th St., Oliver. To find out more information or to schedule an alternate audition, contact SOAP@telus.net
Closeup on The Odd Couple
Tickets $15 and $12 available at Sundance Video (Oliver) Your Dollar Store with More (Osoyoos), and at the door. Curtain rises at 8:00 p.m.
Here are some shots from their performance.
Photo 1: Colleen Misner, makeup and hairstylist, turns Tom Szalay into “tall dark and Spanish” suitor Manolo Costazuela. Next on the regimen: black hair dye and a double-breasted suit for Tom.
Photo 4: Jesus Costazuela (Paul Everest) greets Florence Unger (Leslee Hatherly) while his brother Manolo (Tom Szalay) and Olive Madison (Aimee Grice) look on.
Photo credit: Penelope Johnson
Got Your Tickets Yet?
Meet Florence Unger: ” Just you wait. I’ll turn this apartment into something out of Architectural Digest. You’ll see furniture you never knew you had. ” Separated and still missing her “short, hairless cowboy” husband, Florence channels her insecurities about singlehood into cleaning up…. after Olive.
Olive’s big mistake? Allowing Florence to move in. Florence’s big mistake? Underestimating Olive’s frustration. Your big mistake? Missing this hilarious comedy. Get your tickets today!
Men and women needed for SOAP’s Odd Couple
Oscar and Felix. The Odd Couple. Most TV buffs are familiar with the 1968 film and series about a slob and a fussbudget who get on each other’s nerves when reduced to sharing an apartment. Fewer people are aware there’s also an “Olive-and-Florence” version of the famous Neil Simon play.
The South Okanagan Amateur Players are scouting for actors of either gender to play the title duo in their spring theatrical production of The Odd Couple. Members of the public are encouraged to audition, regardless of previous stage experience.
“SOAP’s decision to produce the male or female version of the play will depend on who auditions,” says director Penelope Johnson. “Both scripts have their own appeal, with that trademark Neil Simon humour.” Johnson has directed three previous SOAP productions and last appeared onstage with SOAP in Neil Simon’s Rumors.
Oscar (or Olive) Madison keeps a slovenly apartment, relaxing with friends over beer, pretzels, and a game of poker — or in Olive’s case, a game of Trivial Pursuit with the gals. This laid-back lifestyle ends abruptly with the arrival of Felix (or Florence) Unger, newly separated, suicidal, and searching for a place to sob out the story of a marriage gone sour. Madison takes pity on Unger and offers room and board, but soon starts regretting it when Unger embarks on a series of home improvements, including Madison’s filthy habits.
Six other roles are also available in both genders. The male version requires four more men to play Oscar’s poker buddies. It also calls for two women to play the giggly Pigeon sisters, on a date gone awry with Felix and Oscar. The female version reverses the genders: four women play Olive’s girlfriends, and two men are required as the charmingly funny Spanish suitors Manolo and Jesus.
Auditions for The Odd Couple will be held on Thursday January 13 in Room 1, Sonora Centre in Osoyoos and on Friday January 14 at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre (34274 – 95th Street) in Oliver. Drop in from 7 – 9 p.m. either evening. Not convenient? Alternative audition times can be booked. Hopefuls will be asked to read portions of the script with other actors, and to act out some simple stage movement. Production dates are tentatively booked for April 29-30 and May 6-7, but may be adjusted to accommodate schedules. Rehearsal schedule will be developed in consultation with actors and crew, two to three times per week.
For more information, to book an alternative audition time, or to volunteer for backstage work, telephone Penelope Johnson at 250-498-0183 or email SOAP@telus.net .