Patrick Turner (right), president of the South Okanagan Amateur Players, presents a cheque for just over $450 to Martin Cattermole of the Adopt-a-Seat Campaign. The fund will help to pay for theatre fittings not covered by the Venables rebuild: seats, stage curtains, lights, sound equipment, and so on. The amount represents a portion of the proceeds from SOAP’s fall production of the comedy The Wild Guys. The troupe had pledged to contribute $1 from every ticket sold plus the profit from the concession.
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.
Patrick Turner (right), president of the South Okanagan Amateur Players, presents a cheque for just over $450 to Martin Cattermole of the Adopt-a-Seat Campaign. The fund will help to pay for theatre fittings not covered by the Venables rebuild: seats, stage curtains, lights, sound equipment, and so on. The amount represents a portion of the proceeds from SOAP’s fall production of the comedy The Wild Guys. The troupe had pledged to contribute $1 from every ticket sold plus the profit from the concession.
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.
The South Okanagan Amateur Players invite the public to audition for its fall comedy-of-manners, The Long Weekend by Canada’s most prolific and popular playwright Norm Foster. Auditions are Sunday April 15 at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre in Oliver (5840 Airport St.) and Monday April 16 at St. Christopher’s Lower Hall in Osoyoos (87 St and 74th Ave). Both auditions run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. No previous experience or audition piece required.
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.
Patrick Turner (right), president of the South Okanagan Amateur Players, presents a cheque for just over $450 to Martin Cattermole of the Adopt-a-Seat Campaign. The fund will help to pay for theatre fittings not covered by the Venables rebuild: seats, stage curtains, lights, sound equipment, and so on. The amount represents a portion of the proceeds from SOAP’s fall production of the comedy The Wild Guys. The troupe had pledged to contribute $1 from every ticket sold plus the profit from the concession.
