A casting call for orphans

Well that’s what local am dram director Andy Poulton will be telling the cast of his latest venture, Annie the Musical, which he will be staging for Trinity Musical Theatre Company later this year in November. But first of all before rehearsals begin, Andy needs to recruit a team of young ladies to appear as the orphans in the show.

Annie is a family favourite and tells the tale of a red-haired orphan who cannot believe her luck when she is chosen to spend the Christmas holidays at the home of billionaire Oliver Warbucks and thus escape dreary orphanage life and the evil ways of the matron, Miss Hannigan, if only for a short while.

Andy is looking for girls aged between seven and 14 years old, who together with the adults in the show, will blast their way through the lively, exciting score which includes It’s a Hard-Knock Life, Maybe, I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here, Easy Street and of course Tomorrow.

An open audition for the children will take place on April 28 at St. Columba’s URC Church, Finchfield. The adult auditions for the show will be on May 14 at the same venue.

To register interest for either set of auditions, please email ajpoulton1975@gmail.com

From April 8-13, the resident group at the Oldbury Rep will present a studio production of Shelagh Stephenson’s play, The Long Road, with performances at 7.30pm nightly.

When eighteen-year-old Danny is fatally stabbed in a random attack, his family struggles to find meaning and forgiveness. His mother’s determination to understand the atrocity brings her face to face with his killer. This is a topical play of troubled, modern times, which will certainly provoke thought.

Please be aware that the play does contain some violence and strong language, so it’s for adults only.

For tickets priced at £9 each visit www.oldburyrep.org or call 0121 552 2761.

In a similar vein, Shawbury Village Players will also be presenting a play with adult themes – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, directed by Ben Leach, on April 5-6 at 7.30pm nightly.

The group will be capturing the magic and grandeur of The Bard’s complete works in a condensed version of all his plays. That’s going some!

Rather than a classic version covering each play, this abridged and revised production is full of humour and is unlike any show you will have seen previously! Written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, it promises to be fun, but does contain adult humour and language.

For tickets priced at £10 each, visit www.shawburyvillageplayers.com or call Jo on 01939 250070.

The Newman University Drama Department will present Our Town by Thornton Wilder from April 11-12.

The author described his play as ‘an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our daily life’. Set at the turn of the 20th century, the play reveals the ordinary lives of the people in the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire.

At the centre of the story are Emily Webb and George Gibbs, teenage neighbours who slowly come to recognise their growing attraction for one another and excitedly begin to plan their future lives together. But, lives rarely go according to plan, times tend to change faster than most of us are ready for and the play asks us all how much we really appreciate what we have, while we still have it. Our Town will make you both laugh and cry and might just send you home with a new appreciation of what you are going back to.

For tickets priced at just £2-£5, visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk or call 0121 446 3232.

Playwright Peter Quilter is well-known for his farces and one of his best is Curtain Up! which Aldridge Youth Theatre Senior Group will perform at their own venue in Noddy Park Road from April 4-6.

Five women, some of whom are hardly great friends, find they have inherited equal shares in a dilapidated theatre. This is the hilarious story of how they plan to bring it back to life again. The girls try various fund-raising schemes but their most ambitious is to hold a concert featuring local talent and a world-famous star, who agrees to appear for no fee! Will all go to plan? Will their relationships survive? And who is the mystery star turn? Spokesperson for the group, Linda Simmonds said: “The play is directed by Alex Fisher, who was a member of AYT from the age of ten and played many leading roles. He is now one of our youth leaders with the senior and intermediate groups.”

For tickets for Curtain Up! which are priced at £8-£7, call 01922 458615. The Box Office opens Mondays and Thursdays from 7pm – 9 pm and on Saturdays from 10:30am to 12 noon. Performances are at 7.30pm nightly.

Finally this week, Charlemont Dramatic Society members are laughing out loud at rehearsals, at a hilarious comedy called Ladies Down Under by Amanda Whittington.

The sequel to their 2018 production of Ladies Day, the play follows the four fish-filleting ladies from Hull as they celebrate their jackpot win at York Races. They are in Sydney, Australia, on the trip of a lifetime, but all does not go to plan and they end up backpacking across the outback by Ayers Rock. They meet a diverse array of characters along the way, including a helpful traveller, an aristocratic dropout and two fabulous drag queens! This play is filled with a lot of laughs and a lot of heart!

Directed by Dave Hill, the comedy opens on April 3-6, at The Theatre, Gayton Road Community Centre, West Bromwich. Curtain up is at 7.30pm and for tickets, priced at £8.00, call the box office on 0121 357 4169 or email hilld28@sky.com

Well that’s all for this week. Please send me details of your news and good quality colour photos to a.norton@expressandstar.co.uk, call me on 01902 319662 or follow me on Twitter @AlisonNorton

Break a leg!