If all goes as planned, a little bit of magic will happen on stage at the Algonquin Theatre in the spring. The Huntsville Festival of the Arts and the Rotary Club in Huntsville are joining forces to produce a musical that encapsulates all of their greatest productions at the Theatre over the last 10 years.
Appropriately titled Ten! to celebrate the Theatre’s 10-year anniversary in 2016, more than 50 people are being sought out for the spring show. A December 5 audition will take place at Sutherland Hall at 10 a.m.
Tia Pearse, who will be teaming up with John A. MacDonald to co-direct the production, has a lot of experience behind her when it comes to comes to theatre. She directed Drowsy Chaperone and Seussical Jr. and helped with the choreography for Guys & Dolls and Seussical. She has also been instrumental organizing productions at Tawingo College for the last 10 years.
She promises Ten! will be a musical not to miss as the audience can anticipate the show highlighting one or two numbers from all the big community shows that have played on the theatre’s stage.
Tia Pearse is really looking forward to recruiting both veteran performers and newbies to the upcoming spring show
“We’ve come up with a story and Neil Barlow, the musical director, is actually going to be the person on stage who threads all of these numbers together,” explained Pearse. “He’ll play himself, and he’ll be in his basement going through sheet music trying to figure out what numbers to put in the show. As he thinks of them, we’ll see them being performed.”
According to Pearse, Barlow, who is normally in the orchestra, is looking forward to “getting out there” on stage. She said there are also plans to bring the entire orchestra on stage as well.
There are plenty of roles to be filled and people of all ages, with experience or not, are being encouraged to come out.
“We’re hoping that because we’re relaunching some of the numbers from past shows that all past cast members will come out to the audition,” said Pearse. “Anyone who is 8 years or older can come out. We want to welcome back old cast members and new people to community theatre.”
John A. MacDonald will be co-directing the musical alongside Pearse.
Pearse stated that the idea for Ten! has unfolded into something much bigger than organizers imagined. Originally the musical planned was Chicago, however Greg Perras, who was scheduled to direct it, couldn’t secure rights from the licensing company and time was ticking to get something finalized.
“This was about five or six months after our request, so the timeline was getting tight,” said Pearse, adding that there was no backup plan once organizers realized Chicago wasn’t going to happen. “Greg suggested we do something about the 10th anniversary. A group of us got together and started planning and we thought the theatre is such a beautiful facility and we all feel very lucky to have such a great facility in our small town that it’s worth celebrating.”
Auditions are for everyone – veterans, past cast members and folks who have never done any theatre before but would love to give it a try.
Those involved with the production of this spring musical are most excited about seeing which cast members come back from the past. Pearse said during rehearsals it will have to be decided if individuals, who, of course will be a few years older in Ten! then they were, perhaps, in Annie, reprise their roles or take on an entirely new one.
Pearse is hoping those who were involved with previous theatre shows, such as the hit production of Peter Pan, will come out to the December auditions.
“The Munchkins who played in the Wizard of Oz have all graduated, so this will give new kids a chance,” she said, adding that with Suessical held in 2008 and then Suessical Jr. five years later, it would be fun to combine those casts. “There could be some real magic in bringing veterans back and including them with newcomers as well.
The production of Ten! is slated to take place at the Algonquin Theatre from April 13 to 24.
Anyone who can’t make the audition and would like to make alternative arrangements, or those who are interested in learning more about Ten!, can contact Tia Pearse at [email protected].
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