Auditions set for Ponca Playhouse production of ‘Talking With …’

Ponca City Now - September 19, 2019 10:34 am

Ponca Playhouse presents the second production of its 61st Season, “Talking With…” by Jane Martin.
Open auditions will be held at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 23 and 24 at the Playhouse, 301 South First Street. Rehearsals begin Wednesday evening, Sept. 25, with performances Nov. 8-17.
“This is a unique play, focusing on the lives and experiences of 11 women, in the form of monologues, essentially ‘talking with’ the audience,” said director Christina Rich-Splawn. “Each woman has been marked by life and shares her soul on stage. I would like to invite women from every walk of life to audition. My goal is to have a cast as diverse and special as every woman in Ponca City. The monologues are relevant, and cross all divides of culture, age, ethnicity, ability or beliefs.”
Rich-Splawn requests those auditioning to have a prepared piece to perform. “If you could have a piece at least one minute long AND it does not necessarily have to be memorized. However, I ask that you be familiar enough with it, you don’t have to read it word for word and can interact with me and my team during the audition. You can use a poem, newspaper article, song lyrics, section from a favorite book, Shakespearean soliloquy, cuttings from another play, etc.”

During performance, each actress will perform an 8-10 minute monologue:

  • Fifteen Minutes – a mature actress preps her make up 15 minutes before the curtain rises and shares her anxiety about the performance and the trajectory of her career.
  • Scraps – a homemaker retreats into her “happy place” to cope with an unhappy abusive marriage.
  • Clear Glass Marbles – an adult daughter helps care for her terminally ill mother.
  • Audition – a desperate young woman makes a last-ditch and unnerving attempt to be an actress.
  • Rodeo – a talented and winning rodeo star has been forced out in favor of more glamour.
  • Twirler – a young competitive baton twirler contemplates her future and her obsession with the art of twirling.
  • Lamps – a solitary elderly woman uses lamps and light as a substitute of human interaction as a possible result of dementia.
  • Handler – a young woman member of a snake-handling church explains her fascination with the ritual.
  • Dragons – a woman in the last stages of labor faces her fears of impending motherhood.
  • French Fries – an older homeless woman finds a source of joy in her situation.
  • Marks – a woman survives not only a divorce, but then a physical assault from another man.

“The Playhouse is very excited to offer this unique form of theatre to the audience,” said Sam Stuart, Playhouse Board Member and Producer for “Talking With…,” “and to focus on the voices of the women in our community.”

Playhouse members may reserve seats for “Talking With…” beginning Oct. 22. Tickets will be available to the general public beginning Oct. 29, and may be purchased online at www.theponcaplayhouse.com or by calling the Box Office at (580) 765-5360.

Season memberships are still available and offer a considerable discount for the year and benefits for those wishing to reserve seats early. Those are also available on the website or by calling the Box Office.

 

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