[NEohioPAL] Auditions and starting soon

[Jan Harcar]

Weathervane Playhouse

Akron OH

 

AUDITIONS BY APPOINTMENT

Call 330-836-2626

 

3 guys naked from the waist down

Musical by Jerry Colker & Michael Rupert

 

The three guys are stand up comics. Wild and crazy and very hip, their unique blend of intellectual and slap stick humor propels them from unpaid neophyte performers to the Johnny Carson Show, instant stardom and their own television show. Then, commercial success evaporates the magic.

 

Audition Dates:

Sunday, May 1 by appointment from 7 p.m.

 Monday, May 2 from 7 p.m.

 

Callbacks: Monday, May 9 at 7 p.m.

 

Rehearsals begin July 31

 

Run Dates: Sept. 8 - 25, 2011

12 performances

 

Thursdays, Sept. 8, 15, 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Fridays, Sept. 9,16, 23  at 8 p.m.

Saturdays, Sept. 10, 17, 24  at 8 p.m.

Sundays, Sept. 11, 18, 25 at 2:30 p.m.

 

 

PREPARATION

Please prepare 16 bars of TWO songs - 1 up tempo, 1 ballad - from

contemporary Broadway musical repertoire (after 1965).

NO RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN OR SONDHEIM

 

Please bring your calendar with you to the auditions in order to declare any potential conflict dates that you may have. Conflicts reported after casting may result in re-casting.

 

Casting Requirements: 3 Men 20s - 30s

 

Director -- MARC MORITZ is a Northeast Ohio-based actor and director. He is presently enrolled in the MFA graduate theater program at Kent State University, where he will appear as Claudius in Hamlet (April 15 to 23, 2011). As a performer, his Broadway credits include Merrily We Roll Along and his off-Broadway credits include A Child's Christmas in Wales and A Tale of Two Cities. Regionally, he has performed at such theaters as the Long Wharf Theatre (New Haven, Connecticut), Cornell Theatre (Ithaca, New York), Two River Theatre Company (Manasquan, New Jersey), New Harmony Theatre (Evansville, Indiana), Illinois Theatre Center (Park Forest, Illinois) and the Raven Theatre (Chicago). Local audiences have seen him on such stages as the now-defunct Carousel Dinner Theatre (Anything Goes), the Cleveland Play House (Animal Farm), Cain Park (Into the Woods) and the Jewish Community Center of Cleveland's Halle Theatre (Ragtime). 

 

 

Weathervane Playhouse is committed to non-traditional casting.

Except in cases where race, gender, age or disability is essential to the play,

all roles will be cast on the basis of talent.



STARTING SOON



Weathervane Playhouse's

Laugh-Out-Loud Comedy, 'The Nerd,'

Tells the Hilarious Story of a Strange Man Who Comes to Dinner - and then Won't Leave!

 

(April 19, 2011 - Akron, Ohio - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) - Weathervane Playhouse's 2010-2011 Founders Theater season continues with Larry Shue's hilarious comedy, The Nerd, that poses a curious question: What would you do if someone you're supposed to admire shows up suddenly at your birthday party and then refuses to leave? Learn the extremely funny answer when The Nerd plays live on stage between April 28 and May 15, 2011.

 

Set in Terre Haute, Indiana, in late 1981, The Nerd introduces us to the hysterical dilemma of a young architect named Willum Cubbert. Willum - a long-suffering yet straight-shooting man - was a soldier in Vietnam before becoming a successful architect. 

 

While serving in Vietnam, Willum was wounded seriously in battle and then saved from death through the heroic actions of a mysterious stranger named Rick Steadman. Ever since his daring wartime rescue, Willum has felt deeply indebted to Rick - even though he never really got to meet his rescuer.

 

Consequently, Willum is delighted when Rick shows up unexpectedly at his apartment in Terre Haute on the night of his 34th birthday party. However, Rick's uncouth manner and his inappropriate behavior threaten to throw the happy occasion into serious shambles. 

 

It turns out that Rick is a stupid "nerd" who overstays his welcome with a ferocious vengeance. Willum's gratitude soon gives way to exasperation when Rick proves the old saying that fish and houseguests begin to stink after three days? Under the guidance of guest director Rohn Thomas, The Nerd pays humorous homage to that clever maxim - and the end result will be laughs a-plenty for Weathervane audiences. 

 
The Nerd Cast and their Ohio Hometowns
 

Dane Castle (of Richfield) . Willum Cubbert

 

Michelle Chahó (of Cleveland). Tansy McGinnis

 

Tom Stephan (of Stow) . Axel Hammond

 

John Q. Bruce (of Chagrin Falls) . Warnock Waldgrave

 

Laura Stitt Valendza (of Cuyahoga Falls) . Clelia Waldgrave

 

Cameron Danielle Nelson (of Olmsted Falls) . Thor Waldgrave

 

James Lynch (of Kent) . Rick Steadman

 

Rachel Gehlert (of Kent) . Understudy for Tansy and Assistant to the Director

 

The Nerd Backstage Team and their Ohio Hometowns

 

Stage Manager - Julia "J. J." McAdams (of Cuyahoga Falls)

 

Costume Designer - Barbie Trotter (of Akron)

 

Sound Designer - Lois Bennett (of Akron)

 

Properties Co-Designers - Jennifer Maxson Draher (of North Canton) and Jessica Maxson (of Akron)

 

Lighting Designer - Steve Lawson (of Stow)

 

Scenic Designer/Technical Director - Alan Scott Ferrall (of Cuyahoga Falls)

 

Assistant Technical Director - Kathy Kohl (of Akron)

 

About the Show's Director 
 

ROHN THOMAS is an actor for stage and film, director and teacher. For Weathervane Playhouse, he directed Perfect Wedding (2009), The Lion in Winter (2007), Medea (1996) Translations (1995), Master Harold.and the boys (1993) and The Cocktail Hour (1990). Elsewhere, his directing credits include City of Angels and The Value of Names at the Cleveland Jewish Community Center's Halle Theatre and The Odd Couple, How I Got that Story and Painting Churches at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. Rohn also directed the Cleveland Municipal School District's first All-City Musical, Little Shop of Horrors. As an actor, some of his more recent stage roles include Mooney in Anything Goes, Mayor Shinn in The Music Man and Smee in Matthew Earnest's Peter Pan (all at Porthouse Theatre), and Boss in Of Mice and Men at the Cleveland Play House as well as at Buffalo's Studio Arena Theatre. Some of his favorite roles are Doc Gibbs in Our Town, Reverend Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Mr. MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie and Sturdyvant in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. In Cleveland, he also created the role of Father Mark in Tony n' Tina's Wedding at PlayhouseSquare's Hanna Theater and played Topper in A Christmas Carol at Great Lakes Theater Festival. His screen credits include roles in Welcome to Collinwood, The Mothman Prophesies, NBC-TV's The West Wing, The Shawshank Redemption, Sudden Death, Telling Lies in America and many others. He produces and directs short films for Kent State University, where he teaches a course named Acting for the Camera.

 

About the Playwright

 

LARRY SHUE (born July 23, 1946; died Sept. 23, 1985) was an American playwright and actor whose two best-known works, The Nerd and The Foreigner, remain popular staples in theaters across the globe. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and grew up in Kansas and Chicago, Illinois. After his 1968 graduation from Illinois Wesleyan University, he served a stint in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. After returning from his tour of duty, he began a career as an actor and settled in New York City. In the 1980s, he became a member of The Milwaukee Rep's Resident Acting Company, and here he found an artistic home to launch the premieres of both The Nerd and The Foreigner. His promising career was cut short in 1985 when he died at the age of 39 as a result of a plane crash. Shue was aboard a commuter plane that crashed into Hall Mountain in Virginia during its approach to a Shenandoah Valley airport (between Staunton and Harrisonburg, Virginia). The plane crash killed Shue and the other 13 people aboard. At the time of his death, The Foreigner was still enjoying a healthy run off Broadway and Shue had been tapped to write a book for a musical version of the TV sitcom The Honeymooners. He was also looking forward to making his Broadway acting debut in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

 

About the Play's History

 

The Nerd originated at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, which staged the play's premiere production in April 1981. In this first production, playwright Larry Shue originated the role of Willum Cubbert. The show then traveled "across the pond" to Great Britain, where in April of 1982 it opened with a different cast at the Royal Exchange Theatre Company in Manchester, England. Up next for The Nerd was Broadway, where the show opened after 15 previews at the Helen Hayes Theatre on March 22, 1987. The Broadway production was directed by legendary actor/director/TV game-show panelist Charles Nelson Reilly and starred Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker of Star Wars fame) as Willum. The New York production ran for a total of 441 performances before closing on April 10, 1988. In 1996, NBC-TV developed The Nerd into a weekly situation comedy and placed it on its Saturday-night schedule, but it was cancelled quickly. The play has never been adapted into a feature-length motion picture.

 

 

Weathervane's The Nerd Ticket and Performance Information
 

The Nerd plays on the Weathervane Playhouse Founders Theater stage between April 28 and May 15, 2011.

 

The low-cost preview performance is Thursday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.; the official opening-night performance is Friday, April 29 at 8 p.m.

 

Between April 29 and May 15, 2011, performance days and times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

 

Tickets for the April 28 preview performance only are $15 each. Tickets for performances after April 28 are $21 each. 

 

$19 tickets for seniors and college students are available for Thursday and Sunday performances. Tickets for children (ages 17 or younger) are $17.00 at all performances after April 28. Additional discounts for groups of 12 or larger are also available.

 

The Weathervane Playhouse Box Office is open Mondays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and is also open beginning one hour before each performance. For tickets, visit or call the Weathervane Box Office at (330) 836-2626 during Box Office hours or connect online to www.weathervaneplayhouse.com.

 

* * *

 

Weathervane Playhouse and its dedicated volunteers offer vital performing arts resources for the people of Northeastern Ohio. We create exciting and thought-provoking shows with impressive production values. Through educational programs and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, Weathervane serves the theater community, our patrons and our volunteers.

 

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, education excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

 

Additional 2010-2011 season sponsors

89.7 WSKU-FM

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

OMNOVA Solutions Foundation

Sisler McFawn Foundation

Akron Community Foundation

Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust

The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation

Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation


Janis Harcar
Director of Advancement
Weathervane Playhouse
330-836-2323 X16
www.weathervaneplayhouse.com
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