Basel Semicircle - Auditions / Spring 2007 Production

nickatbasel · #1 26.10.2006, 20:34

Three Plays have been chosen by the Play Selection Committee for next year’s spring production in May 2007 at the Schönes Haus, Nadelberg, Basel.

Auditions will by held at the Restaurant Löwenzorn, Gemsberg 2/4

Date: Monday, November 20th, 2006
Time: 19:00

The plays are as follows:

“Shop for Charity” by Charles Mander - director Diana Zuger
“Expert in Flowers” by Krista Jaquet - director Krista Jaquet
“The Celebration” by Anton Chekhov – director by Jamie Sievert

Synopses

Shop for Charity
This amusing play is about the value of charity shops: do they really help the Third World or are they just a sop to the consciences of middleclass people who run them? Brenda needs the shop as a refuge from her imaginary attackers, and her fellow workers need it to give them a sense of importance. Mr Galbraith visits it because no-one else will tolerate him, and his biblical ranting provokes Doris to consider the true nature of charity. If it begins at home, where does it end?

The cast:
Hilda - The manageress. Middle-aged.
Brenda - Extravagant-looking woman gone to seed because of alcohol.
Doris - Middle-aged, kind hearted woman.
Mrs. Pike - Frail elderly woman, very deaf.
Mr Galbraith - Elderly scruffy, tramp-like person.

The Expert in Flowers
This is a play (with musical parts) of four mid-lifers encountered by a sudden, violent death of a wife / close friend / lover called Vivi. They are shaken; the shock pushes them off their familiar behavior, routines and roles. A part of them is gone. Vivi – their relationship with her – brought something out of them, in good and bad, that no-one else ever will. The dynamics of the group is altered – nothing is the same as before. Their lives change direction.

The cast:
Pascal – cynical war reporter surprised by his own vulnerability
Larry – cool and collected lawyer in emotional turmoil
Tammy – former stewardess who tries to act like an artistic intellectual
Sonya – motherly career woman at the end phase of her mid-life crisis
Vivi – recently dead whose message is expressed through music and songs. Vivi’s part will be performed by Helen Super, who has also composed the music for the play.

“The Celebration” by Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov is one of the greatest playwrights to have ever lived. Along with Henrik Ibsen, he helped usher in modern theatre. The difference between Ibsen and Chekhov, however, has been summed up nicely in this way: Ibsen would write a play about a man who commits suicide because he lost a million dollars. Chekhov would write a play about a man who commits suicide because he won a million dollars.
Chekhov wrote a number of one-act plays. They are generally farces, and "The Celebration" is no exception. In this play, a bank president is derailed in his attempt to celebrate the bank's anniversary by an insolent employee, a frivolous wife and a demanding client. The play ends in a riot of confusion and frustration as the bank’s directors attempt and fail to go ahead with the celebration.

The cast:
Kuzma Nikolayevitch Hirin - cashier of the bank. An irritable old man.
Andrey Andreyevitch Shipuchin - president of the bank. A vain, middle-aged man.
Tatian Alexeyevna - Shipuchin’s wife.
Nastasia Fiodorovna Merchutkin - A client of the bank.
Three members of the Board of Directors (one of whom makes a speech).

We will also be looking for production team members. If you are interested in helping - please let Suzan Wilson, our Production Manager, know. suzanwil@freesurf.ch or 078 710 12 26.

The Semi-Circle is Basel's English language amateur theatre group.

Since 1985, we have been staging plays of various genres from musicals to comedies to tragedies to classics and from a wealth of different playwrights from Ayckbourn to Coward; Miller to Pinter; Shaw to Wilde.
Our main productions take place in the spring and autumn of every year.

If you are interested in finding out more, visit our website at http://www.semi-circle.ch.