We are now accepting audition videos for the 2021 Sauk Shorts. Those wishing to audition should record a video of them performing a one-minute monologue from a play. Completed videos should be e-mailed to thesauk.hct@gmail.com. Also, complete the online audition form at the link above. Read through for those cast will be held on Monday, March 15 (either in-person or via Zoom). There are roles for 7 men, 9 women, 1 teen boy, 1 teen girl, 1 girl (age 12) and there are 7 roles that can be either gender.
By Sarah Gray
Directed by Mari Nunez
Our hands are used for good. Our hands are used for evil. Our hands care for others. Our hands show hatred. From the mundane to the extraordinary our lives are expressed through our hands. What do your hands say about you?
By Josh Lightner
Directed by Tim Ambrose
While carrying out a meticulously planned museum heist, a thief discovers they didn’t account for one crucial detail: someone else would be robbing the place at the same time. As the two would-be criminals argue over who, exactly, would get to do the criminalizing, the night continues to throw curveballs their way. As they lie, backstab, and cheat their way to the prize, it becomes clear that the only truth is that there is no honor among thieves.
By Gary Sironen
Directed by Liz Pence
A young student recalls a moment of self-discovery as a child, and the complications that come with keeping a secret. In the process, they learn the power, the value, the danger - and the importance - of sharing the secret. Directed by Liz Pence.
By G.M. (Bud) Thompson
Directed by Trinity Bird
A mother and son struggle to adapt to the new life they unexpectedly find themselves in. Try as they might to make the best of it, painful memories and frustration complicate their efforts to get on with living.
By Rom Watson
Directed by Mari Nunez
Dave and Miriam go to her grandmother for money, and in the process meet Grandma’s new pet.
By Scott Mullen
Directed by Josh Lightner
Pam isn't happy to find herself sharing a ski lift with a pair of bickering twins and the urn of their father's ashes.
By James McLindon
Directed by MJ Jacobs
The fairy-tale wedding is over, real life has begun, and a beautiful princess is having doubts about her choices in a husband and in life. With her formerly beastly prince in tow (he manscapes for her now), she begins marriage counseling ... and makes a discovery. A comedy for everyone who doesn't trust a happy ending.
By Arthur Keyser
Directed by Sandi Miller
Phoebe is knitting and Cyrus is reading the morning paper. A typical day in their 39 years of marriage, taking place in their living room listening to the 75-year old radio on their equally old sofa. The radio interrupts their usual program to blast an emergency announcement. Other people would freak out but not these two—they focus on old sofas, scratchy radios, and “neighbors having their way!”
By Matthew Weaver
Directed by Mandee Leigh Howard
Cowboy Sam and pitcher Elisa find comfort in their view out the window - and each other - during chemotherapy.
Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. There are roles for 11 men and 1 woman (see ages below). Trinity Bird will direct this production with musical direction by Kristi Gautsche. Allison Cleveland will stage manage.
PLEASE NOTE: Tech day and first dress rehearsal for this production are Memorial Day weekend. Attendance at both of these rehearsals is mandatory!
About the Play
Tony-winning Peter and the Starcatcher upends the century-old story of how a miserable orphan comes to be The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (a.k.a. Peter Pan). From marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores the depths of greed and despair... and the bonds of friendship, duty and love. A young orphan and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They know nothing of the mysterious trunk in the captain’s cabin, which contains a precious, otherworldly cargo. At sea, the boys are discovered by a precocious young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training who realizes that the trunk’s precious cargo is starstuff, a celestial substance so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands. When the ship is taken over by pirates – led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain determined to claim the trunk and its treasure for his own – the journey quickly becomes a thrilling adventure. Featuring a dozen actors portraying more than 100 unforgettable characters, Peter and the Starcatcher uses ingenious stagecraft and the limitless possibilities of imagination to bring the story to life.
Available Roles
Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. This production includes performances at 10 a.m. on Friday mornings. Rehearsals will be at non-traditional rehearsal times. There are roles for 3 men and 2 women. Mari Nunez will direct this production.
About the Play
This is the endearing classic about a mouse named Stuart who is born into an ordinary New York family. All the charm, wisdom and joy of the E.B. White original are captured in this adaptation by Joseph Robinette, who also dramatized the highly acclaimed stage version of Charlotte's Web (produced by The Sauk in 2020). The many adventures—both big and small—of Stuart Little are brought vividly to life in this story-theatre presentation. The acting ensemble plays many human and animal roles in a series of delightful scenes that make up the marvelous maneuverings of a mild-mannered mouse trying to survive in a "real people's world."
Available Roles
Auditions will consist of readings from the various scripts. While this is only a two-week commitment of time, the commitment consists of rehearsals, book work, meetings with the playwrights and more. No memorization is required as these are play readings. Titles and Directors TBA.
By Terence Patrick Hughes (of Lake Hill, NY)
Directed by Tim Ambrose
A year ago, acclaimed American novelist, John Irwin, and his wife suffered a terrible car crash near their mountain-top home in Woodstock, NY. He survived, she did not. After months of mourning, insurance litigation, and tabloid harassment, Helen’s ghost has returned to constantly haunt John and keep him from writing, sleeping, and staying sober. His daughter, Violet, and her new boyfriend arrive to try and rescue John from his downward spiral, only to be caught up in a wild war of words and wit that reaches far beyond our material world. A comic romp of a ghost story wrapped around a drama about love, death, and family.
By Mark Cornell (of Chapel Hill, NC)
Directed by Trinity Bird
Desert Song is about a young, struggling musician who seeks out the reclusive muse for one of the most famous love songs ever written, an early seventies tune called “The Ballad of Eliza.” It’s a song that he has loved all his life. This muse, a woman now in her sixties, has long retreated from public view, and lives as a simple maid. Set in the sparse lodgings at Ghost Ranch, a remote retreat in Northern New Mexico, the play explores the elusive and magical nature of inspiration.
By Tiffany Thatcher (of Homer, MI)
Directed by MJ Dulmage
Kate is doing her best to get over her fiancé Jonah, but he is not making it easy. He keeps popping in whenever her guard is down. As the couple tries to make sense of their separation, they quickly realize that their relationship is not at all what it seems.
Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. There are roles for one man and four women. Angela Forant will direct this production.
About the Play
Three Jewish widows meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husbands’ graves. Ida is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life; Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun; and Doris is priggish and judgmental, particularly when Sam the butcher enters the scene. He meets the widows while visiting his wife’s grave. Doris and Lucille squash the budding romance between Sam and Ida. They are guilt-stricken when this nearly breaks Ida’s heart.
Available Roles
All characters are in their late fifties to early sixties.
Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. There are roles for 5 men and 3 women. Trinity Bird directs this production with musical direction by Kristi Gautsche. Michele Harmon will stage manage.
About the Play
The internationally popular game is now a fun-filled musical that brings the world’s best-known suspects to life and invites the audience to help solve the mystery: who killed Mr. Body, in what room, and with what weapon. The audience receives forms to help them deduce the solution from clues given throughout the fun-filled evening. Three audience members choose from cards representing the potential murderers, weapons, and rooms; there are 216 possible solutions! Only one hard-nosed female detective is qualified to unravel the merry mayhem. Comic antics, witty lyrics, and a beguiling score carry the investigation from room to room. Even after the culprit confesses, a surprise twist delights the audience.
Available Roles
Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. There are roles for 7 men and 9 females. Ron Boyle will direct this production.
About the Play
A refreshing, contemporary telling of the classic story. Stern Marilla and her warm-hearted brother Matthew hoped to adopt a boy to work on their farm. But the orphanage sends young, befreckled Anne by mistake, and their lives will never be the same. Her warmth and wit affect everyone around her - even, eventually, the cold Marilla. We follow Anne through her rebellious years, her transformation into a young woman, and her romantic pairing with Gilbert.
Available Roles
Audition requirements will be announced at a later date. There are roles for six women. Ron Boyle will direct this production.
About the Play
The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, ("I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
Available Roles