McNeese Theatre Roundup (Open House) Is Thursday … Learn How To Audition

If you, or anyone you know is interested in theatre ... you should check out this open house style event  at the Shearman Fine Arts Annex. It all starts at 5:30 p.m. this Thursday.

This is your chance to meet the  theatre program faculty, production directors and students and receive information about the season’s productions, auditions and technical work.

Are you interested in an audition? Directors will give an overview of the upcoming theatre season and explain the audition procedure. Audition packets will be available. Auditions are open to all McNeese students, faculty and staff and area residents. This year’s theme is “The Family.”

According to a university press release McNeese Theatre auditions for fall productions, “Antigone” by Jean Anouilh translated by Lewis Gallentiere and “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, in the Shearman Fine Arts Performing Arts Theatre. Contact Charles McNeely at 475-5041 to sign up for an audition time. Callbacks for both shows will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 31.

McNeese Theatre’s 74^th season opens with Anouilh’s play, “Antigone.” This show will run from Oct. 2-6. Written in 1942 when Nazi forces occupied France, the story revolves around the conflict between the idealist, Antigone, and her rigid uncle, Creon, over the proper burial of Antigone’s brother, Polynices.

Based on Sophocles’ tragic play of the same title, Anouilh’s Antigone and Creon represent two types of people: Those who think for themselves and those who do what they are told. The play explores the individual integrity it takes to give up one’s life to honor one’s family.

There are 11 roles - three males, four females and four - either male or female - of varying ages and ethnicities. Dr. Donna Rigdon Jones is the director.

Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie,” is scheduled on stage Nov. 13-17. There are four roles – two females and two males, ages range from 20s to 60s. Audiences can watch Tom Wingfield relive how he, his mother, Amanda, his sister, Laura, and friend, Jim O’Conner, try to overcome their difficulty in accepting and relating to reality by hiding from it - each creating their own personal reality that is as fragile as the small, glass figurine that gives the play its name.

Brook Hanemann Swire directs this production with a vision of “wiping the dust off” this play by showing how the characters are connected to Williams, his family and families today.

The season’s spring productions include McNeese Theatre’s first Devised Theatre production. It invites the use of different art forms and asks a group of diverse individuals to bring their talents, strengths and interests to create a unique theatrical production. Members of the company serve as playwrights, designers and, if they wish, performers. This will be the inaugural production in McNeese’s new Black Box Theatre. Show dates are Feb. 12-16.

The final production of