It won’t be back at Crescent Beach until August – but planning is underway for Beach House Theatre’s fourth season.
Biggest departure from previous years is the choice to do Oscar Wilde’s sparkling 1895 comedy The Importance of Being Earnest for the evening performances (Aug. 11-16), rather than another Shakespeare classic.
But Robert Munsch will still be well-represented in the company’s morning show for children. A new Debbie Patterson adaptation of his stories: Munsch Upon A Time (Aug. 12-15), will be directed by Peninsula-raised actress Courtney Shields, who was featured in the company’s last two Munsch shows.
Beach House founders and artistic directors Candace Radcliffe and Rick Harmon say the progression to another classic playwright was always on the cards.
“When we first started, we thought we would run three years with Shakespeare,” Harmon said. “We’ve always had a number of people say they would like to see something different.”
Earnest, which follows the romantic misadventures of two young men in the English countryside – in the process skewering many of the strictures of the Victorian era – is presented in an authentic adaptation by Errol Durbach, former department head at UBC’s theatre, that streamlines it to three acts from four.
“He’s added the character of Grigsby, a lawyer, who is coming to collect a bill owed to one of the restaurants in London – which adds a little more urgency to the plot,” Harmon said.
“And he’s also taken a piece from a conversation in Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, which provides a little more reference for audiences on what it meant to be a dandy in that era,” Radcliffe said.
Auditions for both shows are scheduled for Sunday, March 29 and Monday, March 30. A total of 10 non-Equity actors, ranging in age from 19 to 70, are required for Earnest, while three versatile actors, 19 plus, preferably with dance or physical performance training and skill with various accents, are required for Munsch Upon A Time.
For information on auditions, call 604-312-0072 or email auditions@beachhousetheatre.org
