We’re constantly updating the list of our Kickstarter backers, so take a look at the page and see the names of the generous people who are helping to make WOLVES IN THE WALLS a reality! We are so grateful to everyone one of them!
We’re on Kickstarter!
Our Kickstarter.com project for WOLVES IN THE WALLS has launched! Take at look at it here, and help us out if you can!
Busy weekend–KALEIDOSCOPE, WOMEN AND WOLVES!
We have a very, very busy weekend!
KALEIDOSCOPE is opening its final weekend on Thursday at 7 pm. The show has gotten great reviews and drawn terrific audiences–so make reservations early (call 484-0172).
And auditions are also coming up! We have auditions for THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF SHAKESPEARE and WOLVES IN THE WALLS. The details are in the post below, so take a look and come out to audition! We’re looking for all ages–especially teens and adults!
Auditions this weekend (May 5-7)
We’re holding auditions for both of our summer shows this weekend! The information about the auditions is below–but don’t think that the length of the notice has anything to do with the importance of the show. Each of these shows is very important to us! WOLVES IN THE WALLS is our big summer show, and THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF SHAKESPEARE is our very own Kate Schneider’s first time to direct for us! Here’s the info–WOLVES is first, because that audition is first.
Acting Unlimited, Inc. and Wanderlust Theatre Co. are holding open auditions for WOLVES IN THE WALLS, Cody Daigle’s original adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s award winning children’s book to be produced this summer, on Saturday, May 5th from 1-4 pm and Monday, May 7th from 7 to 8:30 pm at Theatre 810 .
The cast will consist of 5 “humans” and as many as 28 puppeteers, who will learn various forms of puppetry, ranging from shadow puppetry to a modified form of Japanese bunraku puppetry. The show will run July 26-29 and August 2-5 at Burke Hall on the UL-Lafayette campus.
The auditions will consist of cold readings from the script, and physical exercises.
For more information, email actingunlimitedinc@gmail.c
Acting Unlimited, Inc is announcing open auditions for two shows to be run together in performance in June under the title THE COMPLETE WOMEN OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. The auditions will be held on Sunday, May 6th from 1-4 pm and Monday, May 7th from 6 to 7:15 pm at Theatre 810.
The show will run June 8-10 and 15-17 at Theatre 810.
The casts of both shows (SECOND BEST BED and WHEN SHAKESPEARE’S LADIES MEET) are entirely female.
For more information, email actingunlimitedinc@gmail.com.
KALIEDOSCOPE’s Review
Kaleidoscope begins with an accident: a spaceship hauling lumber across the cosmos explodes, sending a handful of its passengers hurtling through space. They’re a small brace of survivors – it’s suggested there were others who died in the crash, but only these six escape – and they are connected only by radios that are soon to run out of power. All that’s left of their pre-crash lives are the voices of their fellow shipmates, and each is hurtling outward into his own oblivion.
The play is an adaptation of two radio plays by Bradbury also calledKaleidoscope, done by the show’s director, Nathan Gabriel. The adaptation is smart – just the beginning of a slew of smart choices made by Gabriel across the production – and it cleverly honors both the piece’s radio beginnings and its new stagebound life. This isn’t an easy feat, but Gabriel has found a way to make the play’s aural landscape as evocative as its visual one.
The ensemble of actors do fine work across the board. Their relationships with each other, and ultimately their relationship with their inevitable ends, are clear and fleshed out. The stakes are high, and no one (thankfully!) reaches or showboats with their limited time on stage. Two performances are particularly effective. Vince Barras, as Hollis, has the show’s biggest role and serves as its de fact conscience. He’s genuine, warm and affecting, particularly in his final moments.
The show’s standout performance was Chris Matochi’s as Stimson, the one survivor who’s not handling his end with grace. The part is small – although he lasts longer than some of his companions, Stimson isn’t given a lot of text – but Matochi fills it with a rich energy that’s deeply affecting. His death is the most painful to watch, and his departure was the only one I felt in my gut.
What’s impressive about Kaleidscope is its restraint. Gabriel wisely chooses to hold back from unnecessary theatrics and bold, overstated gestures. His touches are small, quiet and powerful – small lights going out on each of the actor’s costumes signaling their demise was my favorite – and his artistic team followed suit. Brady McKellar’s costumes were simple yet evocative. Travis Johnston’s lighting design was spot-on. And the show’s music (Max Richter), sound design (Jack Klotz and Gabriel) and video design (Lisa Marie Patzer) were impressive and understated, honoring the show’s 1950s science fiction sensibility without resorting to camp.
The whole enterprise is impressive, and it’s encouraging to know that folks like Gabriel and McKellar, both newish faces on the UL Performing Arts faculty, are helping to steer local theatre into its future.
Kaleidscope invites us not only to consider the vastness of the universe but also the uncharted distances between people. In that distance, the play seems to say, our inability to connect honestly and completely with the people around us keeps us untethered, alone. And the play seems to say that it’s not our joys but our regrets that keep us company once all the lights are out. And once the silence is descending, with whatever courage we have left, we should send those regrets out into space, as a fevered cry in the dark.
—Cody Daigle
Kaleidoscope continues its run at Theatre 810 through the remainder of Festival International, beginning at 7 pm every night and will also run May 3-6, again at 7 pm.
KALEIDOSCOPE pictures in the Advertiser!
The Daily Advertiser has rehearsal pictures of the AUI/UL/Festival International production of Ray Bradbury’s KALEIDOSCOPE in the online edition of today’s paper. Check them out here.
The show will open tomorrow night at 7 pm at Theatre 810 and run Thursday through Sunday (April 26-29) at 7 pm, and Thursday through Sunday of next week (May 3-6), also at 7 pm. Tickets can be purchased online or reservations can be made by calling (337) 484-0172.
Don’t forget to put us on your Festival schedule!
For all of you who are putting together your custom Festival schedule (http://lineup.festivalinternational.com/events/2012/04/25/), don’t forget to put us on it! KALEIDOSCOPE will run every night of Festival except for Wednesday–we’re on the main schedule, so put us on your personal one!
Kickstarter, WOLVES and local arts!
While we are in the final stages of preparing KALEIDOSCOPE to open, we are already underway with new projects. We are planning to launch a Kickstarter.com fundraiser for WOLVES IN THE WALLS, and we were lucky enough to be mentioned in Amanda McElfresh’s article in the Daily Advertiser about the Kickstarter fundraising process.
Thanks, Amanda, and thanks to the Daily Advertiser for covering local arts and artists!
