Shine your light on the Players
The Players are raising funds to purchase theater lighting. Lighting rentals represent one of our largest production costs. Purchasing our own lighting equipment at a cost of $8,000 will save approximately $1,000 per show. At three shows per season, they pay for them selves in just over two years! Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution. For more information contact Juls Rozhon at jrozhon@essexplayers.com
Donations can be made to:
Essex Community Players - Light Campaign
P.O. Box 161
Essex Jct., VT 05453
ECP Kicks Off 2008 Season
With The Odd Couple.
Auditions set for June 19 to 22.
Essex Community Players moves into its 51st Season with two productions of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” ~ both the male and female versions, running concurrently on alternate nights. Audition dates are Thursday & Friday, June 19th & 20th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 22nd from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Memorial Hall in Essex Center (at the intersection of Routes 15, 128 & Towers Road). The plays will be performed for THREE weekends, Thursdays – Sundays, September 11th to 14th, 18th to 21st, and 25th to 28th also at Memorial Hall. The productions are being directed by Vivian Jordan. Each cast will rehearse twice a week (either Sunday & Wednesday or Monday & Friday evenings). Cross-casting between shows will be considered.
It’s a summer night and the weekly poker game is in progress at the unkempt apartment of Oscar Madison, a divorced sportswriter. Four cronies sit at the table, playing cards and exchanging wisecracks, while Oscar serves warm beer and inedible sandwiches. One of the regulars, Felix, is uncharacteristically late and the men become concerned. Felix eventually arrives in a semi-suicidal state and announces his wife is divorcing him. Oscar insists that Felix move in with him. They are, however, exact opposites and soon are driving each other crazy. A potentially passionate evening with Oscar's neighbors, the giggly Pigeon sisters, is cut short when Felix, lonely for his wife, children and apartment furnishings, reduces the women to tears. Pushed to the brink, Oscar charges around the apartment making as big a mess as possible and orders Felix out. At the following evening's poker game, a newly self-confident Felix arrives to collect his belongings and announces he's moving in with the Pigeon sisters.
The plot synopsis of the female version is similar to that of the male version, but with the women playing Trivial Pursuit instead of poker…and the two lead characters, Olive and Florence, spending an aborted date-night with the excessively debonair Costazuela brothers.
The male version will require six men, stage ages 30s to 50s and two women, stage ages 25 to early 40s. The female version will require six women, stages ages 25 to 50s and two men, stage ages 35 and up.
For additional information, please visit our website at www.essexplayers.com OR contact Director Vivian Jordan via e-mail at greenmtgranny@aol.com or by phone at 482-5900 (evenings until 9:00 p.m.).
Photos by Adam Silverman,
Ron Ewalt and Art Kilmer