MOUNT HOLYOKE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS
ANNOUNCES SEPTEMBER AUDITIONS, PERFORMANCES

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – The department of theatre arts at Mount Holyoke College will hold open auditions in September for the play Top Girls, the musical review Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and Folding, a senior thesis project. Folding will be performed September 27 and 28. Details follow. Please contact the theatre arts department at 413-538-2118 for more information.

Auditions

Staged reading of Folding, a senior thesis project written and directed by senior Leah Maxwell. September 4 and 5, 8 pm, Rooke Theatre, Mount Holyoke College. Callbacks September 6 at 2 pm.

This absurdist romp features two laundresses folding their way through eternity in a Sisyphean laundry room built only for them. Or was it? Roles for four women. Rehearsals begin immediately. Performances: September 27-28.

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Top Girls by Caryl Churchill, directed by Julia Whitworth.
Auditions September 9 and 10 from 7-10 pm, Rooke Theatre, MHC. Callbacks September 11, 7 pm, Rooke Theatre.

Marlene hosts a dinner party in a 1982 London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of "Top Girls" employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: the adventurous Scottish traveller Isabella Bird (1831- 1904); the medieval Japanese courtesan-turned-Buddhist nun Lady Nijo (b1258); Dull Gret, who led a crowd of women on a charge through Hell in a Brueghel painting; the 9th-century disguised female Pope Joan; and Patient Griselda, an obedient wife out of Chaucer. In the fantastic conversation that ensues, playwright Caryl Churchill lays out historical conditions and costs of the different women's "successes." These frame the rest of the play, in which Marlene's life as "Top Girl" in her bourgeois domain sharply contrasts the domestic world of the women she left behind.

Cast: Seven actors, all women. Multi-generational and multi-racial cast. Rehearsals begin immediately. Performances: November 13-16.

Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living In Paris
A musical review, a bookless musical, song and dance with an onstage band.
Auditions to be held in the Black Box, Rooke Theatre, MHC on September 16 from 8-10 pm, September 17 from 7-10 pm, and September 18 from 1- 4 pm. Callbacks September 19 from 1-4 pm.

Jacques Brel's music and lyrics are funny, sad, passionate, and ironic. The musical is suitable for all vocal ranges: soprano, alto, baritone, and bass. Performers will have solo and ensemble numbers. Please bring music to the audition. An accompanist will be provided. Be prepared for movement. Cast: Eight to 12 female and male singers; four dancers, male or female. Rehearsals begin mid January. Performances: April 22-27.

Performances

Folding, a staged reading written and directed by Leah Maxwell, class of 2004.
September 27 at 8 pm and Sunday, September 28 at 2 pm, Rooke Theatre, Mount Holyoke College.

Join two laundresses as they fold their way through eternity in a Sisyphean laundry room built only for them. Or is it? This absurdist romp features song, intrigue, philosophy, dance, comedy, death, love, rebirth, and a lot of other words! It is not to be missed. Admission is free.