Our Spring Show Announcement is here - I encourage you to read the script and become familiar with the area/time period/and dialects of the piece before auditions on December 15th. Here we go...
We are thrilled to announce that our spring show is…The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry! This show takes place in December 1939 and follows the Freitag family – an upper-class Jewish family in Atlanta – as they prepare for Ballyhoo, a cotillion-esque ball that is the social event of season. In the midst of their preparations, they meet Joe Farkas. Joe is from Brooklyn and is of Eastern European Jewish descent. In getting to know Joe, the Freitags (especially Sunny) wrestle with understanding and identifying Jewish discrimination from both within, and outside of, the Jewish community.
Alfred Uhry also wrote the play Driving Miss Daisy and the libretto for the musical Parade. The Last Night of Ballyhoo won the 1997 Tony Award for “Best Play.”
This play is largely a comedy, but does have some wonderful dramatic moments. It is an ensemble piece comprised of gloriously wacky, over-the-top characters.
A note on dialects and auditions: In choosing your audition monologue, the first priority is choosing a piece that fits the show and having it performance ready for auditions. If you want to use a dialect with your audition you are welcome to, but it is not required. We will be asking for Atlanta and Brooklyn dialects in call backs. Please note - the Atlanta dialect is different from Texas or mountain southern, and the Brooklyn dialect is different from the Long Island dialect we often associate with New Yorkers. All of that to say – be thorough and specific in your dialect research!
Look for more information in the next couple weeks!
- Mrs. Cline and Miss Struiksma
