January Happenings

Welcome to the new year, we hope it's begun well for you and yours. Brunswick Little Theatre is gearing up for an exciting 2016. Here's a quick rundown (with helpful links for more information) of all our current doings.

---We'd like to congratulate and welcome newly elected Board of Directors members Eben Mastin, Judy MacNally and Beth Strickland. Thank you for your service and best wishes for a fun and productive term! The Board of Directors contact information and short bios can be found on our website here

---Tickets are on sale now for the next Stagestruck Players production, Thoroughly Modern Millie, JR. The show will run March 11, 12, 18, 19 at 7:30 pm and March 13 and 20 at 3:00 pm on the Brunswick Little Theatre Mainstage, 8068 River Road SE. Tickets are available at Ricky Evans Gallery, 211 N. Howe Street, Southport and through our Online Box Office here.

---The Star News Wilmington Theatre Awards show is this Friday, January 29, at 8:00 pm at Thalian Hall in Wilmington. BLT's big summer musical, Shrek the Musical, and it's costume mistress Jen Iapalucci are nominated for Best Costume Design. Tickets for the awards show are available from the Thalian Hall box office here.

---Auditions for BLT's next adult production, Moonlight and Magnolias, are scheduled for Saturday, February 6 from 2 pm - 5 pm and Monday, February 8 from 6 pm - 9 pm. Moonlight and Magnolias is a comedy based on the writing team that turned Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone With The Wind into the screenplay of an American cinema classic. There are roles for three men and one woman. Actors are asked to bring a resume and head shot. Email Director Eben Mastin with questions ebenfm@aol.com

----Brunswick Little Theatre is proud to announce its participation in the NC History Museum's Shakespeare Marathon: 38 Plays In Five Days. To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and the arrival of a touring copy of a First Folio to the NC Museum of History, readings of all the bards plays will be performed back to back beginning April 23rd at noon. BLT has been assigned Pericles, Prince of Tyre and will be reading at 12 pm on Wednesday, April 27 at the NC Museum of History in Raleigh. We are recruiting readers for this project and anyone with an interest and willingness to read aloud is welcome. Find out all about this project on our Happenings Blog here and email Jeffrey Stites at jgstites@yahoo.com with questions or to volunteer to take on a part.

---Looking ahead, our youngest thespians are enjoying a revived Let's PLAY! Children's Theatre Workshop under the direction of Elizabeth Flora. They will be hosting a Showcase to culminate the winter session on Saturday, February 20 at 1 pm. We hope you'll mark your calendars and join us!

---BLT's youth workshop, Stagestruck's Musical Theatre Apprentices, also began a new session this month and will present their Showcase Performance in May.

As always, thank you for your support. We can't wait to share this exciting new year with YOU!!

Shakespeare Marathon: 38 Plays In Five Days

William Shakespeare died 400 years ago this year, leaving us 38 plays and many of the idioms we use every day. To recognize (celebrate seems like a bad word to use in relation to a death anniversary) the occasion, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC is putting some of it's copies of the First Folio on tour. The First Folios contain 36 of Shakespeare's plays and are the source of much of our understanding of his work. A copy of the First Folio will be on display at the North Carolina Museum of History in May, and as a lead-up to that the museum is hosting a marathon reading of all the Bard's plays, back to back, and Brunswick Little Theatre is proud to be participating!

BLT will be performing a reading of Pericles, Prince of Tyre at high noon on Wednesday, April 27 at the NC Museum of History. The marathon is being organized by Burning Coal Theatre Company in Raleigh and includes professional, amateur, college and high school theater troupes. From the Wilmington area, BLT is joined by Thalian Association, performing The Taming of the Shrew, and Dram Tree Shakespeare, performing Hamlet. We are proud and thrilled to be in such company, and to be working with the North Carolina Museum of History on this project.

Pericles may not be one of the Shakespeare plays you read in high school or college. It's regarded by some critics as one of his worst works, though he is thought to have written only the final three of five acts. But in its time, the early to mid 1600s, Pericles, Prince of Tyre was one of Shakespeare's most performed and most popular plays.

It's easy to see why this one was a hit with the groundlings. Pericles has all the things pop culture of the time, and in some cases even today, loves. The baddies are unrepentantly and unambiguously bad and the good guys and gals are beyond reproach. The story features murder and jealousy and storm-wracked ships and pirates and comical owners of a house of ill repute. There are good and bad kings and queens, loyalty and betrayal, and a happy ending where everyone reaps the rewards or punishments of their behavior.  It's not a hard story to follow or understand and it seems that it was written to do just what it did, entertain the masses.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, is as accessible as Shakespeare comes, making it a great entrance into Elizabethan drama for Brunswick Little Theatre. We will be reading rather than performing, with  minimal props or costumes. We will need up to a couple dozen actors/readers for this performance, and YOU may be just what we need. Participants will need an open mind and a willingness to learn about the play and and its author. We'll be traveling up to Raleigh for the reading the morning of Wednesday, April 27, either individually or via car pool, so actors will need to be able to get the day off and find transportation. With these  qualifications, we are open to all. Just drop an email to Jeffrey Stites at jgstites@yahoo.com if you are interested or want more information.