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!!

The Stagestruck Apprentice Workshop

BLT is happy to announce a theatrical training program for youth ages 11 through 18, the Stagestruck Apprentices.

The program will offer training in all aspects of musical theater; vocal production, stage movement, acting, and musical theater styles. Apprentices will also gain experience in technical theater through hands-on work with assigned BLT productions.

Stagestruck Apprentices is designed as a nine-month program broken into semesters. Breaking the

program into semesters allows for ease of scheduling around family and school calendars, as well as ease of fee payment. The program will begin September 12, 2015 and first semester Revue will take place in January 2016. Second semester will begin January 23, 2016 and end in May 2016.

Apprentices will attend one weekly class on Saturday afternoons from 1:00 until 3:00 PM at the theater’s home, 8068 River Road. Individuals or small groups will attend a second session as needed, determined by the requirements of selections that make up the Stagestruck Revue, a public performance scheduled at the end of the semester. Second sessions will be scheduled for Sunday afternoons by the faculty.

The Stagestruck Apprentice program has 20 total positions due to space availability and instructional design.  Eighteen positions are open on a first come, first serve basis. The fee for the training program is $100 per semester and is payable to BLT.  A $50 non-refundable deposit will reserve a position. The $50 balance of the fee is due at the first class. Two positions in the program will be by scholarship. Scholarship positions will be determined by audition. The scholarship audition date is August 1, 10:30 AM. Scholarship candidates can contact dskillman@ec.rr.com for audition requirements.

Registration for the program will begin on August 3^rd. Participants may register by calling Deborah Skillman at 470-5652 or emailing dskillman@ec.rr.com.

Faculty for Stagestruck Apprentices

Deborah Skillman, BM, MM, National Board Certified teacher in music, American  Orff Schulwerk Certified Teacher

Bev Veenker, Professor Emeritus WKU, Theater and Dance

Chris Walters, BFA Theater

Dear Edwina JR Opens Friday

Brunswick Little Theatre's Stagestruck Players bring you the musical fun of Dear Edwina JR starting this Friday night at the Brunswick Center at Southport. The show will run Friday and Saturday, March 28 and 29 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 30 at 3:00 pm this weekend, and again next weekend Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, April 6 at 3:00 pm. The Brunswick Center at Southport is located at 1513-1 N. Howe Street. It's right behind the Wingate Inn in the shopping center at the intersection of Hwy 87 and Hwy 211, where there's a Go Gas on one corner and Famous Pizza on the other. Here's a map.

Dear Edwina JR is a delightful show sure to be enjoyed by all ages. The story follows Edwina, a middle school advice columnist with very talented siblings. She tries to show her own talent by entering a play in the Advice-a-Palooza festival and all her friends and neighbors come by her garage to help out. The show plays out in a series of musical numbers based on the letters and responses from Edwina's column. The music is spectacular and touches on genre's as diverse as opera and ethnic music.

This is a non-stop, musical joy-ride, so if you have young ones you'd like to introduce to the magic of live theater, here's your perfect chance. But the show touches on important themes as well, and the cast of thirteen 11-16 year-olds is as talented as any group of adults you're likely to see on stage, so even if you don't have children, you really owe it to yourself to check this one out. You'll be glad you did and you'll be supporting a group of really amazing and hard-working youths.

Tickets for Dear Edwina JR are just $14 for adults, $10 for students (with ID) and $5 for children 12 and under. Our online box office uses PayPal, so it's easy to purchase with any credit or debit card, or, if you'd prefer, tickets will be available at the door (cash or check only).

For more about the show, visit the our website, check out our Facebook album for photos and read some comments from the cast in this blog post (please note the ticket giveaway is over, sorry).

March Happenings

Spring Is Coming! Brunswick Little Theatre is moving into Spring as busy as ever. Here's a look at some of what we have in the works.

The children of our Let's PLAY! workshop have been hard at work (and PLAY) for the

last 12 weeks and are ready to show off all they've learned. The Spring Session Showcase will be tomorrow, Sunday, March 16 at the South Brunswick High School theater arts classroom. The show will begin at 4 pm with doors opening at 3:50 to allow the children as much time as possible to rehearse in their performance space. Come on out and see the creativity, talent and pure exuberance this great group of 4-12 year-olds brings to BLT. They are our future, and a bright one it is! A BIG thank you to Jen Iapalucci and Katie Deese for volunteering many hours to make this program the huge success it has become.

Speaking of the future of Brunswick Little Theatre, our Youth Division, Stagestruck Players, is also hard at work on its next production. Dear Edwina Jr. Tickets are on sale now in our online box office and will also be available at the door. The show features a cast of 13 portraying Edwina Spoonapple and her friends and family as they put together a musical based upon letters to Edwina's advice column, Dear Edwina. There are song and dance numbers galore, something from almost every genre you can dream of, so this show will be sure to be a hit with all ages. We will once again be performing at the Brunswick Center at Southport, 1513-1 N. Howe Street, behind the Wingate Inn. Showtimes are March 28-29 and April 4-5 at 7:30 pm with two matinees March 30 and April 6 at 3 pm. Be sure to make your plans to catch at LEAST one of these shows. Check out pictures from rehearsal here and hear from some cast members on our blog here.

To make it even easier to introduce your children or grandchildren to the magic of live theatre, BLT is giving away 20 children's (12 and under) tickets to the opening night performance of Dear Edwina Jr., March 28th at 7:30 pm. Simply follow this link to the BLT Giveaway page and get up to four entries! It's quick, easy and fun to enter, so please enter today and tell your friends to give it a try. Also, you can print a poster for the show from our Poster Page and hang it at school, church, work or anywhere else you can get permission to help spread the word. We would LOVE to see a packed house on opening night!

Excitement has already been building for Brunswick Little Theatre's big summer musical Into The Woods. Auditions have been scheduled for May 3 and 5 at Building F of Brunswick Community College. Visit our Auditions Page to learn all the details.

With the coming Spring comes the much anticipated return of BLT's FREE rock and roll show in Franklin Square Park. This year we shift from the British Invasion to our own shores as we present An American Band: Music of the Rock Revolution on two weekends, May 16-18 and 23-25. Shows begin at 8 pm nightly, so bring a chair and enjoy a great night of music under the stars. You can get a glimpse of what's in store at our Youtube channel, and be sure to check back, new songs are added all the time.

As always thank you for your support of Brunswick Little Theatre.

BLT At Mardi Gras By The Sea

Brunswick Little Theatre participated in the Oak Island Mardi Gras By The Sea festival yesterday, and we had a blast!

Members of the cast of our Stagestruck Players' Dear Edwina Jr rode in the parade dressed in their Mardi
Gras finest and singing songs from the show. Director Debbie Skillman and board member (and Stagestruck mom) Melanie Tewell helped out passing out cards with show and BLT 2014 season information to parade watchers.

After the parade, BLT manned an information booth at the Mardi Gras By The Sea Craft Fair and Gumbo Cook-Off.  We were able to promote our season, speak with current and prospective patrons, recruit volunteers and increase awareness of our children's theater workshop, Let's PLAY!.We learned a few things from the experience -- Into The Woods is a very popular choice for a summer musical; there are quite a few people with theater experience around, we just need to reach them; and parents see the value in children's theatrical experiences like Let's Play! and Stagestruck.

From a publicity perspective, this was a banner day for BLT. We'd like to look for other opportunities to get our name and mission out in the community. If you have any ideas, or know of any upcoming events Brunswick Little Theatre could participate in, please drop me a line at jgstites@yahoo.com