April Happenings

Spring is finally sprung and Brunswick Little Theatre is welcoming the season with Moonlight and Magnolias, a comedy about the men who turned Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone With The Wind into the screen play that would become an American cinema classic. You can read more about the show with comments from director Eben Mastin in an article from our friends at Southport Magazine here.

The show runs April 15, 16, 22 and 23 at 7:30 pm and April 17 and 24 at 3:00 pm on the Brunswick Little Theatre Mainstage, 8068 River Road SE, Southport. Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for students with an ID. Tickets are available from our online box office here and from Ricky Evans Gallery, 211 N. Howe Street, Southport. Moonlight and Magnolias contains some adult language and is not suitable for small children.

As always keep an eye on your email and the BLT website for information on upcoming events, including a revue from our second semester session of Musical Theatre Apprentices and auditions for our next BLT Mainstage show, a little musical comedy take on musicals called The Musical of Musicals, The Musical.

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!!

September Happenings

Summer is winding down, but Brunswick Little Theatre is cranking it UP this fall.
 Check out all we have going on.

This coming Saturday, September 20, we are holding auditions for our Christmas show, Best Little Christmas Pageant Ever. This show features a large, all-ages cast and is the perfect vehicle for families to get involved in a something together! The show will run December 12-14 with four performances, two evening shows at 7:30 on Friday, December 12 and Saturday, December 13 and two matinees Saturday, December 13 and Sunday, December 14 all at our new theatre at 8068 River Rd (the former Christian Alliance Church and Southport Christian School facility). Auditions will take place this coming Saturday at the new theatre on River Road with adults called from 10 am to 12 pm and children 7-15 called from 1 pm -3 pm. Details can be found on the Auditions Page of the BLT website.

The local Boy Scouts and BLT have joined together to offer a Theater Merit Badge workshop. The first session was this past Saturday with the final session on Saturday, September 27. BLT is proud to offer this opportunity and thanks Jonathan Richmond for facilitating the program.

Let's PLAY! returns this fall with a weekend workshop themed after Holidays Around The World. Let's PLAY! Children's Theatre Workshop is open to all children, no matter the level of experience, from 4-12 years old and offers a great introduction to the theatre arts for newbies and a chance for those already involved to polish skills. Registration opens at 9 am Saturday, October 11 via email to jiapalucci@ec.rr.com. A word of warning, these workshops are limited to 24 students and fill up VERY QUICKLY. Details on Let's PLAY! as well as photos from previous sessions can be found on the Let's PLAY! page of the BLT website.

Steel Magnolias comes to the Brunswick Little Theatre in just over one month! This bitter-sweet drama directed by Thom Clemmons plays on our new stage at 8068 River Road, Southport at 7:30 pm October 17, 18, 24 and 25 with two 3:00 pm Sunday matinees on October 19 and 26. Tickets are available now through our online Box Office, and they are selling quite briskly, so get yours TODAY to be sure of a seat.

On Halloween Night BLT will be joining with the City of Southport to fill the historic Garrison House at Fort Johnson with a scary, but not too frightening, collection of haunts! We will be needing volunteers to help out with this project, so stay tuned to the Facebook page, website and your inbox for details!

Fezziwig's Ball returns this Thanksgiving weekend, but with a murderous twist! Join us at the Brunswick Little Theatre, 8068 River Rd., Southport on Friday evening, November 28 or Saturday afternoon November 30 for a Fezziwig Murder Mystery Party and Children's Victorian Christmas Party. All ages will enjoy Christmas merriment and a Victorian Food Court. Details coming soon!

December will see a weekend of performances of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, December 12-14, and the Showcase performance from our Let's PLAY! children on Sunday, December 21.

Our first program of the new year will be a first for our Let's PLAY! program as we introduce our Winter Session, Let's PLAY! Presents: Winnie-The_Pooh KIDS. This 8-week workshop will begin January 4 and culminate with a weekend of performances of the children's musical Winnie-The-Pooh KIDS February 20-22, 2014 on the Main Stage of our new theatre, 8068 River Rd., Southport. Participants will enjoy all the great activities that have made Let's PLAY! so popular, but will be working toward presenting this short Disney musical instead of the traditional showcase. Registration will open Saturday, December 27 at 9 am via email to jiapalucci@ec.rr.com and is as always open to ALL children 4-12. We will be looking for older children to help in production and crew roles for this show, so stay on the look-out for details.

Look for announcements soon of our next Stagestruck Production, coming Spring of 2015, as well as a Director's Challenge for those who may want to try their hand at directing their first show.

Brunswick Little Theatre's move into our new home has brought huge opportunities but also some challenges. As we work to turn a church into a theatre, we are stretching our resources thin, both human and financial. We need our BLT family now more than ever. If you are as excited about this new place as we are, how about looking into pitching in? Contact this email address or any board member for ideas, but one immediate need is a simple one, a Cleaning Crew! We are scheduling regular cleaning of the new facility each Monday evening at 6 pm, all are welcome to come out and help with simple household maintenance.

Another way to help out YOUR community theatre is to become a Member. We have revamped our membership system and it now offers some fun perks, such as a discount on all Workshops (including Let's PLAY!) and even free tickets to shows at our new venue. Membership also entitles you to a voice in the future of Brunswick Little Theatre as members vote for the new board members in 2015. We encourage you to go look at our Membership Page on the website and consider becoming an Official, Card-Carrying Member of BLT today! 

Thank you for your support, we couldn't do any of this without YOU!!!

August Happenings

Hey, it's still August, right? Better late than never, we say!

Tomorrow marks one full month in our new home on River Road. We've been putting the space to use already!

The Let's PLAY Summer Camp spent a week of fun and learning in one of the two classroom buildings, then topped off the experience with a great Showcase in front of over 50 family and friends, the very first performance in our new theater!

Steel Magnolias, our first ticketed event in the new space, has been rehearsing on the main stage three nights a week. The show opens Friday, October 17 at 7:30 pm with additional evening shows on the 18th, 24th and 25th and two matinees Sunday, October 19 and Sunday, October 26 at 3:00 pm. Tickets are on sale now on our Box Office page.

The cast and crew of our summer musical Into the Woods held their cast party at the new facility last night, and had a ball. With a huge kitchen, plenty of bathrooms, a wonderful playground, shady and comfortable outdoor spaces and a big screen and projector, this space really has a lot of potential for fun, and we plan to offer lots of opportunities for you to enjoy it in the near future.

One of the first opportunities to put yourself on the new stage is our upcoming Best Christmas Pageant Ever auditions. Debbie Skillman will be directing this holiday classic and is looking for a cast of 10 adults and 17 children. Auditions will be at the new theater, 8068 River Road, Southport, on September 20, 2014. See our Audition page for all the details!

The BLT Board of Directors is working on organizing the 2015 season. They will be accepting proposals at their September11 meeting, at 6:30 pm at the Brunswick Little Theater on River Road. Potential directors will find lots useful information on our Directors Page. We will continue to perform a show in Odell each year as well as one in May at Franklin Square Park, but all our other performances will be at the new facility. The board looks forward scheduling more shows than any time in the recent past. This new space allows us, even really requires us, to produce more performances. A lot of work has gone into securing, maintaining and improving this property, all we need now is directors willing to use it. If you are contemplating a show in the Brunswick Little Theater, but haven't really gotten a good look at it yet, simply drop an email to Jeffrey at jgstites@yahoo.com and he'll see you get the grand tour. We are excited to show off our new place and see how the talented BLT family can put it to use!

We hope you all had a great, fun and safe summer and look forward to sharing an exciting future together.

April Happenings

Happy Spring to one and all! We are more than happy to see the arrival of some warmer weather and are looking forward to a busy spring and summer.

Spring for Brunswick Little Theatre means the arrival of our FREE show in Southport's Franklin Square Park. This year's shows kick off in just over one month! An American Band, Music of the Rock Revolution (1965-1973) will rock the park 8 pm nightly May 16-18 and 23-15. If you were one of the very few people who missed last year's hugely popular My Generation concerts, you don't want to miss this one! It's being brought to you by most of the same musicians and vocalists that drove record crowds wild last spring. So, bring your entire family, bring some beach chairs and be ready to be entertained by the best free concert Southport offers. You can see some songs from last year's shows here and check out this year's rehearsals here.

Are you ready to venture Into The Woods with BLT this summer? Work has begun on our big summer

musical and auditions are less than THREE WEEKS away! Director Jen Iapalucci and Musical Director Michael Stringer will be hosting auditions at Building F on the campus of Brunswick Community College on Saturday, May 3 and Monday, May 5. Children under 15 (except those auditioning for the role of Red Riding Hood) are to audition from 11 am to 1 pm on Saturday, May 3, while adults and all those seeking Red Riding Hood's role are to come at 1 pm Saturday, May 3 or 7 pm Monday, May 5. All are asked to please try to make the Saturday date if at all possible. Complete details on roles available and expectations for those auditioning can be found on our web site's Auditions Page. Please come prepared and break a leg!

Tickets for Into The Woods will be available through the Odell Williamson Auditorium box office beginning Friday, May 16. You may purchase in person, over the phone or online. All the links, times and numbers you need are on our own Box Office page here.

Looking for something for the little theater aficionados in your family to do this summer? BLT is very excited to announce the return of Let's PLAY! Children's Theater Workshop Summer Camp! This year we will offer two one-week sessions, June 16-20 and August 11-15. With Director Jen Iapalucci busy preparing Into The Woods, this summer's camps will be directed by long-time BLT friend and professional theater educator Amanda Penegar. Camp will run from 10 am to 2:30 pm Monday to Friday with a showcase performance at 3 pm the Sunday following camp week at the South Brunswick High School drama classroom. Fees for

camp are $100 per student with a 20% discount for siblings. Registration opens 9 am Saturday, April 26 via email to jgstites@yahoo.com. These camps will fill up fast, so registration is on a strict first come, first served basis. To find out more about Let's PLAY! and our summer camp program, please visit the Let's PLAY! website here. You may also check out video from past Let's PLAY! classes and showcases on our YouTube channel here.

With all these great programs and shows Brunswick Little Theatre offers, the board of directors has decided it is time to start seriously looking for a permanent home for BLT. Our options are wide open right now, but the board will be creating a Facility Fund very soon and begin accepting donations to help us acquire a place of our own. Stay tuned for details on how YOU can help build the future of community theater right here in our own back yard.

Last but certainly not least, the Brunswick Little Theatre is proud and thankful to announce the election of Sue MacCallum as President-Elect of its Board of Directors. Sue brings years of experience in theater, community involvement and fundraising and will ensure that BLT remains an active and vibrant part of our community as we move forward. Sue will assume the office of BLT President as of January 2015. Thank you and congratulations Sue!

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.

Auditions Announced For Into The Woods

Into The Woods 

Performance Dates:

July 25-27 and August 1-3

Odell Williamson Auditorium

Auditions will be held Saturday, May 3 and Monday, May 5, 2014 according to the following schedule:

·         Children under age 15 (except those girls auditioning for Little Red Riding Hood), Saturday, May 3, 2014, 11am-1pm. 

·         Adults (15+) and those girls auditioning for Little Red Riding Hood, Saturday, May 3, 2014, 1pm.

·         Adults (15+) and those girls auditioning for Little Red Riding Hood, Monday, May 5, 2014, 7pm.  You are encouraged to audition on Saturday if at all possible.

Auditions will be held at Brunswick Community College, Building F.

Everyone should prepare a song (at least a verse and chorus).  You are strongly encouraged to prepare a selection from musical theater.  You are also encouraged to select a song in the style of Sondheim, and that showcases your vocal ability.  Please bring sheet music, recorded backing tracks, or be prepared to sing a capella.  You may also be asked to sight read, and/or sing parts.

Please dress in loose clothing and comfortable footwear, suitable for movement.

If you have any questions, please contact director Jen Iapalucci, jiapalucci@ec.rr.com or 910-269-1518.