MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Community Players will stage two one-act comedies at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury in February: Peter Shafer’s “Black Comedy” and Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Inspector Hound.” Auditions will be held Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 18 and 19, at 7 p.m., at the Mary Hogan Elementary School in Middlebury. Those auditioning should register by 6:45 p.m.
“The Real Inspector Hound” is Stoppard’s one-act featuring a play within a play. It is both a parody of drawing-room murder mysteries (like “The Mousetrap”) and an absurd examination of two theater critics charged with reviewing the play within the play. The cast includes the two critics, three women and three men, as well as one dead body that is on the stage throughout the play. It is directed by Trent Campbell.
Shafer’s “Black Comedy” was first presented in 1965. A variety of characters have met for a variety of reasons in the apartment of an aspiring bachelor artist on an evening when a fuse has blown and the lights go out: his giddy, spoiled fiancée, her tightly wound father, a repressed spinster, an electrician, an antique collector, an art collector and a still-interested ex-girlfriend. The action supposedly in the dark is illuminated, and when the lights are to be on, the stage darkens. It is directed by Kate Tilton.
Those auditioning should be prepared to read from the scripts. People may audition for either or both shows the same night. Perusal scripts will be available at the Town Hall Theater Box Office (382-9222, Monday-Saturday, noon to 5pm). For more detailed descriptions of the plays and character lists, visit www.middleburycommunityplayers.org.
Anyone unable to make either audition date may contact producer Kristen Ginsburg or the directors to schedule another time. Ginsburg is at 802-989-5435 or [email protected], Tilton is at 802-233-5196 or [email protected], and Campbell is at 802-989-8369 or [email protected].
Rehearsals will begin after Nov. 28. The plays will be presented Feb. 11-14, 2016, at Town Hall Theater.