Drood final weekend, Nunsense Auditions follow

October 2015 is a big month at Theatre Company of Saugus.

Remaining performances of The Mystery of Edwin Drood are on October 23-24-25, Friday & Saturday at 8:00 PM, and on Sunday at 2:00 PM.  Tickets are now on sale at the door and online.
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Auditions for our December show Nunsense:  The Mega Musical are on October 25, 27, 29.
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Auditions for our February-March show The Laramie Project were on October 18-19-20.
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All events are at ESUMC, which you can find on our Directions page.

Saugus Founders Day 2015

TCS members will perform for the crowd on the front steps of Town Hall, for an hour starting at 2:00 PM.  Including musical selections from our shows in the 2015-2016 season:

  • Once On This Island Jr.
  • Mystery of Edwin Drood
  • Nunsense The Mega Musical
  • Urinetown
  • And an introduction to our drama The Laramie Project

Founders Day is an annual street fair held in the center of Saugus.  On Central Street in front of the town hall and library, between the monument and the Iron Works.  The 35th annual fair is on Saturday 12 September 2015.  80 vendors selling jewelry, home decor, crafts, sports memorabilia, clothing, and accessories.  Raffles, prizes, give-aways.  Food booths supporting youth organizations.  Kids games including bounce house, face painting, sand art, photo booth, superhero pictures.

Theatre Company of Saugus (and many other local organizations) has a table with company mementoes, raffles, ticket sales, and publicity materials.  The TCS table is on the sidewalk in front of Town Hall, to the right as you face the building.

We need volunteers to staff our table and promote the company to the crowd.  To help out, please contact us, thanks.

Tickets to Drood and Nunsense will be for sale at a special discount price for Founders Day only.  At the TCS table.  $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, students, children.  That is $2 off the normal advance sales price, and $5 off the at-the-door ticket price.

Moving Scenery in Storage

We will continue our project of moving scenery, on Saturday 26 September 2015.  The starting time is TBA, watch this space for further news.

Please meet us at 123 Forest Street.  We will be moving set pieces from Leo’s garage and shed to our storage unit at 222 Central Street Storage.  Both of these locations are shown on the map on the Directions page of our website.

We need people with trucks or vans.  And people who can left and carry.

We can also use people who cannot lift or carry, but can take inventory as we work.

If you plan to help us out, or have questions, please contact Larry Segel at 617-539-0418.

TCS has collected a lot of scenery, furniture, costumes, and props over the years.  Half of it is stored in rented rooms at Central Storage, at 222 Central Street in Saugus.  The other half is in garages and sheds at a property on Forest Street.  We are consolidating all of it into a larger room at Central Storage.  This will take two or three moving days, and it must be completed during August and September 2015.  We will need the help of a bunch of people who can carry things; the more the easier.  We also need people with trucks or vans on the days we move stuff from Forest Street to Central Storage.  The locations may be found on our Directions page.

 

DASH Nominations and Awards 2014-2015

Theatre Company of Saugus (TCS) is a member of the Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theatre (EMACT).  EMACT runs the DASH program (Distinguished Award and Special Honors) that evaluates many of the shows done by its member groups.  Many aspects of each show and the performers are rated, and those with the best ratings are Nominated for DASH Awards.  The award winners are revealed at the annual DASH Gala, which is very much like the Tony Awards, but local.

TCS has a nomination for one of its productions in the 2014-2015 season:

  • Anthony Turilli is nominated for Best Youth Actor in a Play, for his role as Templeton the rat in Charlotte’s Web.

Several other TCS members were nominated for their work with other groups:

  • Amanda Allen for Best Makeup and Hair Design of a Musical for Into The Woods at Spotlight Playhouse.
  • James Wlodyka for Best Sound Design of a Musical for The Rocky Horror Show at Winthrop Playmakers.
  • Shawn Gelzleichter for Best Musical Direction for Tommy at The Footlight Club.  Winner.
  • Kathleen Tringale for Best Choreography for a Musical for Chicago at Wakefield Repertory Theatre.
  • Brian Dion (and others) for Best Set Dressing for a Play for Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean at the Hovey Players
  • Abbey Ross for Best Stage Management of a Musical for Green Day’s American Idiot at Marblehead Little Theatre.  This show was also nominated for Best Production of a Musical.
  • Emily Sheeran for Best Youth Actress in a Play for Moon Over the Brewery at Acme Theater Productions.  Winner.
  • Chip Sheeran for Best Set Design of a Play for Moon Over the Brewery at Acme Theater Productions.
  • Chip Sheeran for Best Direction of a Play for Moon Over the Brewery at Acme Theater Productions.  This show was also nominated for Best Production of a Play.
  • Saugus High drama teacher Steve Black for Best Direction of a Musical for Lex Miserables at Marblehead Little Theatre.
  • The Men of the Barricade in Les Miserables at Marblehead Little Theatre were nominated for Best Specialty Ensemble in a Musical.  Winner.
  • The entire cast of Les Mis was also nominated for Best Ensemble in a Musical.  The cast included TCS members Bob Russell, Matt Ludwig, Les Tarmey, Bobby Imperato, Bryan Cipoletta, and Sarah Belliveau.
  • Saugus High graduate Tyler Prendergast is part of the nominated Best Specialty Ensemble in a Play for the Tragedians in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at Longwood Players.  Winner.
  • The entire cast was also nominated for Best Ensemble in a Play.
  • And the show was nominated for Best Production of a Play.  Winner.

TCS is the Sponsor of the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play.  Click here for the complete list of DASH Nominations and winners.  The 2015 Annual EMACT Gala and DASH Awards is on Saturday 29 August 2015 starting at 6:00 PM.  The location is the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Mass.  Click here for complete details about the Gala including purchasing tickets.

Dialects Workshop

Another in our series of Workshops on Theatre Skills this summer:  Speaking in Dialects, presented by Adam Schuler.  On Tuesday 21 July 2015, starting at 7:30 PM.

Adam Schuler is the director of our upcoming production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  This show is done in the traditional style of the British Musical Hall, and it stages the last unfinished novel of the great Victorian era writer Charles Dickens.  So various forms of English accents will be used in the show.  If you plan to audition for the show, this will help you with an important skill.  Or if you simply want to sound so cultured to American ears, this workshop will be a great deal of fun!

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There is a nominal fee of $5 per person for each workshop, payable at the door with cash or check.

Musical Theatre Audition Workshop

The third in our series of Workshops on Theatre Skills is on How to Prepare for a Musical Theatre Audition.  It is on Tuesday 14 July 2o15, starting at 7:30 PM.

There are two presenters.  Adam Schuler will focus on the Acting portion of the audition.  Kathleen Tringale will focus on the Dancing portion of the audition.  We expect this workshop to be full of tips and strategies useful to all of us, since we all must face auditions, for both plays and musicals.

Adam Schuler is the director of our upcoming production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  He is also presenting a workshop on Tuesday 21 July on Dialects, which is an important aspect of Drood.

Kathleen Tringale is the choreographer for multiple shows in our upcoming 2015-16 season.  She is also teaching workshops this summer on Tap Dancing.

There is a nominal $5 fee per person for all the workshops, payable with cash or check at the door.

Dance Workshops

As part of our series of workshops on Theatre Skills, we will present one or more workshops on Dancing, presented by Kathleen Tringale.

The first workshop will be on Thursday 16 July 2015, starting at 7:30 PM.  It is designed for Beginner Tap Dancers.  The subject of the workshop is “Tackle That Temptation With a Time Step”, which is the title of one of the tap dance numbers in Nunsense that we will present later this season.  You do not have to bring tap shoes, but you may do so if you own them.

The second workshop that was tentatively scheduled for Sunday 19 July, starting at 3:00 PM, called “Tap Dancing Continued”, HAS BEEN CANCELLED. 

We are instead cooking up a plan for one or two more workshops on Basic Dance Steps and Terminology for Musical Theatre.  The objective is to give the typical musical theatre actor some basic dance knowledge before going to an audition or to the dance rehearsals for a show.  What is the choreographer talking about when she says “do a jazz square” or a “grapevine”?  Watch this space for further developments about the upcoming dance workshops.

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Kathleen Tringale is our choreographer for multiple shows in the 2015-16 season.  Learning the basics of tap will prepare you for Nunsense auditions, or it can just be a fun and useful skill!

For all the Theatre Skills workshops, we are charging a nominal fee of $5, to be paid at the door with cash or check.  Contact us at TCSaugus@gmail.com if you have any questions about the contents of any of the workshops.

Improv Comedy Workshop

Theatre Company of Saugus presents its first summer 2015 workshop on Theatre Skills.  This workshop is a reprise of one of our most popular workshops from last summer, called Where the Points Don’t Matter: The Ins and Outs of Improv Comedy, and it is led by Britt Mitchell.  The workshop will be held on Tuesday 7 July 2015, starting at 7:30 PM.  The location is the East Saugus Methodist Church at 85 Chestnut Street / Saugus, Massachusetts 01906  (see our Directions page).

When it comes to improvisation, people generally think that you have to be funny in order to do it.  In fact, almost anyone can do improv!  Improv is in your blood and you don’t even know it yet… yeah, I’m talking to you!  Improvisational comedy is all made up at the top of your head, as seen in the famous TV show Whose Line is it Anyway.  In this workshop, you will be fully immersed in the basics of improv. You will learn improv warm ups, short-form games, and the basics of successful scene work.  Be prepared to learn a whole new side of yourself and realize that improv isn’t about jokes and plaid shirts.  Improvisation is a big skill to have in theatre, business, and in life in general.  You will leave the workshop laughing and with a whole new perspective on live theatre.

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The instructor of the workshop is Britt Mitchell.  Britt has over a decade of improv and comedy experience under her belt.  She has been performing improv since she was in high school.  She is an alumnus of Saugus High School’s troop Needs Improvment and Salem State University’s troop Grandma’s Third Leg. Britt has been a player in ImprovBoston’s (IB) house troop The Family Show for over two years.  She has also been in many IB showcase shows such as The Babysitters Club Super Special Show, An Improvised People’s History, and IB Stein’s Goosebumps. Britt has performed in the annual Del Close Marathon in New York City, Improv on the Bricks/The Griffin Theatre in Salem, and at Stage 773 in Chicago.  Britt was also seen in the 2012 Women in Comedy Festival performing stand up.  Britt teaches after school drama in Everett, and directed with Beyond The 4th Wall Expression Theatre in Cambridge.

For Theatre Company of Saugus, Britt organized TCS’ own improv troupe Back to Square One, and she has been the director and acting coach of our Youth Workshop for the past three years, including the upcoming production of Once On This Island Jr.

The fee to attend the workshop is only $5, payable with cash or check at the door.  If you attend more than five workshops, you pay a maximum of $25.