It’s an exciting week for Theatre Huntsville.

Friday, November 12th, marks Theatre Huntsville’s return to the Von Braun Center Playhouse for the first time since March of 2020 when Silent Sky had to be cancelled mid-run due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s been a rough road since, and a period of difficulty for those who live for live performance.

While Theatre Huntsville first started back on stage in August with Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, the rollout involved careful consideration and baby steps. The August show had been selected for its monologue format and presented at the smaller Studio Theatre venue at Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment. The box office sold tickets at limited capacity to allow the organization to experiment with live performance before a smaller audience, first.

Winter Wonderettes in contrast is a full-scale production presented at the Von Braun Center Playhouse, with ticket availability at full capacity. This show too, however, required careful, baby-step planning.

The cast of the show is a reunion of the cast from Theatre Huntsville’s 2018 production of The Marvelous Wonderettes, a well-received show by Roger Bean that prompted many patrons to request bringing some of the sequels to Huntsville; in particular, the Christmas Show of the series, Winter Wonderettes.

”We thought…. the Wonderettes would be great, because we knew the girls wanted to come back, and we liked that sense of continuity,” explains Executive Director, Leslie Gates. “With the uncertainty of the season, we’d be able to cast this season opener show without worrying about how soon we could safely host public auditions. We were able to start right away with things like learning the music to tracks, and remotely learn choreography with video. And since the girls already had worked together, they just slid right into it.”

”We’re so lucky to have all of them back again,” says show Director, Jacinda Swinehart. “We’ve got Sonja Eames… a performer that’s been doing this for a long time. We’ve got Elisabeth Sikes and actually, this was her very first role… and we’ve just been blessed to get her. We’ve got Amy Lawson, who is just so quietly, hysterically funny. And then we have Miss Megan Phelps, who is very out-loud funny. They are just brilliant together.”

See some glimpses of our sitzprobe rehearsal on YouTube, and join Director Jacinda Swinehart and Theatre Huntsville Executive Director Leslie Gates for a discussion about what makes this play special. November marks not only a return to stage for Theatre Huntsville, but for the Wonderettes themselves!

‘Winter Wonderettes' will be presented November 12-14, and 18-20, at the Von Braun Center Playhouse. The show is a seasonal celebration that finds the Wonderettes entertaining at the annual Hardware Store Holiday Party. When Santa turns up missing, the girls use their talent and creative ingenuity to save the holiday party! Featuring great ’60s versions of holiday classics such as “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Run, Rudolph, Run,” and “Winter Wonderland,” the result is, of course, marvelous! This energetic and glittering holiday package is guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages.

Tickets are available at THtix.com, or at our box office at Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment, 12-6 pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, or by calling 256-536-0807. Tickets are $22 for Adults and $20 for Students/Seniors/Active Duty Military. Group rates are available and questions may be emailed to tickets@theatrehsv.org.

Masks are still required for audience members, staff, and crew, for this show. The cast is unmasked but fully vaccinated. Theatre Huntsville’s policy is based on an ongoing evaluation of the recommendations by local and national public health professionals.

’Winter Wonderettes’ is presented by special arrangement with Stage Rights (www.stagerights.com)

Exciting news for the new decade!

Effective January 1st, 2020, the theatre at Lowe Mill ARTS and Entertainment is under management by Theatre Huntsville. Formerly known as the Flying Monkey Theater and Barking Dog Arts Theater, the performance space is being renamed The Studio Theatre at Lowe Mill.

The Studio Theatre will be used for both our in-house artistic productions, as well as rented out for community events and performances.

In-house productions will include programs such as the Rocket City Playwrights’ Series and a variety of novel community theatre productions intended for smaller audiences. We additionally look forward to continuing relationships with community organizations that have a history of using the space, such as Out Loud HSV, Epic Comedy Hour, and weekly swing dances. Please follow us on social media for important updates regarding these programs.

Additionally, we look forward to establishing our office space just outside the theatre. During public Lowe Mill hours, visitors will be able to come by our box office to purchase tickets or to inquire about auditions and volunteer opportunities.

Theatre Huntsville will continue to present our Main Stage Season at the Von Braun Center Playhouse for the current season and the foreseeable future. Please follow us on social media to remain updated on events, performances, and rental availability.

Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment is the largest privately owned arts facility in the southern United States. With a focus on visual arts, this huge historic factory building has been redeveloped into 152 working studios for over 200 artists and makers, 7 galleries, a theatre, community garden, and performance venues.

We’re sending out a call to all community actors (and inspiring actors) for auditions for our production of Things My Mother Taught Me, by Katherine DiSavino, to be performed in May.

Auditions take place at Fantasy Playhouse Children’s Theatre on January 20th and 21st at 7:00 pm. Candidates will cold read from a script and can show up for either one or both days.

SYNOPSIS

Olivia and Gabe are moving into their first apartment together. They've just packed up all of their belongings and driven halfway across the country to start a new life together in Chicago. Their moving day doesn't go exactly as planned, though, and things become slightly more complicated when all of their parents show up to help! Can a two-bedroom apartment contain all of the love, laughs, worry and wisdom that's about to occur?

This play takes a generational look at relationships, and how sometimes parents are passing their best lessons on to their children without even meaning to. It's a comedy in which three couples love each other and value the things that make their partners special.

TIME PERIOD: Present Day
SETTING: An empty apartment in Chicago. At the top of the play, a very large armchair is stuck in the front door of the apartment.

CAST (3m, 3f, 1m or f)

OLIVIA KEEGAN - mid-late 20s; energetic, neat, slightly OCD; an architect.

KAREN KEEGAN - mid 50s-60s; free-thinker, open-minded; Olivia's mother.

CARTER KEEGAN late 50s-60s; distracted, a cell phone app fanatic; Olivia's father.

GABE LAWSON - mid-late 20s; good-natured, a planner but forgetful; a writer.

LYDIA LAWSON - mid 50s-60s; idiosyncratic, a clean-freak; Gabe's mother.

WYATT LAWSON - late 50s-60s; 'hail fellow, well met;' Gabe's father.

MAX MIROWSKI - mid-late 50s; Polish accent; understands more than lets on; good-hearted; building Super (man or woman).

Auditions will consist of readings of selected partial scenes from the script. No prepared material is required.

REHEARSAL and PRODUCTION NOTES

- Rehearsals will start on or about March 9th, 3 times per week for about 3 hours per rehearsal, and run through April 30th. Rehearsals take place at TH's rehearsal facility at 500 Plummer Road.

- Move-in to the VBC Playhouse will take place the weekend of May 1-3.

- Tech Week rehearsals will take place every night, Sunday through Thursday, May 3-7.

- The show will open, Friday, May 8, with additional performances Saturday evening, May 9, and Sunday afternoon, May 10. After a couple of days off and a Wednesday, May 13, brush-up rehearsal, performances will resume on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, May 14-16, with a matinee also that Saturday. Following the Closing Night performance, we will strike the set and move everything back to the rehearsal building.

You'll then get to enjoy the upcoming Memorial Day holiday and your summer vacation!

For more information, please contact the show's Director, John Hancock at John.Hancock@theatrehsv.org, or the Theatre Huntsville office at auditions@theatrehsv.org or 256-536-0807.