Production

Congratulations to Mathew Gruca, Sarah Allen, and Dean Berg for earning spots in AVT’s production of THE AMERICAN CENTURY. All displayed a fine ability to take direction and make creative vocal and physical choices with various given circumstances. Thank you to all who auditioned!

Auditions for AVT’s production of THE AMERICAN CENTURY will be Sunday, February 27th, from 4pm to 7pm in AVT’s Garage Blackbox studio. Address will be sent via email to all auditioners. Backup auditions may be scheduled on February 28th and March 1st at the discretion of the directors. All roles will be cast through a cold-reading open audition.

Show Dates: MAY 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22 at AVT black box spaces in the Antelope Valley Winery. Approximately 3 hours of rehearsal per week are expected, in addition to all nights of tech week prior to the opening night, as well as line and character work expected of all actors on their own time.

Synopsis:
World War II has ended and Tom, just discharged from the Army, returns to his young wife, Margaret, full of hope, enthusiasm, and dreams of a bounteous future. But suddenly they are joined by a brash young stranger who, to their amazement, proceeds to make himself very much at home. He is, he explains, one of the children they will have, and he fills them in so completely about their past and present lives—and the future which awaits them—that Tom and Margaret soon find themselves moving from incredulity to panic. In the most casual, blithely humorous manner, the stranger tells of a world gone mad in this hilarious and intelligent satire of our modern American lives.

Setting:
Postwar American Suburbia.

Characters:

TOM – A mid- to late- twenties soldier back from the war, excited to begin a new life with his best girl by his side. A direct man, who believes in hard work and badly wants to be in control of the situation… especially when things are not going according to plan.

MARGARET – A mid- to late- twenties housewife, excited to have her man back from the war and to be his best girl. Kind, loyal, open, and accepting… even when strange events begin to happen.

TOMMY- An early- to mid- thirties loser from the “future”; a fine example of  the whiny and jaded “Me Generation”.

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Please send an email to productions@avthespians.org if you intend to audition. You may include a brief theatrical resume if you wish, though this is not required. Headshots are not necessary.We hope to see you there!

Nalin A. Ratnayake, Producing Director
Kara McCollum, Artistic Director
Phillip E. McKaughan, Production Stage Manager

Joe Gruca (Papa) rehearses a scene from CROSSINGS in the AVT Blackbox.

Producer Nalin A. Ratnayake sat down with director Karen Gruca, stage manager Kelly Lynn Regan, and cast members Sarah Arnac, Sarah Bialobroda, Joe Gruca, and Kara McCollum to talk about AVT’s final production of the 2010 season, CROSSINGS.

Podcast #14: Conversation with the cast, director, and stage manager of CROSSINGS. [ 14:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (417)

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CROSSINGS opens tonight, November 12th, and runs for six performances through November 21st.

Ticketing and information.

Antelope Valley Thespians presents:

CROSSINGS
by Barbara Schneider

Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Nov 12-21
Fri/Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm

Starring Sarah Arnac, Sarah Bialobroda, Joe Gruca, and Kara McCollum.

Directed by Karen Gruca.

A moving and thought-provoking story of the love between a father and daughter, separated by place and perspective. What is right and wrong in times of war? A journey across the years since WWII looks at our own vulnerability to the easy habit of indifference in present-day America.

Tickets $8.

Web ticketing is available now through the day prior to each performance. Walk up purchases for any remaining tickets, via cash or check only, will be available on a first-come-first-served  basis starting 30 minutes prior to each performance.

Friday, Nov 12, 8pm – [SOLD OUT]
Saturday, Nov 13, 8pm – [CLOSED]
Sunday, Nov 14, 2pm – [CLOSED]
Friday, Nov 19, 8pm – [CLOSED]
Saturday, Nov 20, 8pm – [CLOSED]
Sunday, Nov 21, 2pm – [CLOSED]

AVT operates in a fully-functional, blackbox theater built into a private residence at 6521 Almond Valley Way, Lancaster, CA 93536.  Business hours are strictly limited to 30 minutes prior to a performance until appx 1 hour afterward.

AVT announces the winner of our 2010 Original Play Competition!

Local writers were asked to submit full-length scripts on the subject of “The American West“. Suggested subjects were exploration and discovery, our relationship to the land, environmental concerns, immigration, or western American traditions, culture, and attitudes. Submitted scripts could be set in the past, present, or future, so long as they conformed to AVT’s production philosophy: thought-provoking, character-driven, and unique.

The Directors and Dramaturg have unanimously decided to award the $300 bounty to local playwright Eric M. Martin for his play HUNGER FOR PARADISE. We will work with the playwright to further develop this play, and it will be brought to full production in our 2011 season. Congratulations Eric, and thank you to all who submitted.

AVT is pleased to bring to the stage the premiere of this new, character-driven drama by local playwright Eric M. Martin. The history of the American West is replete with nostalgia and stories of the migration westward to a promised land of opportunity in California, Oregon, and the bounty of the western frontier. Many of these settlers built new lives and made transformative changes to themselves, our society, and to the land itself. But what about those for whom the promise failed to deliver? Set in the modern day, this play explores the hunger for something new that often drives us to break for greener pastures… only to discover that, sometimes, the emptiness inside from which we run cannot be filled so easily. Rather, it pursues us despite all superficial remedies — and instead of looking forward in the way we hoped, life sometimes leaves us to wonder might have been.

AVT is committed to cultivating a local community of playwrights, collaborating with them to bring their work to the stage for full production, and paying them a fair royalty just like any published work. Accordingly, we hold all original play submissions to the same standard as the published work we consider.

In the 2011 Season, participate in our series of original work development activities. The relationship between AVT and the writer community is highly symbiotic. Writers receive invaluable feedback from directors, actors, and technical crew, and work towards seeing their scripts reach full production and preparation for publishing. AVT, in turn, invests in a future repertoire of quality, local, original work.

More information on our Playwright Activities for 2011 will be posted to our website at www.avthespians.org (click “Playwrights” at the top) later this year, so stay tuned for an announcement.

AVT is holding open auditions for CROSSINGS by Barbara Schneider.  Rehearsals will be twice weekly for approximately 2 hours per rehearsal, starting as soon as roles have been cast.  There will be 6 performances from November 12-21, Fri/Sat 8pm and Sun 2pm.

Auditions will be by cold reading on Tuesday, September 7th, from 6:30-9:00pm in the AVT garage black box at 6521 Almond Valley Way, Lancaster, CA 93536.  Please contact the stage manager, Courtney Marietta (cam@avthespians.org) if you intend to audition.

A probing and compassionate look at the constantly changing relationship between a German musician who lived through the Second World War in Nazi Germany, and his daughter who emigrates to the United States to become a political activist.  The play begins in postwar Germany with a father telling his young daughter the old and familiar story of his escape from a prisoner-of-war camp. In ensuing scenes, the daughter grows up and begins to question her father’s passive behavior during the war. Though he tries to defend his actions as a rational response to the time and place he lived, his daughter remains skeptical. It is only when the daughter realizes her own vulnerability to the easy habit of indifference, in present-day America, that she truly begins to understand her father.

There are four roles available, each of which must be able portray a range of age:

Katja (young) – female, character age is 8-12.

Katja (grown up) – female, character age is 20-30.

Papa – male, character age 40+.

Anna Marie – female, character age 40+.

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CROSSINGS is produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Producer: Nalin A. Ratnayake
Stage Director: Karen Gruca
Artistic Director: Kara McCollum
Production Stage Manager:  Courtney Marietta

UNDERGROUND presents

THE INDIAN WANTS THE BRONX
by Israel Horovitz

and

QUENTIN
an original piece by Heckathorn and Carrillo

Friday, June 25th at 8pm
Saturday, June 26th at 8pm

Tickets $5.00

Performances hosted by Antelope Valley Thespians
in the AVT Blackbox (cross streets 65th W. and L-8)

Address and parking sent to all ticket holders.

Online ticket via secure PayPal / credit card below.  To hold seats for cash payment or for more information please contact jill_ryan@hotmail.com.

This play contains profanity and depictions of violence.

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Winner of the Obie and Vernon Rice Awards. A resounding Off-Broadway success (in tandem with IT’S CALLED THE SUGAR PLUM), this powerful and disturbing study of the mindless cruelty of two teenage toughs towards a helpless stranger earned its author unqualified critical praise, and established him as one of our theatre’s most important young playwrights. “The best Off-Broadway play of the season.”
—NY Times

THE INDIAN WANTS THE BRONX presented by special arrangement
with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

While these plays are hosted by AVT’s blackbox space, they are not AVT productions. Because they are independently produced, we unfortunately cannot except subscriber credits or any other AVT promotion for these special showings.