"Grand Horizons”
by Bess Wohl

Director: Gary Green
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Friday, Saturday and Sunday
October 17, 18 and 19
2:00 PM
Performing Arts Studio, Hillside


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​Auditions for "Grand Horizons”
by Bess Wohl
Director: Gary Green
​Tuesday, July 29
Noon to 2:30 p.m.
Performing Arts Studio, Hillside

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​The Drama Association of Rossmoor (DAOR) will hold auditions for its next Naked Stage production, “Grand Horizons”, a comedy/drama by Bess Wohl, on Tuesday, July 29, noon to 2:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Studio at Hillside. For those who cannot attend the first audition, and for those called back from the first audition, a second audition will be held on Friday, August 1, 9:30 to noon. Please arrive a few minutes before the starting audition time and plan to stay until the ending audition time. 

Scheduled performances of the play to be directed by veteran Bay Area director and teacher, Gary Green, will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 17, 18 and 19.  In Naked Stage productions, actors rehearse and perform with their scripts in hand and do not memorize their parts. Actors of all ages are encouraged to audition for any role.

The play takes place in the Grand Horizons retirement community.   Nancy and Bill are on the verge of divorce after 50 years of dysfunctional marriage.  As their adult children try to “rescue” them, the family members are forced to confront their own insecurities and the nature of love and family.  How the senior couple finds peace and quiet and a way forward leaves the audience laughing while brushing away a tear. There are roles for four males and three female actors.

The audition will consist of readings of the script.  No resumes or head shots are required.  Rehearsals will be held Tuesdays and Fridays beginning August 12.  For character profiles and/or for audition registration forms, contact the play’s producer, Martha Hawkins at [email protected] or by phone at (510) 919-9101.  A limited number of scripts are available on loan.  Audition registration forms are also available in the DAOR mail box at the Gateway administration building. Auditions are open to DAOR members and non-members alike although non-members must join DAOR if cast.
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Gary Green delights in helping actors deepen the drama or comedy in a story.  During his long teaching career at Berkeley Adult School, he created a course for English language learners called “Practice English by Acting”.  Since retiring, he has directed casts of all ages in his community and has taught a scene study class and directed two short play readings for DAOR. During the early COVID years, he directed a number of DAOR members in short and full-length plays via Zoom which provided socialization and an opportunity to keep acting.  At that time, he also organized a biweekly Zoom play-reading group that is ongoing.

​Auditions are open to DAOR members and non-members alike, although membership is obligatory for all those cast in the show.

Naked Stage Presents:   ​​“Sylvia”   by A. R. Gurney

​Director:  KevinO'Byrne   Producer:  Linda Kelp
​Friday, Saturday, Sunday,  ​October 20, 21, 22  2 p.m. ​

“Sylvia” is a love story about a marriage and a dog. Greg and Kate are empty nesters who have moved to the city after twenty-two years of child-raising in the suburbs. They’re in a period of readjustment. Greg has grown disenchanted with his job, while Kate’s new career as an English teacher is beginning to offer exciting opportunities. One day Greg brings home a stray dog he found in the park – or who found him - bearing only the name “Sylvia” on her tag. Sylvia offers Greg an escape from the frustrations of his job and the looming perils of middle age. But to Kate, Sylvia becomes a rival for Greg’s affections and a major bone of contention between husband and wife.

The story delves into the complexities of relationships, of love and commitment, and how one navigates choices when there’s a conflict between the love of one’s life and “man’s best friend.” Embedded in the doggy details is a message of the need for connection, love and understanding in an increasingly alien and impersonal world. 
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2024 Naked Stage Season Information

Actors plan your year with audition opportunities in mind.  Copies of the plays are available for loan at Linda Kelp's house, 3450 Tice Creek, #7, Entry 17.  Scripts are at the front door.  Just sign them out.

Social Security by Andrew Bergman, directed by Edward Kimak
 Time Period - Contemporary - the 80s, Setting - New York City, Upper East Side 
Cast:  3 women, 3 men
Naked Stage Production:  March 15, 16, 17
Approximate rehearsal period:  Tuesdays and Fridays, February 5 - March 22
 
This hilarious Broadway comedy surrounds a married couple who are art dealers. Their domestic tranquility is shattered upon the arrival of the wife’s goody-goody nerd of a sister, her uptight CPA husband, and her archetypal Jewish mother. They are there to try to save their college-student daughter from the horrors of living only for sex. The comic sparks really begin to fly when the mother hits it off with the elderly minimalist artist who is the art dealers’ best client! 
Social Security was originally produced on Broadway by David Geffen and the Schubert Organization at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City on April 17, 1986. It was directed by Mike Nichols.
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The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, directed by Linda Kelp
Time Period - Contemporary, Ancient, Setting - Excelsior, New Jersey
Cast:  Mains:  3 women, 2 men and  4 actors playing various roles
Naked Stage Production:  June 21, 22, 23
Approximate rehearsal period:  Tuesdays and Fridays, May 3 - June 20

Meet George and Maggie Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey, a suburban, commuter-town couple (married for 5,000 years), who bear more than a casual resemblance to that first husband and wife, Adam and Eve; the two Antrobus children, Gladys (perfect in every way, of course) and Henry (who likes to throw rocks and was formerly known as Cain); and their garrulous maid, Sabina (the eternal seductress), who takes it upon herself to break out of character and interrupt the course of the drama at every opportunity. Whether he is inventing the alphabet or merely saving the world from apocalypse, George and his redoubtable family somehow manage to survive – by the skin of their teeth.
Completed by the author less than a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, satire, and elements of the comic strip, Thornton Wilder depicts an Everyone family as it narrowly escapes one end-of-the-world disaster after another, from the Ice Age to flood to war.  Directed by Elia Kazan.

The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Cynthia Wilson
Time Period -  Metaphysical Contemporary, Setting - suburban Connecticut
Cast:  4 women, 1 man
Naked Stage Production:  October 18, 19, 20
Approximate rehearsal period:  Tuesdays and Fridays, September 3 - October 17

The play takes place in what the author describes as "metaphysical Connecticut," mostly in the home of a married couple who are both doctors. They have hired a housekeeper named Matilde, an aspiring comedian from Brazil who's more interested in coming up with the perfect joke than in house-cleaning. Lane, the lady of the house, has an eccentric sister named Virginia who's just nuts about house-cleaning. She and Matilde become fast friends, and Virginia takes over the cleaning while Matilde works on her jokes. Trouble comes when Lane's husband Charles reveals that he has found his soul mate in a cancer patient named Anna, on whom he has operated.  This theatrical and wildly funny play is a whimsical and poignant look at class, comedy and the true nature of love. 
The Clean House premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre on September 17, 2004 and at Lincoln Center in 2006.  The play was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize,[1] awarded annually to the best English-language play written by a woman. 
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Auditions for "Social Security”
by Andrew Bergman
Director: Edward Kimak
​Producer: Kevin O'Byrne
Tuesday, January 23
10:00 a.m.
Performing Arts Studio, Hillside

​The Drama Association of Rossmoor will hold open auditions for its next Naked Stage production, “Social Security” by Andrew Bergman. The show will be directed by DAOR veteran Edward Kimak. Auditions will be on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 10:00 a.m. in the Performing Arts Studio, Hillside. Performances will be at 2 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 15, 16, and 17. Three female and three male cast members are needed. Audition registration instructions appear below.

This hilarious Broadway comedy surrounds a married couple who are art dealers. Their domestic tranquility is shattered upon the arrival of the wife’s goody-goody nerd of a sister, her uptight CPA husband, and her archetypal Jewish mother. They are there to try to save their college-student daughter from the horrors of living only for sex. The comic sparks really begin to fly when the mother hits it off with the elderly minimalist artist who is the art dealers’ best client.
 
The six characters include:
Barbara and David Kahn: Middle-aged Manhattan art gallery owners whose life is upended when Barbara’s mother makes an unexpected visit.
Trudy and Martin Heyman: Barbara’s middle-aged sister and brother-in-law who drop off their mother and head to Buffalo to rescue their sexually precocious daughter.
Sophie Greengrass: Barbara and Trudy’s elderly eccentric Jewish mother who is about to have the time of her life.
Maurice Koenig: A famous artist who changes Sophie’s outlook and paints a portrait of the new woman she has become.
 
The auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. All those interested in auditioning should show up promptly at 10:00 a.m. and plan to stay for the duration of the audition, until approximately 12:30 p.m. No resumes or headshots are required.  Callbacks, if required, will be at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, January 26, also in the Performing Arts Studio. Rehearsals will be held Tuesday mornings, from 10:00 to 12:30 p.m., and Friday mornings, from 9:30 a.m.12 noon, beginning January 30.

For further information and to register for the audition and obtain an Audition Information Sheet, please contact the show’s Producer, Kevin O’Byrne, at [email protected] or (925) 395-0015.  Please complete and return the form indicating which character or characters you wish to audition for and any schedule conflicts. Copies of the play are available for loan outside the front door of Linda Kelp, 3450 Tice Creek, #7, Entry 17.  Just sign them out.
In Naked Stage productions, the actors rehearse and perform with their scripts and do not memorize their parts. 

​Auditions are open to DAOR members and non-members alike, although membership is obligatory for all those cast in the show.

​Naked Stage Presents:  
​“Silent Sky”
by Lauren Gunderson
Director:  Linda Kelp
Producer:  Kevin O’Byrne
​Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
​June 16, 17, 18
2 p.m. 
Photos by Aki Rasmussen
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Cast members, left to right:
Judith Hoppe, Rod McFadden, Gail Wetherbee, Roanne Butier, Lucy Felcher

The true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them. When Henrietta Leavitt begins work at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, she isn’t allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women “computers,” charting the stars for a renowned astronomer who calculates projects in “girl hours” and has no time for the women’s probing theories. As Henrietta, in her free time, attempts to measure the light and distance of stars, she must also take measure of her life on Earth, trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love.