Auditions are approaching for the Maxinkuckee Players’ summer production of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Director Becky Liechty says that even though it’s a family-friendly show, they’re looking for actors of all ages to take part. “This is a large production,” she says. “I am anticipating we will have probably somewhere between 50 to 55 people in this show. The misconception that a lot of people have is because it is a Disney production, ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ that it is a children’s show, and it is not. The majority of the parts are adults – young adults and older folks also. There really is only one children’s part in the show, and that’s Chip; he’s the teacup. But we will probably have a few other children in the show as townspeople and whatnot.”
Auditions will be held at the Culver Community High School Auditorium on Saturday, May 7 from 9 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDT. They continue Sunday, May 8 from 1 to 5 p.m. Liechty says there are a few things actors should do to get ready before then, “They need to be prepared to sing a song of their choice. It can be from the show, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be, just something that shows us what they are capable of, vocally. And we will have scripts available for them to read from, so that we can determine inflection and things like that in their voices.”
Performances of “Beauty and the Beast” will take place Friday July 22, Sunday July 24, Friday July 29, Saturday July 31, and Sunday July 31. Liechty says there’s a lot of work that needs to be done between the auditions and the shows, “It is a big commitment for the summer. We rehearse Monday through Thursday nights from about 6:30 to 9:00 or 9:30 roughly. Now that does not mean that everybody has to be there four nights a week. We try to set it up where we have one night that is a chorus rehearsal and then the other nights are usually just the leads working, so it does vary. But as we get closer to production, it will require four nights a week for everybody. We also build our own sets, and we do all of that on Saturday.”
She adds that the Maxinkuckee Players always welcomes new participants, “We have sort of a core group that has been there for years, but every year, we get some new people. And they may come back, they may be here for one season. It’s a totally volunteer organization. None of us get paid for any of it. So it’s really, really great, just a great group of people.”
