Cottage Theatre holds auditions for NewPlayFest world premiere
Cottage Grove, OR — Cottage Theatre will hold auditions at 4 p.m. on May 19 and 6 p.m. on May 20 for Treehouse, a drama by Alabama playwright Joe Musso. This production, which will be on stage at Cottage Theatre Aug. 10 – 26, is a world premiere of one of the six winning scripts in the American Association of Community Theatre‘s 2018 NewPlayFest. Auditions will take place at Cottage Theatre, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove, and no appointment is necessary. The play is directed by Tara Wibrew.
The plot of Treehouse revolves around Shakespeare’s existential line, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Johnny and his pals would be typical 17-year-old boys, hanging out in Johnny’s treehouse and dreaming of talking to the beautiful Alana, were it not for Johnny insisting he is a 53-year-old man trapped in a teenage body. Johnny’s mom is a little worried. Out-of-the-blue her son is suddenly pulling straight A’s, keeping his room immaculate, and reading Shakespeare. As Johnny persists in his claim, and conversations in the treehouse become increasingly peppered by the words of the Bard, Johnny grapples with adolescence, love, and the mind’s ability to heal from great loss. Through his budding friendship with Alana, Johnny discovers the life-affirming power of the eternal summer that shall not fade. At times poignant, at times humorous, Treehouse is a compelling drama that bridges the gap between adolescence and adulthood in beautifully unexpected ways.
Playwright Joe Musso lives in Birmingham, Alabama. His plays have been presented in numerous theaters and have won several awards, including the Great Plains Theatre Conference Holland New Voices Award, the MTWorks Excellence in Playwriting Award, and the Gloria Ann Barnell Peter Playwright Competition. In addition to being a 2018 NewPlayFest winner, Treehouse was named the winner of the 2017 Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award sponsored by the College of Charleston. Treehouse also was the winner of Center Stage South Carolina 15th Annual New Play Festival, where the play received a reading last fall.
Thanks to a grant from the Lane County Cultural Coalition, the playwright will travel twice to Oregon this summer: in June to work with Cottage Theatre’s Treehouse cast, and again in August to attend the world premiere.
Roles are available for three men (age 16 through 20-something) and three women (ages 16 through 40-something). Auditions will consist of readings from the script. Copies of the play may be checked out from the Cottage Theatre office in advance of auditions.
Additional audition details and a character breakdown are available at www.cottagetheatre.org, or by calling Cottage Theatre at 541-942-8001.
