Auditions will be held in January for “Dancing at Lughnasa,” a play by Lynn Canal Community Players that director Tod Sebens hopes to stage by late February.
Set in County Donegal, Ireland in 1936, the play is a drama of a large, Catholic family coming to grips with its poverty and insecurity in a changing world at summer’s end. It became a 1998 film featuring Meryl Streep.
In an email this week, Sebens said he chose the play because he liked the size of the cast – five women and two men – as well as its content, which he said should appeal to a broad audience for its absence of profanity and adult scenes.
Besides actors, he’s seeking make-up artists and backstage crew.
Sebens also is project manager for improvements being made to the Chilkat Center auditorium, including an overhaul of its sound and lighting systems, new curtains and a new dance floor.
“When the work is completed this winter, I will try to entice Meryl Streep and her family to come to Haines this summer for a few days to dedicate the theater by sharing stories and other things like what role theater played in her early acting life,” Sebens said.
One of the conditions for whoever has a part in this play is that they have to be available for one show sometime during the summer, if Streep accepts the invitation, he said.
For more information, contact Sebens at 907-321-2302.