While seats are still being filled for Centre Stage’s current production – Shakespeare abridged, revised (to paraphrase) – the call has gone out for auditions for the next.
On Sunday afternoon director Nigel Vanner will be looking to begin sorting a cast for the Martin McDonagh black comedy ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’.
McDonagh’s works are proving popular with Centre Stage, and Taupō audiences, with last year’s well-attended Hangmen preceded a couple of years ago by ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ and ‘A Skull in Connemara’.
“He’s such a brilliant writer, his writing is fantastic,” says Vanner.
And while steeped in dark humour and set on a small island off the west coast of 1930s Ireland, Vanner says he wouldn’t describe the play as bleak.
“It’s a very funny play, you know, and it really is… a fantastic script, as I say, Martin McDonagh is a great writer. I really think that people will be entertained by it, without a doubt.”
But first he needs to cast it, which will mean getting over the traditional imbalance of not enough males coming forward in the first instance – the play requires five, alongside four females.
Centre Stage president Kylie Dumble says there have been plenty of females registering to audition.
“What we really need now is some male interest, some men folk, some gentlemen actors.
“We’re looking for a couple of… student age boys, sort of 16 or 17 for one character, or people that can play a 16- or 17-year-old, and another character sort of 18 to early 20s-ish, that can also act very physically.”
And Vanner is not necessarily looking for those who do a credible Irish accent.
“I think that what is probably more crucial is to capture the cadence of the language… and I think that if you can do that then people will forget about necessarily… that actual accent as such.
“It’s a matter of getting the flow of the language, the cadence, right.”
Both agree the society has had a busy time over the past year or two and that live theatre in Taupō is in a healthy state with keen audiences.
Dumble: “It has been, or it’s looking to be this year, and we had a good end to last year with Prohibition Playhouse, and with Hangmen, which was by the same playwright. And then this year is looking quite full as well, if we can manage to cast this one…
“We’ve had a couple of sort of quieter years, so it’s nice to see lots of enthusiasm for projects coming up and we’re even talking about projects into 2027 so that’s quite exciting.”
There is also a musical proposal for the end of the year.
“So that would be potentially sort of October time. So that’s very exciting.”
Their good name in the community is down to having a range of people willing to be involved in all aspects of a show, says Vanner, such as the experienced set construction crew led by Kerry Carson.
Teamwork is important, he says. “I think we can produce quality productions.”
‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’ will be rehearsed during April, and May with a season of June 17-27. To find out more about auditions on this Sunday (March 29) at 4pm at the Matai Street Playhouse visit Auditions | Centre Stage Taupo
This story has also appeared on LakeFM Casting call for next Centre Stage show (males needed)
