Auditions For Next Week Tercentennial Tableaux Vivants Production

The producers of one of the Tercentennial’s most anticipated events, a program of “Tableaux Vivants” – or “living pictures” – are holding the first round of auditions on Tuesday, June 28, and Wednesday, June 29, at 7 pm, in the meeting room of Cyrenius H. Booth Library.

Producers are looking for actors of all ages, shapes and sizes to portray figures from Newtown’s past. They will also be interviewing volunteers to work on scenery, lighting, costumes, props, hair and wig design, stage management, and set construction.

The production will take place the weekend of Saturday, October 1. The location for the presentations is still being decided upon.

Already there are more than 25 people on the Tableaux Vivants production team, and the organizers anticipate that ultimately there will be more than 100 persons involved in putting on the show.

The idea was conceived by Producer Amber Edwards and Lighting Designer Marilyn Rennagel in the spirit of the famous Laguna Beach (Calif.) festival, albeit on a more modest scale. The Laguna Beach Tableaux Vivants re-create life-size masterpiece paintings in a lavish, big-budget production. The Newtown tableaux will consist of four separate scenes representing interesting moments in Newtown’s past.

These tableaux will be based on paintings, but modified and adapted in order to fit Newtown’s particular history. The actors, costumed and carefully posed, will remain frozen in place for about five minutes, as a narrator explains  the characters and situations being re-enacted. Town Historian Dan Cruson will serve as the production’s narrator.

The fifth and final tableau will be the curtain call, featuring the entire company.

In between tableaux, while sets, lights, props, scenery and actors are being changed, there will be a series of vaudeville-style acts in front of the curtain – Olios. Auditions for the Olios will take place beginning in August, and Ms Edwards and Ms Rennagel are hoping to feature an old-fashioned line-up of barbershop quartets, magicians, accordion players, tap dancers, even, if one exists, a one-man band.

Below is a brief description of each Tableau, and a breakdown of the actors needed. Ms Edwards says that even though the actors will not speak, they will definitely have to act with their faces and bodies.  They will also have to be able to hold a pose for five minutes and – in some rare cases – the actors will be cast with an eye to fitting into a particular costume.

Tableau One:

“Land for Sale – Cheap”

Depicts the original (illegal) purchase of Newtown from the Indians.

Cast: Three white settlers, male, middle aged;

  Three Indian tribal leaders; and

  Assorted women, men, and children, costumed as Indians.

Tableau Two:

“You Say You Want

A Revolution”

Depicts three different episodes in Newtown’s colonial history, using lighting to separate the scene: Raid, Operation and Banishments. The central and most complex scene shows the 1775 raid by Colonialists against the Tory contingent in Newtown.

Raid Cast: Three blue-coated colonialist soldiers

  Two colonial militiamen;

  Two women (wives of Tories); and

  Three Loyalists.

Banishment Cast: One young woman;

  One young man; and

  One older man.

The Operation scene shows Judge William Edmond removing a bullet from his own leg, after the 1777 Battle of Ridgefield. Judge Edmond will be portrayed by Mike Filler, who does Revolutionary War Re-enactments and owns his own colonial medical instruments.

The Banishment scene shows Betsy Foote being thrown out of her home by her Loyalist father for marrying a member of the Continental Army.

Tableau Three:

“The Moral Outlaw”

Depicts three elements of a sensational Victorian-era murder among Newtown’s seedier citizens, in what was known as “the frontier” in 1886. 

Cast:  Two men, middle aged and disreputable in appearance;

  One young woman, a drug addicted slattern; and

  In a brothel: four young prostitutes, and four male customers, all ages.

  The role of a Madam for this tableau has already been cast. C.H. Booth Library Director Janet Woycik will portray the Madam.

Tableau Four:

“Mary Hawley – Our Benefactress”

Depicts the youth, old age, and legacy of Mary Hawley, in three separately lighted vignettes.

Cast: One young woman (young Mary);

  One middle-aged man and one middle-aged woman (her parents);

  One young man (Mary’s soon-to-be estranged husband);

  One older woman (Mary as adult);

  One man, to portray Judge Edmond (in judge’s robes);

  One man, to portray Cyrenius Booth;

  Two older men and woman (Mary’s parents, later in life); and

  Two young WWI soldiers and sailors, in uniform.

Complete descriptions of each tableau, along with pictures of the artwork the scenes are based on, will be available at the auditions.

For crew positions, previous experience is appreciated but not required.

Actors should bring any appropriate costumes they may have; and “casting against type” will be the rule. For example, Library Director Janet Woycik has already been cast as “The Madam”; the producers hope to find a good-humored clergyman to portray “The Moral Outlaw.”

For additional information contact Ms Edwards at ChezAmber@aol.com. Anyone who is interested in volunteering for the tableaux, either as an actor or behind the scenes, but is unable to attend the auditions should also contact Ms Edwards via email.