Waupaca Community Theatre to stage summer musical
The Waupaca Community Theatre announced auditions for its summer 2018 production of the musical “Annie Warbucks.”
The sequel to the 1977 Tony Award-winning hit “Annie,” based on Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie comic strip, begins immediately after “Annie” ends.
Auditions will be held from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, April 14, at the Waupaca High School Performing Arts Center.
Those auditioning should prepare a short musical-theater song and a short poem that best displays his or her personality.
The large cast includes many new male and female character roles as well as chorus and orphans (girls and boys currently in grades 1-6).
In order to maintain continuity from last summer’s production, the roles of Oliver Warbucks, Grace Farrell, Annie Warbucks, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pepper, Tessie, Molly and the dog Sandy are closed for auditions.
Orphans will rehearse in June from 3-5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, adults with speaking roles will rehearse in June from 6-9 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, and adult chorus members will rehearse from 6-9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
In July, all cast members will be expected to rehearse from 6-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Performance dates are July 28, 29 and August 2, 3, 4, 5.
Holly Saunders, director of last summer’s production of “Annie”, will direct “Annie Warbucks”.
All the ingredients that made “Annie” so successful are here once again, with an old-fashioned romance thrown in for good measure.
Tony Award winners and creative team from the first “Annie”, Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, return with all new laughs, romance and unforgettable songs.
The action picks up right where “Annie” leaves off when Child Welfare Commissioner Harriet Doyle arrives on the scene to inform Daddy Warbucks that he must marry within 60 days so that the newly adopted Annie can have a proper mother.
In the end, Daddy Warbucks’ whirlwind search for a fitting bride uncovers not only a plot by Doyle and her daughter to strip him of his fortune, but also his true feelings for Grace Farrell. A bunch of cute little orphans seeking parents and President Franklin D. Roosevelt return to take part in the shenanigans.
Songs from the score include “Annie Ain’t Just Annie Anymore,” “Changes,” “The Other Woman,” “But You Go On,” “I Got Me,” “Somebody’s Gotta Do Something,” “Leave It To The Girls,” “All Dolled Up,” “When You Smile” and “I Always Knew”.
The Waupaca Community Theatre is a division of the Waupaca Fine Arts Festival. For more information, visit www.fineartsfestival.org.