Davidson Community Players will hold auditions for several pairs of actors for the October production of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters.” Also ahead: Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Cornelius will host an About Town Tours production of participatory murder mystery “Murder Is Par for the Course” on Friday, Aug. 26.

LOVE LETTERS AUDITIONS

Adult actors and actresses 45 and over are invited to audition for Davidson Community Players’ October production of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters.”

When: Monday, August 22 and Tuesday August 23 @ 7pm
Where: Armour Street Theatre, 307 Armour Street, Davidson
Show Dates: October 6-23, 2011 (2-3 couples will be cast and will share performance responsibilities over the three weekends)

The production will be cast color-blind, so actors of all races are encouraged to attend. Due to the unique structure of the play, no line memorization is required, making this an ideal piece for busy and/or senior actors.  Two or three separate sets of actors will be cast who will share performance responsibilities, and the director is interested in casting at least one actor and one actress who have daytime rehearsal availability.

Auditions will begin at 7 p.m. each night, and will consist of cold readings from the script. A prepared monologue may be presented, but is not required. Participants should plan to arrive by 7 p.m., need only attend one audition session, and should bring a resume or list of theatre experience, a recent photo, and a list of conflicts for the August through October 2011 time period.

Rehearsals for Love Letters will begin on a limited schedule in August and move into a full rehearsal schedule in September. The production will open on October 6th at the Armour Street Theatre.

Mr. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize Nominated Drama “Love Letters” is a unique and imaginative celebration of “snail mail” that chronicles the lifetime exchange of letters between two people who begin as friends, but grow up to lead separate lives, all the while sharing confidences. The play centers on Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III who discuss the hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, victories and defeats that have passed between them throughout their lives. It is not until one fateful letter reveals how much they truly gave to each other over the years that the audience comes to fully understand that while physically apart, Melissa and Andrew were as spiritually as close as only true lovers can be. It is evocative, touching, frequently funny, but always telling as the character study confirms the power and nuance of the written word.

SOLVE A MURDER MYSTERY AT WAREHOUSE PAC

On the 18th tee of the Porous Pines Country Club, regional Golf Champ Holin Wunn has met his demise. In this murder mystery show, presented by the About Town Tours actors troupe, detectives investigate the suspicious circumstances surrounding Wunn’s death, and they need some extra help.

Audience members become investigators, interrogate suspects and help detectives find the killer in this interactive “whodunnit” event.

The show begins at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26 at the Warehouse Performing Arts Center, 9216-A Westmoreland Rd., Cornelius.  Tickets are $20 and include drinks. To make reservations, call the box office, 704-619-0429, or email tickets@warehousepac.com

Tickets include beverage bar.  House opens at 7:30.

‘THE GUYS’ REMEMBERS 9/11

Davidson Community Players will present “The Guys,” by Anne Nelson, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The play will be performed at the Armour Street Theatre at 307 Armour Street in Davidson, on September 8-11, and September 15-17, 2011.

Part of the play’s proceeds will benefit the Davidson Volunteer Fire Department and first responders.

“The Guys” was originally commissioned by Jim Simpson, Artistic Director of the Flea Theater in Lower Manhattan, whose very existence was threatened by the disaster and its aftermath. The first production featured Simpson’s wife, Sigourney Weaver and Hollywood actor Bill Murray in as Joan and Nick. The play took on a life of its own in the subsequent months and years after 9/11, becoming an important piece of theatre throughout the country and featuring a revolving cast of well-known actors.

Davidson Community Players’ production will feature Marla Brown as Joan and Lou Dalessandro as Nick. Brown is Founder and Artistic Director of The WarehousePerforming Arts Center in Cornelius. She is a highly-respected actress and director and was most recently seen by Davidson Community Players audiences in the 2009 production of “How I Learned to Drive.” Dalessandro has played numerous roles in shows in and about Charlotte over the last fifteen years, including roles in Macbeth at Belmont Abbey, A Little Night Music at Theatre Charlotte, and The Expanding Sky at Actor’s Theatre. Davidson Community Players audiences will remember Lou as the brooding Inspector Wooning in the 2011 production of Masterpiece.

Synopsis: It is a few weeks after the September 11th attacks; New Yorkers are still in shock. One of them, an editor named Joan, receives a phone call from Nick, a fire captain who has lost many of his colleagues in the attack. He’s looking for a writer to help him write the eulogies he will offer at memorial services in the weeks to come. Nick and Joan spend a long afternoon together, recalling the fallen men through recounting their virtues and their foibles, and re-telling their stories as touching memorials. In the process, Nick and Joan discover the possibilities of friendship in each other and their shared love for the unconquerable spirit of the city. As they make their way through the emotional landscape of grief, they draw on humor, honesty, and the enduring bonds of common humanity.

Performances: Thursday, Sept. 8,Friday, Sept. 9, Thursday Sept.15 at 8:00 pm Saturday, Sept. 10 and Sept. 17 at 7:00 and Friday Sept. 16 at 10:00 pm, and Sunday Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. and 7:00 pm. Tickets are $10and a portion of the proceeds will support training programs at the Davidson Volunteer Fire Department. Firefighters and first responders will be admitted free. Tickets are available by calling 704-892-7953 or at www.davidsoncommunityplayers.org. Following the performances there will be an opportunity for an informal talk-back.