Beneath Summer Theater Darkness, BOP Bubbles On

 

Hi, Community Theater Fans, both long time and recent,

If you see any BOP flyers floating around these days, they will be the last of the last season, and you either remember the performances with fondness, or are experiencing extreme regret, having missed them. A third option could exist, I guess, and you could have seen something you regret. . . If that happened, we regret it too, and hope that you will give us another try. We do try to have something for everyone, which means that everything might not please everyone. We are a community of blessedly diverse tastes.

Opportunities are open for backstage volunteers over the summer, as well as an opportunity to come play on stage once a month with our improv group (to be named later). Rae is also organizing for another acting class, her last having been so well received. Let her know what times and days work for you. Email your interest to theaterbisbee@gmail.com.

We’ll be doing studio work days most Monday mornings during the summer, mostly 10:00 a.m. to noon, so if anyone wants to build flats, sort screws and costumes, build more storage for all that stuff, and goodness knows what all else, let us know.

Improv workshop continues to meet the first Friday of each month at the Squffy, 1:00-3:00ish, and we love new players! No experience necessary --

you will have one instead. Come to check us out, whether you want to perform or just play.

Women's Show This Weekend

Bisbee Women’s Revue This Weekend

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions is pleased to announce this year’s Bisbee’s Women’s Revue. Opening Night actually falls on International Women’s Day, March 8th. That performance will begin at 7:30 p.m., with two more shows, March 9 at 7:30 and March 10 at 3:00. All performances are at the Squffy Theater at Central School Project, 43 Howell Ave., Old Bisbee, and all tickets will be five dollars at the door. Ticket sales begin one hour before the show.

This year’s show features a delightfully familiar group of Bisbee’s talented women, representing a wide range of performing arts, as well as representations of “how a woman can be,” as Producer, Rae Jones describes the show. She promises to be extra relevant and funny this year as “Obscure” Rae, telling it as she sees it in a new comic monologue.
Good friend and multi-talented Pearl Watkins will make a welcome return to BOP’s stage in new and familiar comedic personas. Cado Dailey will make a rare solo appearance, and Tianya Milagro will mesmerize and wow us with her supple and sensuous belly dancing. Liz Lockwood will wrangle the group as Emcee this year. Who knows what she can wish into being this year? Come on out and see this, and more!

Contact Rae at 520-432-2901 or theaterbisbee@gmail.com for more information, and — Enjoy the Show!

Women, Men, Kids Join Us on Stage!

And on the wall: BOP is seeking women visual and performing artists for the Bisbee Women's Revue and all sorts of performers for Bisbee's Obscure Alice. Newcomers and veterans gleefully invited. More info below.

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions Seeks Women Artists & Performers

Community Theater Company Bisbee’s Obscure Productions is seeking women artists in all media, visual and performance, for the Annual Bisbee Women’s Revue. This year, the popular all female variety show will bring back an open show of visual art by local women. This celebration of women’s creativity is held in honor of International Women’s Day, March 8, and both performance and art show will open on the evening of March 8, preceded by a gala reception to feast the day and the event.

Interested performers must be available evenings March 7, 8, 9 and for matinee, March 10. An audition is required if BOP doesn’t know your work. BOP is asking performers to contribute finger food for the reception. Contact Rae Jones for information or to sign up at 520-432-2901 or theaterbisbee@gmail.com. Friends of BOP and of Women (either gender) can also contact Rae to sign up to help with food and with service or set-up and clean-up.

Visual artists must be able to drop off hanging ready work at Central School Project on March 6 and to pick work up March 24 or 25. Artists are asked to sign up to help with hanging and strike, to sit the gallery, or to provide food. No commission or hanging fee will be charged. Contact Maralyce Ferree for information and registration at 520-432-3320 (gallery), 207-450-0679 (cell) or panterragallery@gmail.com Helpers who can help hang and strike, also contact Maralyce.

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions Auditions for “Bisbee’s Obscure Alice”

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions will have open auditions for their own “Alice in Wonderland” on February 16 and 17. This is a chance for actors young to old to play some great characters and have great fun entertaining friends, relatives and warm, friendly perfect strangers.

C. Gilles-Brown is adapting the original Lewis Carroll, and together the company will give this show a distinctive BOP feel. Gilles adapted and directed the outdoor BOP show “Aladdin” and “A Christmas Carol” for the original Bisbee Rep. She last appeared onstage in “I Hate Hamlet” and most recently directed Agatha Christie’s “And then there were none…”

Auditions will be held in the O.J. Squffy Theater at Central School Project, 43 Howell Ave. in Old Bisbee on Saturday and Sunday, February 16 and 17, beginning at 2:00 pm each day.

Actors ages 8 and up are asked to come prepared to deliver a one- to three-minute memorized piece, not original work. This piece could be a rhyme or poem, story or theater monologue. Come prepared to move. Children under the age of 8 will be considered if they have theater or dance training. Rehearsals will be Thursday evenings and weekend afternoons until performance. Dress rehearsal and performance dates are April 15 – May 9, 2013. The book for “Alice in Wonderland” is available many places online. Actors may contact BOP at (520) 432-2901 or theaterbisbee@gmail.com for more information.


 

News!

We are pleased to announce open auditions for our upcoming production of Thornton Wilder’s offbeat comedy, The Skin of Our Teeth. All roles are open in this American classic, which will be staged by BOP in collaboration with Cochise College. There are great roles for teens, young adults, and mature performers. Lucinda Sage-Midgorden will direct. Rehearsals for The Skin of Our Teeth will be held selected evenings and weekends August 30-November 28. Performances will be November 30-December 9.

More info on Thornton Wilder's site: http://www.thorntonwilder.com/full-length-plays/the-skin-of-our-teeth.html.

More news!

We've finally decided on our final show of the 2012-2013 season. We couldn't find a pianist with an open schedule, though we did find a lovely person to work with the singers. Ah well, maybe we'll Honk! next year.

We end our tenth season with Bisbee's Obscure Alice. How's that for fantastical? It will be BOP's adventures in Wonderland with lots of help from the great characters and words of Lewis Carroll. This show will have roles for actors 9 on up. Mark your calendars for rehearsals in late February and for the show opening in mid-April.

Sign of relief.

Odd Couple, Female Version, Auditions

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions Auditions for Female “Odd Couple”

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions will have an open call July 21 and 22 for actors for their upcoming production of The Odd Couple, Female Version by Neil Simon. There are still a lot of people today that can’t help but grin when they hear the words “Odd Couple.” Neil Simon’s hilarious play was turned into a hilarious movie and an equally funny TV series about the antics of two mismatched roommates. The female version has the same story line and the same lead characters, now called Florence Unger and Olive Madison. The poker game becomes Trivial Pursuit with girlfriends Mickie, Sylvie, Vera and Renee. The attractive Pigeon sisters are now the handsome Costazuela brothers, Manolo and Jesus.

Denise DeVinney will direct. BOP audiences will remember Denise from I Hate Hamlet and Urinetown, the Musical. She has experience in almost all aspects of community theater including directing, acting and stage-managing. Denise’s directing resumé includes The Odd Couple, Godspell, The Foreigner, Lend Me A Tenor and Anything Goes in Wyoming and Minnesota.

Auditions will be held in the O.J. Squffy Theater at Central School Project, 43 Howell Ave. in Old Bisbee on Saturday and Sunday, July 21 & 22, beginning at 2:00 pm each day.

Actors are asked to come prepared to deliver a one- to three-minute memorized comic monologue, not original work. They will also read from the script. Rehearsals will be selected evenings and weekends until performance. Dress rehearsal and performance dates are scheduled for September 22 – October 7, 2012. A copy of the script is available for reading at the Copper Queen Library. Actors may contact BOP at (520) 432-2901 or theaterbisbee@gmail.com for more information.

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions Seeks Music Director

BOP's upcoming season will definitely be one of collaboration, and so we are looking for collaborators. If you aren't the ideal candidate, please tell all your friends.

Bisbee’s Obscure Productions is looking for a skilled team player to serve as music director and piano accompanist for their upcoming multigenerational production of HONK! in the spring of 2013. HONK! is a funny and just-challenging-enough family musical based on the story of the Ugly Duckling. HONK! won the 2000 Olivier Award (the British equivalent of the Tony® Award) for Best New Musical, competing against both The Lion King and Mama Mia.
The songs run a gamut of genres, for lots of fun and variety. The selected person will have the rare talent to coax the best out of amateur singers, possibly ages 9 on up. The rehearsal schedule is flexible, though BOP would prefer music rehearsals to be on Monday, Tuesday and/or Wednesday evenings with added music rehearsals on weekends later in the run. An honorarium will be provided.

Auditions will be held on Saturday and Sunday, February 2 & 3, 2013, beginning at 1:00 pm each day. Rehearsals and performances will be at the O.J. Squffy Theater at Central School Project, 43 Howell Ave. in Old Bisbee. Performances will be weekends, April 18 through May 5, 2013, evenings and matinees.

Interested musicians should contact Rae or Gilles at Bisbee’s Obscure Productions (520) 432-2901 or theaterbisbee@gmail.com for more information and an interview.

Wow! It's been a while

Last you heard from us, we were getting ready for I Hate Hamlet. The Paul Rudnick laugh-a-thon was nicely successful. We have spent the intervening weeks cleaning up and preparing for a new season which we will be announcing formally really soon.

Thank you to all the people who have helped us make BOP the best little community theater in Bisbee -- and, we'd say, Cochise County. And we do have good competition.

Hang in there. 2012-13 will be announced soon.