Theatre--Weekend Roundup

Today (Saturday, January 9th) is a busy one for local theatre.  Omni Artiste is holding auditions for its upcoming production of Indigo Blues at Cite Des Arts and Firelight Enterprises is holding auditions for its upcoming musical production of Oliver! at its theatre.  Two companies are continuing their runs of newly opened shows, and the word of mouth about the shows is that both are excellent.  Unwrap Your Candy (Ovation TheatreWorks at The Center for Acadiana Film and Media) and Life is a Dream (Acting Unlimited, Inc. at Cite Des Arts) both begin at 7:30 pm.  There is also a special one time performance of Lovesick Blues: An Evening with Hank Williams, Jr. at the historic Liberty Theatre in Eunice.

Even though the weather is cold, support local theatre!  Audition for or go to a show!

Theatre--Performance

From the author of Quills comes a deliciously macabre collection of four short plays. Alternately chilling and hilarious, Unwrap Your Candy is a delectable evening of bedtime tales for adults guaranteed to keep you awake for nights on end. Inspired in equal parts by Alfred Hitchcock, Roald Dahl and The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Unwrap Your Candy boasts a versatile cast of five and minimal production requirements. Together, the plays examine the danger of being a child, the terror of being an adult and even the perils of being an unsuspecting audience member. Spine-tinglers for the twenty-first century, the collected one acts in Unwrap Your Candy are guaranteed to jolt the senses and stimulate the mind. In the title play, Unwrap Your Candy, five actors portray actual members of the theatre audience and prove far more intriguing than the play they've come to watch. (3 men, 2 women.) In Lot 13: The Bone Violin, a stunning young violin prodigy skyrockets to international prominence, only to meet a shocking and supernatural fate. (3 men, 2 women.) In Wildwood Park, a neurotic real-estate agent shows a house filled with unspeakable secrets to a potential buyer who harbors an almost insatiable thirst for tabloid atrocities. (1 man, 1 woman.) And in Baby Talk, a woman is unwound when her precocious baby begins to speak early while still inside her womb. (3 men, 1 woman.)

Unwrap Your Candy is being presented by Ovation TheatreWorks, which produced it last season of shows in 2003.  Ovation has recently "reorganized" and this is its first new production.


Unwrap Your Candy will run Thursday (January 7th), Friday (January 8th) and Saturday (January 9th) at the Acadiana Center for Film and Media (AOC).  Shows begin at 7:30 pm.

Theatre--Performance

Ovation TheatreWorks begins its new season with a presentation of Doug Wright's Unwrap Your Candy, an evening of dark one-act comedies. In Wright's world, the everyday becomes dangerous, the ordinary becomes threatening, and the comforting becomes terrifying.  Wright is a Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright whose works include Quills and I Am My Own Wife.

The show opens Thursday, January 7th at 7:30 pm at the Acadiana Center for Film and Media (the corner of Lee and Main in downtown Lafayette) and will run through Saturday, January 9th.

Unwrap Your Candy... cast:
     Lot 13: The Bone Violin
          AUCTIONEER--Gina Baronne
          THE MOTHER--Cara Hayden
          THE FATHER--Cody Daigle
          THE PROFESSOR--Duncan Thislethwaite
          THE DOCTOR--Mattie Hartman

     Wildwood Park
          MS. HAVILAND--Cara Hayden
          DR. SIMIAN--Cody Daigle

     Baby Talk
          ALICE--Mattie Hartman
          THE BABY--Duncan Thistlethwaite
          THE PSYCHOLOGIST--Cara Hayden
          THE HUSBAND--Cody Daigle

Theatre--Performance

Ovation TheatreWorks is proud to present Unwrap Your Candy, an anthology of short plays from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright.

Unwrap Your Candy is a macabre collection of one-act plays that reveal the dark and chilling underbelly of contemporary life. Written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of I Am My Own Wife, Doug Wright, the
evening finds dark thrills and suspenseful comedy in modern parenting, real estate showings, the miracle of pregnancy and going to the theatre.

One part Alfred Hitchcock, one part Roald Dahl, one part Stephen King, Unwrap Your Candy is the perfect show for anyone looking for a few laughs, a few chills, and a little something to talk about over
dinner after the show.

Unwrap Your Candy also marks the first production from Ovation TheatreWorks since 2002. The company, which was formed in 2000 with the mission of bringing the local theatre audience productions of
smart, compelling works of the contemporary theatre, ceased operations at the end of their second season in 2002. This production marks the company's return to the local theatre scene, with two of the company's original founders at the helm.

The production's cast includes local theatre veterans Duncan Thistlethwaite, Mattie Hartman, Cody Daigle and Cara Hayden. The show is designed by Thistlethwaite with a costume design by Gina Baronne.

Unwrap Your Candy by Doug Wright plays a three-performance run January 7th-9th (Thursday through Saturday), 2010 at the Acadiana Center for Film and Media, located at the corner of Lee Street and Main downtown. Performances are at 8 p.m.  Tickets are $10. For more information, call 330-2048.

Unwrap Your Candy contains adult subject matter and language, and younger audience members should be accompanied by an adult.

Theatre--Company/Performance

Ovation TheatreWorks, a theatre company which produced two six-show production seasons for Lafayette audiences from 2000-2002, will return to the local theatre scene this fall for a three show mini-season.

The company, which was formed in 2000 with the mission of bringing the local theatre audience productions of smart, compelling works of the contemporary theatre, ceased operations at the end of their second season in 2002. This marks the company's return to the local theatre scene, with two of the company's founders at the helm.

Ovation plans to mount a full production this fall, a full production in the spring, and a special event in December 2009.

The fall show, which is tentatively slated as Doug Wright's Unwrap Your Candy, will run November 6-14 at the Acadiana Center for Film and Media, which served as Ovation's original performance space. Casting for the fall show is underway.