Community Theater in Falls Church, VA
Laundry and Bourbon and Lone Star open this weekend. Enjoy these sneak peek photos of both productions. For more information about both productions, go to the show page.
Julie Janson as Elizabeth, Sara Joy Lebowitz as Hattie and Jaclyn Robertson as Amy Lee
photos by David Whitehead
David Whitehead as Roy, Bobby Welsh as Ray and Chuck O’Toole as Cletis
photos by Jaclyn Robertson
On behalf of Providence Players of Fairfax, Director and Playwright, Mary Zuzik Andrechik is pleased to announce the cast of Sleight of Hand.
A light-hearted comedy, Sleight of Hand follows 95-year-old Harvey as he looks to add some excitement to his life by robbing a bank. His wife, Esther, and best friends, Arthur and Mildred, all think he is crazy, but Harvey forges ahead on his adventure. While in the bank, he must confront the flaws in his plan, along with the Bank President and Bank Security, until his beloved Esther rushes in. Sleight of Hand is a delightful, short comedy that proves that you are never too old to cross something off your bucket list.
Harvey – Fred Lash
Esther – Frankie Haan
Arthur – Joe Puzzo
Mildred – Renate Wallenberg
Bank Teller – Danette Illig
Leila Trumbold – Amanda Jones
Officer Linda Bakri – MyChi Haan
Play Synopsis
A light-hearted comedy, Sleight of Hand, follows 95-year-old Harvey as he looks to add some excitement to his life by robbing a bank. His wife, Esther, and best friends, Arthur and Mildred, all think he is crazy, but Harvey forges ahead on his adventure. While in the bank, he must confront the flaws in his plan, along with the Bank President and Bank Security, until his beloved Esther rushes in. Sleight of Hand is a delightful, short comedy that proves that you are never too old to cross something off your bucket list.
Providence Players of Fairfax is:
Casting Announcement
Providence Players is casting seven (7) roles. Unless specified, roles are completely race/gender/age neutral. All backgrounds, ages, ethnicities welcome and encouraged to audition!
For the senior characters, actors should be 50 or older, but willing to “age-up” with make-up/costumes. Couples, Partners, Families in the same household are encouraged to submit. No roles are precast, and all roles are OPEN.
Providence Players is a company dedicated to representing our diverse community through expansion. We welcome current and new talent with a variety of experiences and backgrounds.
TO SUBMIT: Please fill out the audition form (in pdf, in Word) and make a video reading one of the attached character sides:
To begin the video, you should state your name and the character that you are reading (actors may read other characters in the scene if they have no one in their home to read with them). Email form and video to info@providenceplayers.org with the subject “Sleight of Hand.” Submissions will be accepted until August 3, 2020.
If cast, you must register for a free Zoom account. Basic ability to use Zoom encouraged, including how to join a meeting, and how to choose a background. No Zoom experience? We can teach you!
Rehearsals will normally be 60-90 minutes long on weeknights between 5pm-8pm and on weekends as desired by the cast and director. This schedule is flexible based on cast availability.
This entire rehearsal and recording process will take place virtually. We will rehearse and do table work through video chat, and the performance will be pre-recorded via a number of scenes that will then be edited together.
Questions? Email info@providenceplayers.org.
Characters
About the Playwright and Director
Mary Zuzik Andrechik is a veteran actor, having over 25 years of experience on stages all across the country. Most recently, she performed in Providence Players’ The Librarian as the Clown.
When the pandemic hit, she began to explore other creative outlets, accepting a writing challenge from Cone Man Running Productions in Houston, TX, and Sleight of Hand was born! Since the start of quarantine, Mary has written three short plays. Among them, Sleight of Hand and Alexandra’s Second Act, or How Tamora Saved My Life have been performed as audio plays on The War of the Words podcast. Her holiday play, Tingle Saves Hanumas will be read as part of Adventure Theatre’s Jingle in July festival.
Mary is also thrilled to take the reins as Director on this very personal project. Mary completed this play the day before her aunt, Iris Zuzik, passed away at the fabulous age of 97! Iris was a FORCE – the original Esther/Mildred/Harvey/Arthur – a WWII Vet and a lady who truly LIVED. This play is dedicated, with much love, to her.
On behalf of Providence Players of Fairfax, Director Julie Janson is pleased to announce the cast of The Librarian, by Hansol Jung.
There is a library of your life stacked in its shelves. The Librarian of this library charges 200 bucks a minute to help you rewrite it. Then a clown walks in…
The Librarian – Wynter Chatman
Client – Elizabeth Keith
Teacher – Ariana Colligan
Dad – David Rawlings
Clown – Mary Zuzik Andrechik Read more
Play Synopsis
There is a library of your life stacked in its shelves. The Librarian of this library charges 200 bucks a minute to help you rewrite it. Then a clown walks in…
Learn about the playwright and read the full script here: https://www.playathome.org/plays/jung-librarian
Providence Players of Fairfax is:
Casting Announcement
Providence Players is casting 5 roles. Three roles are completely race/gender/age neutral. No roles are precast, and all roles are OPEN. All backgrounds, ages, ethnicities welcome and encouraged to audition!
Download and complete the Audition Form.
We will not be holding traditional auditions. Instead, please send an e-mail with: the audition form and a current picture of yourself (doesn’t have to be a headshot) to info@providenceplayers.org with the subject title “THE LIBRARIAN” by Monday, June 8 for consideration. The director may contact you via e-mail with questions or to set up a ten-minute video chat.
Are you aching for a creative outlet? Just want to engage with other artists to create something imaginative and fun? Well great news! A new opportunity has just POPPED UP!
In a time of social distancing and the shuttering of live theater, Providence Players of Fairfax wants to continue, in a small way, to offer quality, affordable, entertainment experiences to current and new audiences, while at the same time furthering our core values of participation and learning through creative expression. If you have seen one of Providence Players’ PopUp performances at the Italian Café, you are familiar with the PopUp mission of providing our members opportunities to expand artistically while broadening our audience, membership, and repertoire.
It is with that mission in mind that we are happy to announce that we will be adapting our PopUp format to include short, online performances our community can participate in and/or enjoy from the comfort and safety of your own home. You can see an example here.
Follow Providence Players on social media for POP UP opportunities to:
Just interested in watching the performances? Be sure to follow Providence Players on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
You can guarantee connecting with this offering by liking and following the Providence Facebook Page, joining the Providence Players Facebook Group and following the Providence Players on Instagram.
And just like our in-person performances, we encourage you to make a night of it with dinner AND a show! The Italian Café is still serving delicious takeout for you and your friends and family to enjoy.
Providence Players will always work to provide an artistic outlet to help sustain and develop our community of member artists, no matter what challenges we face. We look forward to creating with you once again.
Patrons, Donors & Fellow Artists,
We are a small theater company, but we have one big and important value at the core of who we are: “commitment to community.” We take that seriously.
As a result of the Coronavirus, we know that people are being impacted in significant ways:
And though we can’t address all of these issues, we can provide some support to those who do.
Today, we announce that we have established a COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund and will apply all donations given to us to help support those negatively impacted by this crisis. We have received donations in the form of donated tickets from show cancellations and are asking you to join us now to increase the impact these donations will have. We will apply the value of these donated tickets to match all donations made to help others in our community during this pandemic.
On Sunday January 19, a small group attended the WATCH (Washington Area Theatre Community Honors) nomination event at the Birchmere. Many thanks to Mario Font for representing Providence Players as its WATCH liaison. We are pleased and proud to announce the nominations for Providence Players productions of And Then There Were None and Leaving Iowa. And the nominees are:
Nominations for And Then There Were None
Nominations for Leaving Iowa
Congratulations to all the nominees. The WATCH Awards Event will take place at the Birchmere on Sunday, March 22.
On behalf of Providence Players of Fairfax, Director Amanda Ranowsky is pleased to announce the cast of Enchanted April, by Matthew Barber.
In this gentle and romantic comedy, two London housewives pool their savings to rent a villa in Italy for a ladies-only holiday away, reluctantly recruiting a pair of difficult upper-class women to share the cost and the experience. Against the backdrop of a country still reeling from World War I, the women join together under the Mediterranean sun, seeking a necessary balm of sunshine and renewal. Soon joined by the villa owner, husbands and lovers, the four women clash — and then begin to bond and bloom. Enchanted April won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New American Play in 2003, along with numerous Tony Award nominations. Single tickets on sale now!
Lotty – Jessa Whitley Hill*
Rose – Andra Whitt
Caroline – Lindsey June
Mrs. Graves – Beth Whitehead
Costanza – Eleanor Tyler*
Mellersh – Christopher Crockett
Frederick – Chris Persil
Antony – Chuck O’Toole
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Michael Donahue is a current PPF board member and has been actively directing and acting with Providence Players since 2009. Also, an award-winning director, Michael directed August: Osage County in last year’s season as well as productions of Front Page, Calendar Girls and House of Blue Leaves. Michael has an MFA in Theater Directing and was Artistic Director for Playhouse on the Square’s Professional Theatre for Youth in Memphis, TN and Associate Artistic Director for HITT Productions.
Q: Why did you want to direct Picnic?
A: “The play Picnic takes place on just another Labor Day in the sleepy town of Liberty, Kansas when the train whistle blows signaling the anticipation both of a potentially disruptive arrival and the possibilities of adventure beyond the constraints of the town. A pandora’s box of longings are released which results in an intense journey full of humor but also the mystery of the journey’s end. This is a Labor Day that none of the characters will ever forget. I was compelled to direct this story with all its theatrical possibilities.”
