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Auditions slated for ?Music Man?

The Waupaca Community Theatre will hold auditions for its summer musical production from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at the Waupaca High School Performing Arts Center.

This year’s production will be Meredith Willson’s classic “The Music Man,” scheduled for six performances at WHS on July 25-27 and July 31-Aug. 2.

Those auditioning need to prepare a song (a capella or accompanied by Wanda Eikenbary) from “The Music Man” or another classic Broadway musical. There will be a simple movement audition for people wishing to be considered for the chorus.

Auditioners should be able to sing in tune, perform simple choreography, and have Monday through Thursday evenings free in June and July. Rehearsals will begin early June at Trinity Lutheran Church in Waupaca and later move to Waupaca High School.

“The Music Man” follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band he vows to organize – this despite the fact he doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef.

His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian the librarian, who transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain’s fall.

This award-winning, critically acclaimed Broadway classic offers a nostalgic score of rousing marches, barbershop quartets and sentimental ballads which have become popular standards.

The cast features a soaring soprano ingenue, parts for young performers and children, and one of the musical theatre’s treasures, a tour de force leading role for a charismatic actor who doesn’t need to be a trained singer.

Musical numbers from the show include: Seventy-Six Trombones, Goodnight My Someone, Ya Got Trouble, Till There Was You, Marian The Librarian, Wells Fargo Wagon, Gary-Indiana, My White Knight, Shipoopi, Iowa Stubborn, Lida Rose and Pickalittle-Talkalittle/Goodnight Ladies.

The large, multi-generational cast includes Traveling Salesmen, Charlie Cowell, Harold Hill, Newspaper Readers, Mayor Shinn, The Barbershop Quartet: [Ewart Dunlop, Oliver Hix, Jacey Squires & Olin Britt], Marcellus Washburn, Tommy Djilas, Marian Paroo, Mrs. Paroo, Amaryllis (child-female), Winthrop Paroo (boy soprano), Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn, Zaneeta Shinn, Gracie Shinn (child-female), Alma Hix, Maude Dunlop, Ethel Toffelmier, Mrs. Squires, Constable Locke, and River City Townspeople (ages 5-105).

The director is also looking for some experienced dancers to be featured in chorus dance sequences.

Holly Saunders will direct “The Music Man.” In addition to directing WCT productions of “Annie” and “The Wizard of Oz”, Holly has performed onstage in “Into The Woods” and “Joseph and The Technicolor Dreamcoat” and was music director for “Grease” and last summer’s show “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

The Waupaca Community Theatre is a division of the Waupaca Fine Arts Festival.

For more information, visit www.fineartsfestival.org

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