Watch for auditions mid November, 2011

Not often does a play of this quality by an unfamiliar playwright appear in an email requesting that our theatre peruse it for possible inclusion in our calendar. After downloading the play from the email, it was decided to take a look at the first two pages at least. What a surprise to find a play of such quality.

"Sam and Laura" by Ron Powers is based on a true romantic incident in the life of young Sam Clemens, an encounter that forever influenced his dream-life and his literature. This engrossing tale was quickly selected by The Playmakers for production over Valentine's Day, 2012. Actual performances will be February 4- 19, 2012. It will be the Oklahoma community theatre premier of the play and the third premier in the season.

The playwright is the author of "Mark Twain: A Life," a finalist for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle award in biography. More recently, he collaborated with the late Senator Edward Kennedy on his memoir, "True Compass." Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1973 for his critical writing as TV-radio-columnist fortheChicago Sun-Times about television during 1972. In 1985, Powers won an Emmy Award for his work on CBS News Sunday Morning.He is on the Advisory Board of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Mo. He has agreed to an interview with the cast via Skype, and may actually attend a performance here in Grove as well.

The Play will be directed by Suzanne Boles, Playmaker Artistic Director. The cast of ten will double in other roles. This will challenge the actors to broaden their skills in interpreting characters. The play will allow, again, roles for some the young actors in our Off Broadway Troupers.

The action takes place in Laura Wright's threadbare Los Angeles apartment and a Hollywood speakeasy in 1925, with extended flashbacks to the New Orleans riverfront in 1858; a makeshift hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1858; a farmhouse in Warsaw, Missouri, in 1860; a newspaper office in Virginia City, Nevada, during the Civil War years; a rooming house; a Hawaiian dreamscape; a Dallas schoolroom. Because of these many set requirements the play will not be performed as a full production. Instead we will introduce our audiences to a new performance style, that of a "concert" version, partially staged. It will be more naturalistic in style, having only such props and set pieces as chairs, suitcases, and bales of hay that are needed for the actors and represent the period. Additionally, costumes and hand props will be, primarily, specific pieces that can be changed quickly to signify the times. Marge Chowning will supervise the coordination of period costumes. The latter is her specialty and she designs such clothing and costumes as a member of the Historical Trekkers, as well as for The Playmakers.

Students in the Apprenticeship program will, once again, work along-side adults in various production roles.

The Grove Public Schools, the Delaware County Historical Society, The Grove Public Library and Har-bor Village Museum will partner with us on this production. Specific activities will be planned once the season is underway.