Director Nora Jacobson, middle, listens to a reading by Will Moore, of Hanover, and Rachel Griggs, of Lebanon, of the play Raghead, by Thomas Coash in which a woman shows up to a blind date wearing a hijab. Both Moore and Griggs have performed in Parish Players productions before, and Griggs, studied at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Director Nora Jacobson, middle, listens to a reading by Will Moore, of Hanover, and Rachel Griggs, of Lebanon, of the play Raghead, by Thomas Coash in which a woman shows up to a blind date wearing a hijab. Both Moore and Griggs have performed in Parish Players productions before, and Griggs, studied at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Thetford Hill — After getting a quick rundown on the play, actors Rachel Griggs and Larry Wolkin glanced over their scripts. The scene involving a precocious girl and her uncle was one of several they would read Wednesday evening during auditions for Parish Players’ Ten-Minute Play Festival.

“You OK? You want a minute?” Griggs asked.

“No, no,” Wolkin said. “Go.”

With director Erik Gaetz taking notes, they read from Michael Tooher’s play 180, using their hands and voices to emphasize certain words, looking up from the pages at one another when they could.

The most powerful word in the world is “no,” said Wolkin, playing the uncle.

Reading the niece’s lines, Griggs reflected on that piece of wisdom, which her character deemed “Buddha”-like.

“OK. That’s good,” said Gaetz, who will make his directing debut in the festival next month.

And away the actors went to another part of the theater, where they would start the process all over, with a new play, a new director.

Now in its 11th year, the festival attracts regular participants and also is a source of new talent for Parish Players, the all-volunteer theater company that makes its home in the Eclipse Grange on Academy Road.

For novices, the short, unpublished plays offer a “really manageable bite,” said Jonathan Verge, one of the directors. “It’s a fun way to try theater for the first time.”

And the “round-robin” auditions, held simultaneously in the theater and in rooms throughout the grange, are relatively low pressure, said Verge, the drama director at Lebanon High School and founder of the White River Junction-based Gatherwool Theatre Company.

Rather than performing onstage, alone, actors read from the floor in small groups, he said. “I think it’s kind of a nurturing environment in that sense, which is cool.”

Choosing the right people for given parts is “a little bit of a chemistry thing,” said Verge, who watches for glimmers of characters to shine through, and for combinations of actors who might play well together.

And while it’s not always possible, they try to cast everyone who tries out, said Duncan Nichols, who is producing the show with Leah Romano.

Which is not to say there were no butterflies in the room.

“I get the same feeling every time,” said Griggs, a Lebanon resident who studied at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. “It’s always nerve-wracking.”

Nonetheless, the actors seemed to enjoy the process, perhaps none more than the ebullient Wolkin, a retired elementary schoolteacher with a passion for community theater. The Meriden resident leapt into the readings and filled the moments in between chatting with his cohorts.

Acting is “one of the loves of my life,” said Wolkin, who’s also played small parts in professional productions. Not that theater is painless.

“It’s like online dating,” he said. “You need a thick hide.”

The dozen or so people auditioning Wednesday also included total newbies.

“I have never acted in my life,” said Kathy Waine, a recently retired nurse who’s always wanted to try acting. “I didn’t know what to do. Luckily someone was there to tell me.”

Waine would have preferred to read the play in advance, to get a sense of the characters’ emotions, but that’s not how the auditions are organized. Instead, actors give their lines a quick once-over and tune into the summaries and cues provided by the directors and producers. That included advice from Romano, who prepped actors waiting to go into a sitting room.

“Zany plays” and “zany directors” are in there, she said. “So bring your best zaniness.”

Each winter, the theater company weeds through hundreds of submissions from playwrights hoping theirs will be selected for the festival. Each of the plays is read by two people, and this year, the number of submissions jumped to 512, more than doubling 2015’s record-breaking crop.

“We have to find a way to limit it,” Nichols said. “It’s just ungainly.”

By the time auditions started, the possibilities had been winnowed to about a dozen. But just over a month before opening night, with one more day of auditions planned, it was unclear which of those would be on the program.

Unlike professional theaters, which might advertise for certain characters and hire Actors’ Equity Association performers, Parish Players productions are dependent on who’s around, Nichols said. For that reason, the play selections aren’t completed until after the auditions are finished.

But, he said, “it always works out.”

Editor’s note: The Parish Players’ 11th annual Ten-Minute Play Festival will be held Feb. 9-12 and Feb. 16-19 at the Eclipse Grange Theater, 193 Academy Road, Thetford. For tickets, which cost $10-$15, and more information, visit www.parishplayers.org or call 802-785-4344. Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.

 

jpatterson@vnews.com | 603-727-3236