The Act 2! community theater group will be holding auditions for two radio plays featuring the ever-famous detective Sherlock Holmes from 2-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at The Ritz Civic Center in downtown Blytheville. The plays are set to be performed on the stage of The Ritz on April 2.
"Sherlock Holmes in The Murray River Mystery" and "Sherlock Holmes in The Case of the Nervous Nanny" are both radio plays written by Stanley S. Reyburn and being produced by special arrangement with Players Press, Inc, and Act 2! under the direction of Ken Jackson.
"Sherlock Holmes in The Murray River Mystery" requires the vocal abilities of seven men and one woman.
Here is the play's synopsis:
"How can an entire river disappear? That's the question that confronts Sherlock Holmes on a mission to Victoria, Australia. A once-proud river has seemingly vanished into the earth, leaving the booming agricultural communities that depended on it in desperate straits. Holmes is called in by representatives of the Australian government to try to ascertain the truth. Suspicion immediately falls on the Chaffeys, California irrigation experts who have been behind the area's rising prosperity. But as always, Holmes is never satisfied with the seemingly obvious solution, and digs deeper still for a truth that will shake pillars of the government itself!"
"Sherlock Holmes in The Case of the Nervous Nanny" has a bigger cast that has roles for nine men and five females.
Its description reads:
"Holmes' brother Mycroft summons the great detective to Rome to assist in a desperate affair of state. The young son of Sir Percy Winthrop, Her Majesty's ambassador to Italy, has been kidnapped by political extremists demanding the surrender of highly sensitive documents in exchange for the child's life. Posing as a Catholic priest, Holmes takes the hunt for the missing child. All evidence at first points to the gardener, a suspicious fellow who inherited the job when his predecessor vanished under sinister circumstances. But superficial distractions are never enough to deter Holmes' power detective mind. But can he cope with the brutal minions of the kidnappers, and see child and government alike delivered from their trial?"
Assistance will also be needed in the roles of a sound effects crew, commonly referred to as "foley" artists, musicians, a stage manager and a light manager. Act 2! is asking that everyone wanting to audition be 14 or older.
"If anyone would like to audition for this play, but is afraid of having to memorize lines, with a radio play you don't have to," said Jackson. "A radio play requires a person's voice talent and doesn't matter who or what you look like."
Jackson directed Act 2!'s radio play "The War of the Worlds" by Howard H. Koch in 2007 and Philip Grecian's adaptations of the classic horror tales by Bram Stoker's "Dracula" in 2008 and Mary Wollstencraft Shelly's "Frankenstein" in 2009. He also, in 2010, co-directed "Tales of Terror" with his wife Sarah, who had written the radio play based on five stories of Edgar Allen Poe. Jackson is also currently writing a radio play himself based on the classic horror creature "The Wolfman" which he hopes to have ready by this October.
For more information, call 762-1744.