Auditions
The audition details for forthcoming productions are shown here.
We hold Open Auditions for all plays and, if necessary, principal roles in our annual pantomime. However, any non-member chosen for a role is required to become a full acting member of the Burgess Hill Theatre Club to appear on stage in the production. Patron Membership is not acceptable for acting roles. You will be expected to join during the first rehearsal.
Please ensure that you will be available for the rehearsal period and the stated production dates before auditioning.
Location
Auditions are held at the Burgess Hill Theatre, 98 Church Walk, Burgess Hill. RH15 9AS
Autumn Production - 2023
Fringe Festival
Fringe Festival of One Act Plays
Directors: Steph Somerville, Paul Davey, Andy Davies,
Dale Brown, Ed Johnson, and Geoff Watkins
Dates: 6 & 7 and 13 & 14 October (7.30pm)
Venue: Burgess Hill Theatre Club
We are looking to cast 22 adults and recruit 12 backstage crew members to put on this ambitious event. We’re asking all of our members to roll up their sleeves and get involved.
The Fringe is the perfect time to try something new – whether it is acting, stage management, sourcing props and costumes, being a prompt, helping with hair and makeup, running box office, designing posters, or assisting with lighting and sound.
Each production is led by a first-time director for the Club as part of our skills development programme. Don’t worry if you don’t have experience. The point of the Fringe is to develop new talent for the Club.
Curious? Come to the read throughs to find out more.
Read throughs
• Wednesday 24 May (7.30pm-10pm):
“All by Themselves”*;
“The Highwayman”;
"Permission to Cry”.
• Wednesday 31 May (7.30pm-10pm):
"The Extraordinary Revelations of Orca the Goldfish";
“Seven Stages of an Affair”;
“Unlucky Number Seven”.
Auditions
Open auditions.
No booking necessary. Just show up. Non-members are welcome to audition but must join the Club if offered a part. You must attend one audition but are welcome to attend more.
• Sunday 11 June (7pm-10pm)
• Monday 12 June (7.30pm-10pm)
• Wednesday 14 June (7.30pm-10pm)
*Auditions for All by Themselves will be held on 12 and 14 June only
Actors only need to attend one audition. Scripts will be available on the day. No preparation necessary. Just show up at the Burgess Hill Theatre on Church Road (opposite the Post Office).
You don’t have to be a member to audition, but you will need to join the Club if you are offered a part. Same goes for backstage roles (stage manager, hair/make up; prompt; lighting/sound). Annual Membership is £30.
If you are offered a role, we usually rehearse up to twice a week with some additional sessions the week before the show.
Production dates
Fri 6 & Sat 7 Oct
“All by Themselves” by Robert Scott & directed by Andy Davies
“The Highwayman” by Martin Sims & directed by Ed Johnson
“Unlucky No. Seven” written & directed by Geoff Hopkins
Fri 13 & Sat 14 Oct
"The Extraordinary Revelations of Orca the Goldfish" by David Tristram & directed by Dale Brown
“Seven Stages of an Affair” by Lorraine Forrest-Turner & directed by Steph Somerville
“Permission to Cry” by David Campton & directed by Paul Davey
More about the Plays
Seven Stages of an Affair by Lorraine Forrest-Turner
Director: Steph Somerville
Genre: Contemporary drama, adult themes
Cast: 2 (1 male 30/40s, 1 female 30/40s)
Caroline is married to dependable Robert, has two children, and works in an employment agency. When attractive Tony Brunetti comes for an interview, she is immediately attracted by his flirtatious charm. So begins the slippery slide into an affair which becomes more passionate and dangerous as it progresses through the seven stages of an affair.
All by Themselves by Robert Scott
Director: Andy Davies
Genre: Period comedy
Cast: 6 (1 male - any age, 5 male/female – any age)
Marooned on an island after other shipwrecked souls took his raft, Larry curses the fact that he's still not alone. And that he let the raft go. But the raft didn't go as far as he thinks, and he's even less alone than he suspects.
The Highwayman by Martin Sims
Director: Ed Johnson
Genre: Period drama (1750s), ghost story
Cast: 2 (1 male – any age, 1 female- any age)
Two strangers meet by the road one dark and cold night in the 1700s. They talk of a legend of Black Tom, the ghostly highwayman said to haunt the area, and soon they are plagued by phantom noises and fears.
Permission to Cry by David Campton
Director: Paul Davey
Genre: Contemporary drama, adult themes
Cast: 5 (3 female 20s-40s, 2 male/female 40s+)
Julia Gibbon, a junior minister, is thrown into turmoil by the conflict between private and public morality. Her affair with Penelope Wright, a frank and forthright journalist, very much a thorn-in-the-side of the Establishment, forces Julia to confront insecurities and doubts she never knew she had. this is a compassionate play about love and politics in our hypocritical age.
Unlucky Number Seven by Geoff Hopkins
Director: Geoff Hopkins
Genre: Contemporary comedy
Cast: 3 (2 males – one 70s, one 20s, 1 female – 70s)
Set for a quiet night in, retired couple Gerald and Ada Mullins, at No.7 find their evening suddenly interrupted. Someone has broken in. Could it be an animal, a serial killer, an axe murderer? Or could it be the most dysfunctional thief to ever don a ski mask?
The Extraordinary Revelations of Orca the Goldfish by David Tristram
Director: Dale Brown
Genre: Contemporary comedy
Cast: 2 (1 female 30-50s, 1 male 30-50s)
For Henry Smith – actor, comedian, raconteur, sporting hero, socialite, tycoon, secret agent, Casanova, and Acting President of the United States – life was rarely dull. For Alice Smith – housewife – life was rarely anything else. Enter Michel – French Waiter – talk, dark and available. Exactly what happened next, no one is quite sure, except that it involved a rotting melon, a deck chair, and a bottle of neck rub. Fantasy blurs into reality. Secret passions explode. And two worlds that seemed a million miles apart are suddenly on a collision course. It could only happen to Henry and Alice. Only their goldfish, Orca, and you will ever know the true story.
