From press releases

The Dining Room auditions

FREEPORT, Ill.—The Winneshiek Players will hold open auditions for cast and crew for the A.R. Gurney, Jr. play The Dining Room. Auditions will be at the Winneshiek Playhouse, 228 W. Clark St., near downtown Freeport, Ill., at 7 p.m., Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 21-22.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning play will be directed by Winneshiek Board Member Lynn Jones.

Set in a dining room and featuring a series of vignettes, this poignant and heart-warming play is filled with a variety of characters and events that take place around an American dining table. Whether it’s a father lecturing his son on grammar or a senile grandmother who doesn’t recognize her own children at Christmas dinner, more than 50 characters are played by a cast of six. The cast requires three men and three women of all ages older than 20.

For additional information, visit the Winneshiek Players Web site at wplay.org or call (815) 232-7023.

And Then There Were None

The Winneshiek Players open their 84th consecutive season with And Then There Were None at the Winneshiek Playhouse Sept. 18-19 and 24-26.

This Agatha Christie mystery is a dark and captivating tale. A group of 10 strangers is lured to a remote island off the coast of Devon. Upon arrival, it is discovered their host, an eccentric millionaire, is missing. At dinner, a recorded message is played accusing each of them in turn of having a guilty secret. By the end of the evening, the 10 guests become nine. Stranded on the island by a torrential storm and haunted by an ancient nursery rhyme, one by one, the guests begin to die.

Director AmyJo Beightol first saw this mystery when previously produced at the Winneshiek Playhouse in 1978. Beightol says, “The dark and foreboding play kept me at the edge of my seat.” The cast is a diverse group of community members featuring both veteran and contemporary actors.

In conjunction with And Then There Were None, UNION Savings BANK will launch a community fund-raiser. The special event features artist Tom Heflin’s rendition of one of Freeport’s most notable landmarks, the Krape Park waterfall. Attendees at any of the five performances will have an opportunity to win a limited edition print of the commissioned work that hangs in UNION Savings BANK’s newly-remodeled lobby.

The Winneshiek Playhouse is at 228 W. Clark St., near downtown Freeport, Ill. Free parking is available one block north at the municipal lot. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $12, and can be reserved by contacting the Box Office at tickets@wplay.org or (815) 232-7023.

From the September 16-22, 2009 issue