Can you direct? Workshop Players Theatre in Amherst might have a slot for you in its 78th season.
The all-volunteer community theater is accepting applications through Aug. 1 for directors interested in comedies, dramas, small-scale musicals and Christmas-themed shows.
Board President Pat Price said there's one unique aspect for people to consider: They're applying to mount a show at a theater-in-the-round.
“You are literally inches away from the audience, as a performer,” she said. “As a director, you have to keep people moving ... because there's always somebody standing in front of an audience member, so blocking becomes really, really important.”
Situated in a former one-room schoolhouse, the facility also has limited space for major set changes, Price said. That’s one reason they only mount one musical each season. Applicants are encouraged to submit up to five possible shows to direct.
“Prior to developing this particular approach, they would choose a season of plays and then try to find directors,” she said. “I said to them, ‘Isn't that a little backwards?’”
After choosing the five directors, a committee reads the 20-25 submissions and chooses the season by November. Once casting is underway, Price said they see talent from throughout Northeast Ohio.
“Some are local in the Amherst, Lorain, Elyria area,” she said. “We did a show this past winter and someone came all the way from Aurora. We opened the season last year and an actor came all the way from Kent. Will we get a lot from Lakewood and surrounding areas.”
Price majored in theater in college, with a minor in English. That led to a teaching career and, after she retired, to Workshop Players Theatre.
“My father told me that I couldn't be a theater major unless I also did something useful,” she said.
For the past 17 years, she’s held numerous roles with the company: Actor, director, production manager and boardmember. Price said there’s a strong sense of community around the intimate, 100-seat space.
“We have people who have been coming to this theater since the 1960s, which just amazes me,” she said. “There is one particular couple that met here. She was a lighting person and he admired her. In order to get close to her, he came to help out with the lights — and they ended up getting married. That was, I think, in the ‘70s, and they still come.”
This fall, the season opens with the stage version of “The Spitfire Grill,” followed by a returning favorite (“Christmas Belles”) and three classic plays that have been adapted into movies: “Same Time, Next Year,” “Harvey” and “Chapter Two.”
Submissions for next season should be sent to pprice203@gmail.com.
