The Pope Theatre Company in Manalapan is opting for one long-running summer show this season instead of two short ones. The choice is The King of the Kosher Grocers, due July 8 and, depending upon response, ready to go through early or mid-August.
It’s more ethnic than the title suggests, says theater chief Louis Tyrrell.
“As with our selections the past few summers, King is warmer and fuzzier than our regular-season dramas,” he says. “It’s about today’s American melting pot the way we would like to see it.”
Set in a changing neighborhood, it focuses on three aging friends: A hispanic, a black and the Jewish grocer.
“It shows their friendship over 50 years, and the passing of the torch from them to the younger generation growing up in their neighborhood,” Tyrrell says.
The Pope engagement is King’s third staging, after a run at an experimental theater in Minneapolis and another playhouse in the Southwest, Tyrrell says.
More ‘Madness’
Smith Shear Madness closed last month after spending a whole season at the Off Broadway Theatre in Wilton Manors, setting a South Florida record. There is already word that it’s coming back in the fall, but producer Brian C. Smith isn’t saying where.
There is a teaser in the program for the new show, Take My Wife, offering free tickets to anyone who can guess where Madness might turn up. And there is a message on the theater’s answering machine saying it will be “somewhere in Fort Lauderdale.”
Smith has been talking with two other theaters about various projects for years, has a store bay in the shopping center next to his playhouse that is supposed to become an experimental theater, and has been asked to convert at least one nightclub into a cabaret theater. Chances are, even he doesn’t know yet where to put Madness.
Playwrights’ season
The Florida Playwrights’ Theatre in Hollywood is putting the final touches on its summer-fall season.
The troupe admits to being a little behind on its announcement of a nine-show lineup. They shouldn’t worry; the news is ahead of several other major regional theaters still pondering what to do after what was a very unpredictable year for most.
The FPT has dropped its original mission of developing new scripts and is going for a mix of classics and comedies. The lineup includes The Miss Firecracker Contest, opening Friday and running through July 17 and a Shakespeare duet July 23-Aug. 14 with As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Two one-act plays, Graceland by Scott Tabner and Line by Israel Horwitz, run Aug. 20-Sept. 11. A new adaptation of Oedipus Rex is promised for Sept. 17-Oct. 2, followed by The House of Blue Leaves Oct. 8-30, What the Butler Saw Nov. 12-Dec. 14 and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew Dec. 10-31.
Statewide auditions
The Florida Professional Theatres Association will once again have its statewide auditions in West Palm Beach in August. About 400 actors and technicians are expected to show up and, if past trends hold up, nearly half will find jobs somewhere in Florida during the upcoming season.
The auditions, Aug. 21-22, will be flanked by a series of workshops and lectures on Aug. 20 and Aug. 22 dealing with everything from handling stress to advanced stage combat. Hopefuls need to write for an application to the FPTA, P.O. Box 2922, West Palm Beach, Fla. 33402. Apply before Aug. 5 and include a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope.
The first auditions four years ago were for jobs at 11 theaters. The ranks have grown since then; technicians and designers are asked to submit 30 resumes for inspection.
