Auditions for Northland Pioneer College Performing Arts Department’s fall play production of The Spiral Staircase will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, Aug. 16 and 18, at the NPC Performing Arts Center in Snowflake.
The script is considered appropriate for all audiences, and NPC students and interested community members, who are 14 years or older, are encouraged to audition. The Spiral Staircase has roles for four men and four women. Those who audition are encouraged to come with a prepared one-minute comic or dramatic monologue. However, cold readings from the script will also be done and are acceptable for those who do not have a prepared monologue.
The Spiral Staircase has proven to be a popular mystery thriller as it has entertained audiences as a novel, radio drama, stage play and film, all adapted from Ethel Lina White’s 1933 novel Some Must Watch. Helen Hayes starred in the radio drama. Mel Dinelli wrote the screenplay used for the 1946 film, which starred Dorothy McGuire and Ethel Barrymore. F. Andrew Leslie adapted the screenplay for the stage production.
According to Dramatists Play Service: “As thunder and rain echo offstage, the town Constable arrives at the isolated Warren household to report another in the series of apparently unprovoked murders that have shocked and terrified the village. Without exception the victims have been young girls–and all with a noticeable defect or imperfection of some kind. Because of this, there is fear for the safety of Helen, companion of the bedridden Mrs. Warren, who has been unable to speak since undergoing the shock of witnessing her parents’ horrible death some years before.
“Warning everyone to stay behind locked doors, the Constable goes back into the storm, leaving Helen to the care of the others. One by one, however, her protectors leave–or seem to–and as Helen’s isolation grows, so does the threat of the killer’s visit–leading to a denouement of chilling intensity.”
Emmy award-winning lighting designer Patrick Day will be working with NPC Performing Arts Department Chair Dr. Michael Solomonson, who will be directing the play, to create a memorable theatrical environment for the production.
Rehearsals will primarily be held from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the fall semester. The play will be performed in November as part of the college’s popular dinner theatre offering. Dinner theatre performances will be on Saturday, Nov. 12 and Thursday, Nov. 17. Show-only performances will be Friday, Nov. 11, and Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18 and 19. Tickets will go on sale for all performances on Aug. 22 by calling the NPC Box Office at (928) 536-6250.
If you have questions about auditions or the play, contact Solomonson at (928) 536-6217.
