Announcing Auditions for Playmakers Youth Program

CEDAR CITY, Utah — The Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced auditions for its Playmakers production Newsies. Youth ages six to seventeen are invited to audition.

The program provides young actors a chance to rehearse, learn, and then perform this fun and popular musical. An audition workshop is scheduled for January 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. This will give a chance for those interested to prepare for auditions the next day, January 10. Audition music is now available on the Festival’s website at bard.org/playmakers, and a signup form to schedule audition times will be available after the first of the year.

Once auditions are completed and participants are announced, rehearsals will begin on January 14 and extend through the opening performance on March 13. School performances of Newsies will be from March 14 to 18, with special public performances on March 15 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. and March 16 at 2 p.m.

The program trains youth in theatre fundamentals, including how to sing and dance with a live piano, rehearsal and performance etiquette, and how to work, share, give, and play with others.

Britannia Howe is directing and teaching this program. She created a similar program for young performers in Ashland, Oregon, and is thrilled to provide this training for young artists here in Cedar City.

“It’s thrilling to know that the youth of Cedar City will be telling a story about adolescents their very age who lived one hundred years ago,” she said. “Newsies has many themes, but my favorite is that children do, indeed, have power. It’s for that reason I’m excited that Playmakers is producing this delightful play.”

For more information, call 435-865-8333 or visit the webpage at www.bard.org/playmakers.