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| (www.fredericksburgtheater.org) |
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presents
Wait Until Dark
by Frederick Knott
September 22 - October 2
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:15 p.m.
Hill Country Community Theatre, 4003 W. FM 2147 in Cottonwood Shores (click for map)
Which frightens you more: the evil you can see coming, or the one you can’t?
The cast of Wait Until Dark, Hill Country Community Theatre’s first production of the 2011-2012 season, is working to bring that question to life as they rehearse for the play’s opening in September.
The cast for the dramatic thriller, which was a smash hit both on Broadway and as a movie, includes Steve Reily as Mick Talman, Preston Kirk as Sgt. Carlino, Mark Fernandes as Harry Roat, Priscilla Castañeda as Susy Hendrix, and Ocean Fillingim as Gloria. Teresa Bishop is serving as stage manager and veteran actor/director Darrell W. Spencer, Ph.D., who recently moved to the Austin area from Nevada, is the show’s director.
A “Hitchcock” style thriller, the play was written by Frederick Knott and opened on Broadway in 1966. In 1967, it was produced as a movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Spencer, who has an extensive background in both acting and directing as well as teaching dramatic arts in several liberal arts colleges, says he was attracted to directing Wait Until Dark partly because of the unique challenges presented by the dramatic thriller genre.
“Unlike most drama, where developing the characters is of key importance, in a thriller the situation has to be foregrounded,” he explains. “You have to keep people on the edge of their seats by developing the situation and leading the audience to relate to that situation through the characters.”
Wait Until Dark will open at HCCT, 4003 W. FM 2147 in Cottonwood Shores, September 22 and run through October 2 with 7:30 p.m. performances Thursday through Saturday and 2:15 p.m. matinees on Sunday afternoons.
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HCCT Casting Call Monday, July 25, for Wait Until Dark
Final auditions are scheduled for Monday, July 25, for Wait Until Dark, Hill Country Community Theatre's first production of its 2011-2012 season.
The cast for the dramatic thriller, which was a smash hit both on Broadway and as a movie, includes six men, one woman and one girl. The audition session is set for 7 p.m. and will be held at the theatre, which is located at 2003 W. FM 2147 in Cottonwood Shores. (click for map)
Written by Frederick Knott, the play opened on Broadway in 1966 and was a produced as a movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in 1967. A Hitchcock-style thriller, the play probes which frightens more--the evil you can see coming, or the one you can't.
Directed by veteran actor/director Darrell W. Spencer, Ph.D., who recently moved to the Austin area from Nevada, HCCT's production of Wait Until Dark will open September 22 and run through October 2 with 7:30 p.m. performances Thursday through Saturday and 2:15 p.m. matinees on Sunday afternoons.
Currently operating on an all-volunteer basis, Hill Country Community Theatre is one of the oldest continuously operating community theatres in Texas. During its 25-year history, its productions have drawn audiences totaling more than 100,000. Some 5,000 volunteers from surrounding communities have given their time and support to HCCT's operations, from management to acting to all aspects of backstage and onstage production.
Found on-line:

presents
| Wait Until Dark | |||||||||||
| June 24 - July 17 Fri & Sat at 7:30 PM and Sun at 2:00 PM | |||||||||||
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| By Frederick Knott
Join us for this masterfully suspenseful thriller. A sinister con man and two ex-cons are about to meet their match. They have traced the location of a mysterious doll to the apartment of Sam Hendrix and his blind wife, Susy. When Sam is implicated in the murder of the doll’s owner, Susy takes matters into her own hands using darkness to level the playing field in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Click to buy tickets on-line | ||||||||||

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Community theatre folks are glad that you came, and they make no pretense about that. They've worked for weeks, mostly after hours and on weekends, in an undertaking that doesn't pay the grocery bills or even the transportation expenses. I'm always touched and honored when players and staff position themselves to greet audience members as they come out of the theatre.
Over decades of diplomatic assignments I regularly shook hands of officials receiving guests at the entrances of embassies for national day celebrations. Here in Austin in contrast, particularly on the periphery, your artist hosts greet you at the end, sending you home with good wishes. They've shed their imaginary world and discarded fictitious characters, so you can commune briefly with them as part of the community of the theatre.
There was no particular protocol in the line after Wait Until Dark. Stephanie Newton, fresh off stage from her appearance as a police officer in the final scene, was the first who shook my hand. My friend Stephen Reynolds, cast as the mostly absent photographer husband of the blind protagonist Susy Hendrix, joked that every night between his scene in Act I and his last-second appearance in Act II he had time to read a novel. For opening night, to top it all, the company observed its tradition of inviting audience members to linger with them around a long table laden with good things to eat.
Wait Until Dark is a perennial. Frederick Knott had already written the successful Dial M for Murder (1952) as well as the script for Alfred Hitchcock's movie. In 1966 his Wait Until Dark with Lee Remick was a huge success, made into an even more successful film starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Alda. Knott never wrote another play, but the royalties from regular productions of those two playscripts provided him a income sufficient to live a comfortable social life in New York City until his death in 2002.
Found on-line:

present
Frederick Knott's
Wait Until Dark
Directed by Christien Bumpus
WOBCP stage at Building 4, 11880 W. FM 2243 in Leander, TX, between US 183 and Bagdad Road.
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Nov. 12 - Dec. 4, and a Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. on Nov. 21.
As usual, on opening nights patrons are invited to join the cast and crew for hors d'oeuvres and champagne.
A sinister con man, Roat, and two ex-convicts, Mike and Carlino, are about to meet their match. They have traced the location of a mysterious doll, which they are much interested in, to the Greenwich Village apartment of Sam Hendrix and his blind wife, Susy. Sam had apparently been persuaded by a strange woman to transport the doll across the Canadian border, not knowing that sewn inside were several grams of heroin. When the woman is murdered the situation becomes more urgent. The con man and his ex-convicts, through a cleverly constructed deception, convince Susy that the police have implicated Sam in the woman's murder, and the doll, which she believes is the key to his innocence, is evidence. She refuses to reveal its location, and with the help of a young neighbor, figures out she is the victim of a bizarre charade. But when Roat kills his associates, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues between the two. Susy knows the only way to play fair is by her rules, so when darkness falls she turns off all the lights leaving both of them to maneuver in the dark until the game ends. A Broadway hit, this masterfully constructed thriller moves from one moment of suspense to another as it builds toward an electrifying, breath-stopping final scene.
Click Here to make ReservationsFound on-line:

present
Frederick Knott's
Wait Until Dark
Directed by Christien Bumpus
WOBCP stage at Building 4, 11880 W. FM 2243 in Leander, TX, between US 183 and Bagdad Road.
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Nov. 12 - Dec. 4, and a Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. on Nov. 21.
As usual, on opening nights patrons are invited to join the cast and crew for hors d'oeuvres and champagne.
A sinister con man, Roat, and two ex-convicts, Mike and Carlino, are about to meet their match. They have traced the location of a mysterious doll, which they are much interested in, to the Greenwich Village apartment of Sam Hendrix and his blind wife, Susy. Sam had apparently been persuaded by a strange woman to transport the doll across the Canadian border, not knowing that sewn inside were several grams of heroin. When the woman is murdered the situation becomes more urgent.
The con man and his ex-convicts, through a cleverly constructed deception, convince Susy that the police have implicated Sam in the woman's murder, and the doll, which she believes is the key to his innocence, is evidence. She refuses to reveal its location, and with the help of a young neighbor, figures out she is the victim of a bizarre charade. But when Roat kills his associates, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues between the two.
Susy knows the only way to play fair is by her rules, so when darkness falls she turns off all the lights leaving both of them to maneuver in the dark until the game ends. A Broadway hit, this masterfully constructed thriller moves from one moment of suspense to another as it builds toward an electrifying, breath-stopping final scene.
Click Here to make Reservations
UPDATE: Click for ALT review, November 11

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