Auditions for Oz!, a musical, Easy Theatre, Bastrop, February 20

Auditions for adult and youth actors, singers, dancers for the one-act musical OZ! directed by Engela Edwards, to be held at the Studio (back of the Bastrop Opera House, 711 Spring Street, Bastrop) on Monday, February 20 -- 10 a.m. for adults; 11 a.m. for teens; 1 p.m. for ages 5 to 12.

Auditions last until the show has been cast. Rehearsals start the next day. Auditions and rehearsals take place weekdays, during the day, at the Bastrop Opera House, Feb. 21- March 7. Performances March 8 & 9 at elementary schools in south east Austin.

Looking for Tin-Man & Lion, Chorus, & Munchkins. Gender-blind, race-blind casting. If possible, director prefers that the Lion and Tin-Man to be taller than the Munchkins. E-maill your questions to Engela@easytheatre.com. Produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama

Sunday in the Park, Musicale, Bastrop Opera House, April 17 - May 9

Bastrop's serenely strolling musicale Sunday in the Park recalled that quaint Victorian device, the cardboard puppet theatre -- an elaborate dollhouse stage in which children could push forward stylized cardboard cutouts, imagining dialogue and story. In this production, Engela Edwards of Easy Theatre, Bastrop Opera's long-serving general director Chester Eitze and choreographer Laura Goff create for us a never-land version of an America small town, circa 1915.

They draw on songbooks of the era, lightly and whimsically staging almost 50 songs with fetching melodies, most of them familiar. These are the agreeable melodies you might find on player piano rolls or, once upon a time, in the yellowing music sheets inside Grandma's piano stool. The large cast performs them with affection, in a succesion of tableaus and skits without spoken dialogue (except for "Delaney's Donkey," a mock-epic comic tale about a village race, done by Nick Collier in his character as the village policeman).

Click to read more on AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .