MANSFIELD, Ohio — The Renaissance Youth Opera Theatre has set auditions for “The Secret Garden” and its companion piece “Alice in Wonderland,” for Saturday, Feb. 6 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Renaissance Theatre, 138 Park Avenue West in Mansfield.
Auditions are open to students in grades 2 through 12 and will be held in the ballroom at the Renaissance Theatre. Audition appointments are required.
Those who wish to audition are asked to prepare 16 to 32 bars of a musical theatre song and bring sheet music in their key. An accompanist will be provided.
“The Secret Garden” won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and nominee for Best Musical and Best Score, is based on Francis Hodgson Burnett’s haunting tale and re-imagined in a brilliant score by composer Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman.
Orphaned in India, 11 year-old Mary Lennox returns to Yorkshire to live with her embittered, reclusive uncle Archibald and his invalid son Colin. The estate’s many wonders include a mysterious garden, which beckons the children with haunting melodies and spirits from the children’s past.
Time magazine called it, “Elegant, entrancing … The best American musical of the Broadway season.” There are lots of roles both for “living” and “ghosts!”
Younger cast members travel down the rabbit hole and join Alice, one of literature’s most beloved heroines, in her madcap adventures. Featuring songs from Disney’s animated motion picture, “Disney’s Alice in Wonderland Jr.” is a fast-paced take on Lewis Carroll’s classic tale.
Roles are plentiful, providing lots of opportunities to showcase all cast members — the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Red Queen, Tweedle Dee and Dum, plus rock lobsters, talking fish, royal cards-men, un-birthday partiers, and the flowers — everybody gets a part.
Performance dates are Saturday, May 28 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 29 at 3 p.m.
To schedule an audition appointment or for more information about the RYOT program, please contact Linda Chambers at linda@mansfieldtickets.com or 419-522-2726, ext. 213.
