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sOCIal CluBs & gROups | sun lakes lIfestyles | nOVeMBeR 2014 | 19 By now it should be well known that our 2015 production of That's Entertainment will revolve around bringing a condensed version of the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls to the Ballroom stage. There was some conjecture about the format of this show until it was clarified by our new director, Michael Owen, at our September meeting. The first half of the show will feature songs from that era that are about "Guys," or about "Dolls," and even, hopefully, "Guys and Dolls," but it is a must that there must be a connection by theme and musical era. The second half of the show will be our extremely successful condensed vignette version of the real Broadway staged musical with ALL of the music and much of the dancing. The music part was a slam dunk for the talented singers in the community, but to break into the mold of the full-blown production numbers that require singing AND dancing many of us are having to join dance classes and purchase real, honest-to-goodness dancing shoes! Another step in the preparation for the show came immediately following our October business meeting when we held full auditions for character parts in the production. Wow! People really came out of the woodwork for this one, and it's really a good thing because this production requires that we have dozens of front-line as well as background singers. The results of those auditions are not ready yet for publication, but suffice it to say you will be thrilled when you see and HEAR this cast! With this information, we think that it would be wise to put the dates of Feb. 26, 27, 28 and March 1 on your calendar and be sure that you are here to see and hear this extravaganza of a show. Judging from the sold out performances of our last staging of a Broadway musical, it would be most prudent to schedule your ticket purchases just as soon as they are available in mid-February. Just in case you are a singer and missed our first go-round of auditions, we still have opportunities for front-line and background singers, but don't wait to make contact with us. These spots won't be around long and we're already hard at work learning this wonderful music! Call Bill Shova for more information at 845-0547, or Lou Evans at 769-8556. Bottom-line: don't just be a spectator, get involved! Mystery Theater & More On Nov. 15 at 7 pm in the South Clubhouse the Sun Lakes Drama Club Readers Theatre will present an exciting recreation of Orson Welles infamous Halloween broadcast of 1938 The War of the Worlds. A notable cast has been selected and rehearsals are well underway. The central character, Professor Richard Pierson of Princeton Observatory is played by Roy Corrall with a supporting cast which includes: Joe Vallely, Burt Garbell, Dennis Williams, Russell Anderson, Bill Rayner, Bob Bray, Ruth Bray, and Fran Rayner. The evening will include a complimentary wine and cheese reception hosted by the Drama Club commencing at 6:30 pm. This whole tasty event will cost only $6 pp and paid reservations may be made by calling Harriet Briant at 769-0383. There will be only one performance and seating is limited to the first 100 reservations so make your arrangements soon. The stories of the mass hysteria following the original broadcast have proven over time to be greatly exaggerated, although the telephone switchboards at radio stations around the nation were overwhelmed by anxious listeners. The newspapers made a big thing of the so-called panic, but the story died out in a few days. Researchers have found no actual records of crowds of people running in the streets or abandoning their homes. But the myth was there and it continues to this day. A story that explains some of the excitement generated by the broadcast is that on that Halloween Sunday evening most people were not listening to CBS's Mystery Theatre but rather to NBC's Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy show. During a musical interlude many people tuned over to CBS in the middle of a fictional panic news broadcast which proved to be quite shocking. An interesting bit of trivia is that after the broadcast, all the scripts were confiscated by the broadcaster. However the author and Orson Welles had retained their copies. The author's copy was later auctioned for $143,000. Welles' copy was sold by Christie's for $32,000. The buyer was Steven Spielberg who went on to make the 2005 version of War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise. The Drama Club wishes to thank Ken Brown for his active participation in Readers Theatre Productions since the beginning. Ken is retiring from active production duties and will be a treasured source of inspiration in the future. Drama Club

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