Auditions! But carefully…
As we slowly reopen Arkansas, our patrons’ health and well-being is first and foremost on the OAC’s mind. After much discussion, we have come to, what we hope, will be the safest measures for our volunteers and audience, while still bringing you the quality entertainment you deserve. So, to do that, we will be postponing Nunsense II to September (dates to be announced soon!), and moving into some more plays that have fewer cast and crew so that we can continue practicing social distancing. We will have auditions for the first of these shows, Always a Bridesmaid, on Monday, May 18 and Tuesday May 19 at 7:00pm. Please closely read the guidelines below that we have set in place for these auditions and the rehearsals to follow. For more questions, please click to email us or call 870-391-3504.
The Requirements
Doors will open at 6:45pm. Only those auditioning may be present.
The following Social Distancing and sanitation guidelines will be followed at auditions and rehearsals. If you feel sick or have had a fever within the last 24 hours, please do not attend.
- Temperature will be taken of everyone coming to auditions and rehearsals, keeping a log of names and temps, and if anyone has a fever, they must immediately go home; as well as asking the screening questions (have you been out of the state, have you been sick, have you been in contact with anyone who has COVID-19, etc).
- Everyone must wear masks at all times. Please wear your own clean mask.
- Scripts for cold reads will not be shared. Each person auditioning will get a copy of audition material to use and it will be disposed of at the end of evening auditions.
- Everything will be disinfected before and after each night of auditions.
- Everyone must maintain 6 ft distance at all times.
- Only cast and crew may be present during rehearsals. No other family members or children.
- Children under 18 will not be cast and will not be allowed at auditions or rehearsals, in order to adhere to ADH guidelines. Children under 18 will be able to attend the performances.
The Story
Always a Bridesmaid is a Jones Hope Wooten Southern Comedy. Cast is 6 women.
Kari—20s—Kind-hearted Southern charmer
Libby Ruth—-late 40s, hopeless romantic, sweet country woman, plain spoken
Sedalia—60s—- gregarious, energetic hostess of wedding venue
Monette—late 40s—kinda flashy, kinda trashy, voluptuous southern flirt,
Charlie—late 40s—-tree hugging, Birkenstock wearing, Southern free spirit
Deedra—late 40s—headstrong dry wit, no-nonsense Northern transplant attorney
Characters ages are relative—no one under 18 will be cast.
Show dates: June 25-28
Rehearsals begin: May 25–4 days per week
Thank you for supporting the Arts and please be safe and healthy.
The Theatre Company of the Ozarks and The Ozark Arts Council, will present the raucous comedy, Nunsense II: The Second Coming #LiveAtTheLyric the second weekend of September (September 10–13)! 
In Truvy’s (Trish Lockridge), beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are anybody come to have their hair done, the shop is abuzz with gossip and coffee and hairspray. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (Katie Blessing), who may or may not be married, the wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoo and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser (Mary Bishop), whose 40-year-old bad mood has only sharpened her wit; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee (Gwen Gresham), who has a sweet tooth for football teams; and the local social leader, M’Lynn (Lisa Johnson) and her vivacious daughter, Shelby (Callie Johnson), who is about to marry a “good ol’ boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions between the five ladies, the play moves toward tragedy when the spunky Shelby (who has 
Steel Magnolias will be performed #LiveAtTheLyric August 16 and 17 at 7:00pm, and August 18 at 2:00pm. Proceeds from the August 16 show will go to the 
focused on vocals, acting, and choreography, as well as the proper etiquette for being in a play and attending a play, all of which culminated in a short performance for the family and friends of the children—many of whom are gracing the Lyric stage for the first time ever. Only then was attention turned fully to this play, where those new or refined acting, singing, and dancing skills could be put into practice for the sellout performances this July will bring.
We hope you will join us both for the entertainment and lesson imparted by this classic story and for the building of our community that attendance at Arts events—especially at young people’s theatre—always brings. The OAC and its Member Organizations are committed to having children of all ages learn about the Arts and develop a love for them that reaches beyond their early years, so that they grow up to be well-rounded, empathetic adults. These “Jr.” plays, and the directors who bless us by giving up a portion of their summers, are a huge first step in that direction.
If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times: do not fan the girls when they’re wet! But you’ll never learn; you’ll be a eunuch all your life!
When Senex and Domina leave for the day, Hero declares his love for one of the ladies who live at his next door neighbor’s house, Philia (Katie Blessing), and that’s when Pseudolus begins to hatch a scheme to buy his own freedom.
When the two visit Lycus’s house, once they get past the eunuchs (Donovan Walters and Nicholas Prpich) they meet Tintinabula (Cady Wheeler), a bell-wearing beauty; Vibrata (Kennedy Bottoms), an energetic, lively lovely with a leopard skin bikini; the Geminae (Faith Nix and Dante Lowe), a “matched pair”; Panacea (Nikki Forehand), a seductive dancer; and Gymnasia (Spree Hilliard), with a body upon which “a thousand dramas can be played.” They and the other lovely courtesans (Lena Rocole, Jenna Wilson, Rilee Young, Kaley Jones) are tempting, but Hero and Pseudolus are alarmed to find out that Philia has been sold to the great Captain Miles Gloriosus (Caleb Lord), and will be claimed that very day.
doubled over with laughter, attempting to keep up with what wackiness will occur next.
two years from 1953 to 1955. In mid-1955, Mr. Sharkey enlisted in the Army. He served at Sandia Base, New Mexico as a Special Services worker. He wrote, produced, and directed one show per month for the Enlisted Men’s Club. In 1958, Mr. Sharkey went to New York to begin a full-time freelance writing career. He wrote Science Fiction stories and novels, humor articles, and mystery novels. In 1961, he returned to Chicago where he worked as joke editor for Playboy Magazine and then was Editor of the Allstate Insurance Company Magazine for 11 years from 1964-75. Mr. Sharkey wrote his first stage comedy in 1965. At the end of 1975, he went exclusively into playwriting, which he continued until a few months before his death. He has 83 published plays written under his own name and four others – 