PORT ANGELES — Auditions for “Is He Dead?,” a comedy by Mark Twain, are slated for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
The Port Angeles Community Players, with director Barbara Frederick, will stage the show from April 27 through May 13.
For the production, which mixes social satire and cross-dressing, the players seek 11 to 16 performers age 20 and older.
Rehearsals will start in late February or early March.
Roles include:
■ Agamemnon Buckner, a young American artist.
■ Hans Von Bismarck, a young German art student.
■ Marie LeRoux, Millet’s young sweetheart.
■ Cecile LeRoux, Marie’s sister.
■ Papa LeRoux, Cecile and Marie’s father.
■ Jean-Francois Millet, a starving artist.
■ Bastien Andre, a picture dealer and usurer and the bad guy.
■ Madame Bathilde & Madame Caron, sisters and Millet’s landladies.
■ Phelim O’ Shaunghnessy, an Irish pupil of Millet.
■ Basil Thorpe, a rich English merchant.
■ Claude Riviere, a reporter.
■ Charlie, a gorgeous flunky.
■ The King of France.
■ The Sultan of Turkey and the Emperor of Russia, who have no spoken lines.
Some roles can be paired up for a single actor or actress.
To find out more, pick up an “Is He Dead?” script at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.; at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave.; or at Peninsula College’s library on the main campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
“Is He Dead?” is a lesser-known work, as it was published in 2003 from a Twain manuscript that dates to 1898.
Its story has Jean Francois Millet, a young painter, in love with Marie Leroux.
Trouble is, he owes money to a villainous picture dealer, and the dealer forecloses on him, threatening debtors’ prison.
Millet realizes the only way he can pay his debts — and keep Marie from marrying someone else — is to die, as only dead painters achieve fame and fortune.
More details on this show and others coming to the playhouse are available at www.PACommunityPlayers.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
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