Legally Blonde and the Wagnalls Community Theatre with Donna Elliott

In this episode of the Junior Librarian podcast, host Avari speaks with Donna Elliott, the producer of the Wagnalls Community Theater, to discuss their upcoming activities and opportunities. Donna highlights the theater's fall production of "Legally Blonde," detailing how to audition and what to expect during the rehearsal process. Additionally, she gives a preview of their spring play, "The Hobbit," and provides information on how to get involved and purchase tickets.

Links & Resources:
Wagnalls Community Theatre Facebook page,
www.facebook.com/WagnallsCommunityTheater

Click here for Legally Blonde Audtion Registration . Auditions are Tuesday, August 13 and Wednesday, August 14.

Tickets for Legally Blonde will be available soon. Performances will be November 1-3 and November 8-10, 2024.  Follow WCT on Facebook for more information, or purchase them at the Wagnalls Memorial Library.

Chapters

• 0:19 Introduction to Wagnalls Community Theater
• 0:56 Ways to Get Involved
• 1:39 Upcoming Show: Legally Blonde
• 2:06 Auditioning for Legally Blonde
• 2:45 Rehearsal Process
• 3:01 Age Appropriateness of the Show
• 3:54 Ticket Information
• 4:18 Future Plans: The Hobbit

Transcript

Avari [00:00:00]:
On today's episode, we are speaking to the Wagonals Community Theater producer, Donna Elliott. Welcome to the Junior Librarian podcast. This podcast is written for kids by kids to help them learn more about the Wagnalls Memorial Library.

Avari [00:00:19]:
Welcome to the show, Donna.

Donna Elliott [00:00:21]:
Thank you. Glad to be here. 

Avari 
So, Donna, what is the Wagnalls Community Theatre about? 

Donna Elliott 
Our theater is a program of Wagonals to give youth and adults the opportunity to show their skills at acting, singing, dancing, whatever the show may be, even a lot of, backstage work too and administrative work. Just and it it's all volunteer, so it's a way to give back to the community for them and also for us that we're holding this program.

Avari [00:00:53]:
So how do you get involved in the theater?

Donna Elliott [00:00:55]:
Well, depending on what you wanna do, if you are looking to be an actor on stage, we do hold auditions for our shows. But other than that, we have other volunteers we need as well, such as, like, backstage helpers or tech helpers, even, like, ushers, people running concessions. We need costumers and people to build sets. So there's all different kind of areas. They would just need to reach out to Wagnalls and contact me. And, there's usually an age limit for doing tech. It's 18 and over. But pretty much anything else besides having to audition, we can usually make that work and having a volunteer help us.

Avari [00:01:39]:
So what's Wagnalls next show?

Donna Elliott [00:01:41]:
Our next show is Legally Blonde. It's gonna be in fall, in this this fall. It's the first two weekends of November. And we'll have auditions for that show, August 13th 14th with callbacks on 15th. Legally Blonde, as you probably know, is based off of the famous movie with Reese Witherspoon. It's very hugely popular. We have a lot of people very excited about us doing this show.

Avari [00:02:08]:
So, what would be involved for auditioning in Legally Blonde?

Donna Elliott [00:02:11]:
Well, first, you're gonna sign up. We do have a Facebook page for the theater, Wagnalls Community Theater. You'll find a link to the Google Drive that will sign you up, but you will be expected to sing a song, do a dance segment that they will teach you, as well as doing a cold read, we call it. They'll give you lines there at the audition, and you will read for the directors and the production team. Auditions for Legally Blonde the musical are for ages 16 and up. In future shows, we do have opportunities for younger actors.

Avari [00:02:46]:
So what happens next if you get chosen for the show?

Donna Elliott [00:02:49]:
Well, we would start rehearsals the following week. I believe it's August 19th. We start rehearsals. And we rehearse Monday through Thursday in the evening, 6:30 till till about 8:30 or 9 o'clock. And then every, every one of those days, we have rehearsals depending on your If you are chosen for a main part, you're going to be at rehearsals a lot more than, say, the ensemble cast. But as we get closer to production date, which again is the 1st two weekends of November, everybody will be there pretty much every one of those nights.

Avari [00:03:25]:
So what ages is the show appropriate for?

Donna Elliott [00:03:28]:
I would say that because plays and musicals do not have a rating system like movies do. We do our best guess, to compare it to what's appropriate. I would say this is probably PG or PG 13 rating, if you compare it to the movie, for example. So it again, it's always gonna depend on the parent's choice.

Avari [00:03:55]:
Can you tell us how to get tickets?

Donna Elliott [00:03:56]:
There's a ticket link that you can find on Wagnalls website as well as our Facebook page for the theater. You could also buy tickets at the door. Though usually very popular shows, you you take a risk with that waiting till the last minute. So always best to buy them ahead of time if you can. And you can come to the library and purchase tickets as well. So what do you have planned next for the Wagnels Theatre after Legally Blonde? In the spring, the beginning of April, we are doing a straight play, not a musical, The Hobbit, which I'm sure everybody has heard of that before. So we are very excited. That's not often a play that, gets done frequently, but it that will be available for both children and adults to audition for.

Donna Elliott [00:04:44]:
So very excited about that.

Avari [00:04:46]:
Well, thank you, Donna, for joining us today.

Donna Elliott [00:04:48]:
And thank you for having me, and I appreciate the support for our theater.

Avari [00:04:55]:
Well, that concludes today's episode. I hope that you enjoyed learning a little more about Wagonals. Bye bye.