Several big plays are on the horizon.
 Auditions are happening Jan. 14 and 15 at casa for  a new thriller Hatrix will be putting on at McNally School in May.
 Karolyn Harker is excited about Frederick Knott’s  “Wait until Dark, a newly revised play that was first put on in 1966 and turned into a hit 1967 movie starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin.

 It is about sinister con man  Roat and ex convicts Mike and Carlino who are seeking a mysterious doll, which a strange woman has persuaded a blind woman Susy’s husband to transport across the border into Canada. Jeffrey Hatcher revised the play for Broadway in 2013.

 The men have convinced Susy that her husband Sam Hendrix has been implicated in the mystery woman’s murder and that the doll is evidence. She figures out the charade with her young neighbour’s help. The thriller takes place at McNally school at the end of May. Rehearsals will begin  in January after the play is cast.

Auditions for The Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance Society‘s production of the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor have also been announced. They will be Jan. 30 at the University of Lethbridge and at Casa, Jan. 31. Callbacks will be  Feb. 1 at Casa. Auditions will be held in groups, so sign up for a time slot at https://doodle.com/poll/vy49id8ard9b8dqt.
Prepare a 1-2 minute monologue from any genre and be prepared to move. Playgoers of Lethbridge brings another Broadway hit to the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, Feb. 19-22 with Sean Devine’s drama “Daisy.” Rita Peterson is directing this play about the infamous 1964 election ad which launched the era of negative advertising.

 The Lethbridge Symphony Orchesta’s annual collaboration with the U of L opera workshop is also that week. They will be performing  Gilbert and Sullivan and the Gondoliers, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at Southminster United Church.

 Theatré Outré is looking forward to Bryden MacDonald’s “Whale Riding Weather” happening at  Didi’s Playhaus, Feb. 24-28. It is about three gay men from different generations caught in a love triangle. That is a busy week for Theatre Outré as they wind up the week on Feb. 29 with the Quint, Quirky and Queer Cabaret, formerly Pretty, Witty and Gay at the Sterndale bennett-Yates Theatre.

 It is a busy February for theatre in Lethbridge as the University of Lethbridge brings Blood:A Scientific Romance by Meg Braem to the stage, Feb. 11-15. New West theatre artistic director Kelly Reay also directs this production.

 In March Ron Chambers directs James Odin Wade’s “In Tongues ” It is a mystery about true crime author Cara, who dies alone in her cabin in the woods as her family searches for answers and learn more than they bargained for about Cara's life.

And New West Theatre will be staging Ken Cameron‘s new play Dear Johnny Deere based on the music of Canadian folk/ roots  icon Fred Eaglesmith. It will be  at the Yates Theatre in March. And the Chinook One Act Play festival is set for the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, May 5-6.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor