by Missy Thompson

STAFF WRITER

The first production from LaForge Encore Theater Company is about to get underway. A musical has been chosen, the performance dates set and the scripts purchased. The only thing left is to find a cast.

Auditions for "Once Upon a Mattress" will be held on Wednesday and Thursday at the Dow James Complex, 400 N. 400 West in Tooele, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Actors wanting to audition don't have to stay the whole time, but can come at any time during that set period.

Those auditioning will need to have 16 bars of a prepared Broadway-style song and a two-minute memorized humorous monologue. Call backs will be held on Friday for choreography at 7 p.m. -- those who are called back will need to stay the entire time -- and Saturday for acting and singing. A time for the Saturday call backs will be announced during auditions.

In addition to the prepared song and monologue, auditioners will need to fill out an application that can be found online at laforgeencore.org or they will be available at the auditions. The company is also accepting applications for open positions on the production staff: rehearsal accompanist, sound technician and light technician. The show will be performed at the Tooele High School auditorium on July 10-12 and 14-19.

Although Carol LaForge has been the drama teacher and director at Tooele High School for more than 30 years, this production of "Once Upon a Mattress" is a community show. Because it's designed for the community, LaForge will be accommodating to those with scheduling conflicts.

"I'd like to do what I've always done with the kids at the high school and that's accommodate the cast," LaForge said. "There might be people who don't care if we have daytime screenings or those who works nights. But, if we do have a community cast most of them will have daytime jobs."

Rehearsals will be held every day, Monday through Friday until the end of May, all of June and up until the performances in July. LaForge says that she will also accommodate people who can't come to every rehearsal.

"It won't be, come once a week and we'll put on a show in six weeks," LaForge said. "If you're in the chorus you wouldn't have to come everyday. But the leads will have to do a lot of choreography and singing. It will be time consuming. I will be respectful of the time element because I don't want to waste their time."

For that reason, LaForge is limiting rehearsals to two hours per day.

"Once Upon a Mattress" is a musical comedy based on the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea." The plot of the play revolves around evil Queen Aggravaine wanting to keep the princesses in a fictional medieval kingdom from marrying so her son Prince Dauntless will never marry. But when Princess Winnifred Woebegone shows up and charms Dauntless, the Queen designs a test to see how sensitive Winnifred would be sleeping on 20 thick mattresses with a tiny pea placed somewhere in the middle.

The principal characters are Princess Winnifred, Prince Dauntless, Queen Aggravaine, King Sextimus, Lady Larken, Sir Harry, Minstrel, Jester, Wizard and the Nightingale of Samarkand. None of these roles have been precast, so any actor could fill them. LaForge wants 25 to 30 actors to complete the cast and hopes to get a variety of people of all ages from the community to audition and be part of "Once Upon a Mattress."

missy@tooeletranscript.com