Parcel Players Auditions at Towngate Theatre

Parcel Players, Oglebay Institute’s summer theater program for students ages 13-21, will hold auditions May 27 and May 28, 2025 at 7pm.

This annual summer theater program offers young people interested in theater a chance to act, direct, design sets, work with costumes, lighting and more.

7pm May 27:  Auditions for “Once Upon a Mattress”

Play calls for a cast of 6m, 6w plus large ensemble. Erin Bond directs.

Those auditioning should prepare 16 bars of a song that best shows vocal range and bring recording of music and will also be asked to read from script.

Play is in production August 7-10, 2025.

About the Play
Many moons ago in a far-off place, Queen Aggravain decreed no couples could marry until her son, Prince Dauntless, found a bride. Princesses came from far and wide to win the hand of the prince, but none could pass the impossible tests given to them by the queen. That is, until the “shy” swamp princess, Winnifred the Woebegone, showed up. Would she be able to pass the sensitivity test, marry her prince and help Lady Larken and Sir Harry to the altar? Carried on a wave of wonderful songs, by turns hilarious and raucous, romantic and melodic, this rollicking spin on the classic tale “The Princess and the Pea” provides some side-splitting shenanigans. For after all, a princess is a delicate thing.

7pm May 28: Auditions for “The Good Doctor” by Neil Simon

Play calls for a cast of  8-12 actors. Dave Henderson directs.

Those auditioning will be asked to read from the script.

Play is in production July 10-13, 2025.

About the Play
This Broadway hit, a composite of Neil Simon and Anton Chekhov, consists of a series of comic vignettes narrated by “The Writer.” In one sketch, a feisty old woman storms a bank and upbraids the manager for his gout and lack of money. In another, a father takes his son to a house to initiate him into the mysteries of sex, only to relent at the last moment and leave the boy more perplexed than ever. In another sketch, a crafty seducer goes to work on a wedded woman, only to realize that the woman has been in command from the first overture. And let us not forget the classic tale of a man who offers to drown himself for three rubles. The stories are droll, the portraits affectionate, the humor infectious and the fun unending.

Keeping the Community in Community Theater in Wheeling. . .

Towngate is a cornerstone of creative life in Wheeling and serves as an entertainment destination for residents of the Ohio Valley and beyond. People of all ages and backgrounds gather here to create and experience art onstage. Most of all, Towngate celebrates the essential power of theater to illuminate our common humanity. The community enjoys and participates in hundreds of live performances, classes and workshops year-round.