Not Now, Darling: Cast List

We're thrilled to announce the cast for Not Now, Darling, our final show of the season! So exciting to see so many first time names on this list as well as familiar ones!

Gilbert Bodley ... Michael Keene
Maude Bodley ... Cary Nichols
Arnold Crouch ... Jerry Crouch
Miss Tipdale ... Kristen Livengood
Harry McMichael ... Steve Turner
Janie McMichael ... Heather Ingle
Mrs. Frencham ... Jorja Ursin
Mr. Frencham ... Bruce Gruber
Miss Whittington ... Emily Crock
Sue Lawson ... Rachel Adams
Mr. Lawson ... Christian Carmean

Not Now, Darling is a confection of a show that runs on the Mainstage August 14-30, 2015. We can't wait to see this retro farce!

The Great American Trailer Park Musical: Cast List

Congratulations to the cast of The Great American Trailer Park Musical! This is going to be fun, y'all!

Betty - Delina Hensley
Lin - Reeni Lindblom
Pickles - Kristen Hipps
Jeannie - Mandy Bean
Norbert - David Dowd
Pippi - Chelsey Lee Gaddy
Duke - Dylan Murray

We always love it when a cast includes new faces on the ACT Mainstage as well as familiar ones!

Thank you to everyone who auditioned for this show. There's so much amazing talent in Asheville - and it was very hard to make this decision. The next auditions at ACT are for Not Now, Darling - and we hope we see you all again!

French Quarter at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel

Our friends and next-door neighbors at the Asheville Renaissance Hotel have come up with a great idea for dinner during the run of A Streetcar Named Desire. They've created a French Quarter inspired menu that will be available throughout the run of Streetcar. The prix fixe menu is a four course delight that begins with a gumbo and ends with beignets. And, if you make a reservation for dinner or lunch, parking at the Renaissance is free!

They're also donating $10 back from each dinner to us. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

How We Did That: The "Streetcar" Publicity Photo

One of the issues with which we constantly struggle is timing of the publicity photo. In order to meet the deadlines of print media - and especially the monthly magazines - we need to have a photo ready sometimes only days after we have a cast. At that point, we haven't had time to build or pull costumes, the set is only a distant vision, and we're usually in production on another show at that time. So we have to do what we do best: get creative!

For A Streetcar Named Desire, we wanted to capture a bit of drama in the publicity photo. We also wanted to share a little about the relationship between Blanche and Stanley - without sharing too much. Plus, we wanted to get across that it was a period piece (Streetcar takes place in 1947) that mainly takes place inside Stella and Stanley's apartment in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Not easy without a set and costumes!

Fortunately, everyone on the creative team was game to try something new. Theatre is certainly a collaborative art - and we're grateful that the collaboration extends off the stage as well!

Here's what we did:

And here's what we ended up with!

Photo by Tommy Propest

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen: Jerry Crouch, Stephen Veltman, Deborah Austin, Jill Summers, Jennifer Russ, Dan Clancy, Thomas Propest, Craig Burgwardt, and Tommy Propest.

A Streetcar Named Desire: Cast List

Eunice Hubbell is Kathy O'Connor *
Stanley Kowalski is Dan Clancy
Steve Hubbell is Steve Turner
Stella Kowalski is Devyn Ray *
Blanche DuBois is Jennifer Russ
Harold Mitchell (Mitch) is Robert Walker *
Pablo Gonzales is Adrian Suskauer *
Young Man is Ben Goldfinger *
Doctor is Mike Vaniman
Nurse is Meda Thurston *
Flower Vendor is Ruth Planey

*Denotes first time actor on the ACT Mainstage

From the director, Jerry Crouch, "51 actors auditioned for these 12 roles over two nights earlier this week. Thanks to all who auditioned and to my support staff at ACT for their expertise during this exciting process to cast this world famous drama."

A Streetcar Named Desire opens Friday, April 17 and runs for 3 weekends through Sunday, May 3. For tickets call 828-254-1320 or go online.

Set Design by Jack Lindsay and Costume Design by Deborah Austin; Stage Managed by Beth Mayo

Cast List: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Thank you to everyone who auditioned for A Charlie Brown Christmas! We're excited about this show and we're excited about this cast!

Charlie Brown: Craig Justus
Linus: Kyle Fitzsimmons*
Lucy: Tara Theodossis
Snoopy: Candice Owen
Sally: Karen Covington
Schroeder: Daniel Hensley
Pigpen: Zachary Ryan*
Freida: Cary Nichols
Violet: Katie Turner
Patty: Susan Lawrence*
Shermy: Zac Ball*

*Asterisk denotes actor's first time performing in an ACT Mainstage production.

Study Guide: The Addams Family

We have busloads of middle and high school students joining us for our student matinees of The Addams Family. We thought it would be great to share some behind-the-scenes information before they see the show and as well as some fun activities to do after seeing the show, so we created a new study guide just for this show!

Announcing our 2014-15 Directors!

We're thrilled to announce our slate of directors for our 2014-15 Mainstage season! Thank you to all who applied and congratulations to those who have been selected!

The Addams Family - Jerry Crouch
A Charlie Brown Christmas - Eric Mills
A Chorus Line - Chanda Calentine
A Streetcar Named Desire - Jerry Crouch
The Great American Trailer Park Musical - Mark Jones
Not Now, Darling - Ralph Redpath

We'll be posting information on audition dates and more very soon!