Playcrafters last did the classic play “Harvey” in 2015, but it’s scheduled again to kick off the Moline theater’s 95th season in February 2024.
Playcrafters will hold auditions for the classic comedy, directed by Jake Ladd, on Friday, Oct. 27th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 28th from noon to 2 p.m. at the Barn Theatre, 4950 35th Ave., Moline. Performance dates are February 9-11 and 16-18, 2024.
“Harvey” by Mary Chase – which marks its 80th anniversary next year — is the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of Elwood P. Dowd, a polite and friendly man with a very strange best friend — a six-foot-tall invisible rabbit named Harvey.
Elwood’s sister Veta is concerned the rabbit will interfere with her social position, so she tries to have Elwood committed at the local sanatorium. Veta is so hysterical when she explains her brother’s condition that she is committed instead. Elwood leaves the sanatorium grounds unbothered, turning the town upside down as everyone goes on the lookout for this mild-mannered hero and his invisible rabbit.
Made famous in a 1950 film version starring James Stewart, the original 1944 play was directed by Antoinette Perry (1888-1946), the co-founder and chair of the American Theatre Wing, for whom Broadway’s Tony Awards are named.
” ‘Harvey’ is a laugh-out-loud comedy with an important message about conformity, acceptance, friendship and the power of kindness,” Jake Ladd (who was in Playcrafters’ “Barefoot in the Park”) wrote for the Playcrafters audition page. “Set in the mid-1940s, this production will be a Valentine to the original concept imagined by Mary Chase who won a Pulitzer Prize for this clever work. The play affords an opportunity for every actor.”
For the Playcrafters auditions, please bring a resume and be prepared to read from the script; “first-timers” are also welcome to audition. For more details, visit the theater website HERE or call 309-762-0330.
