Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson
Directed by Mark Ireson
Read-through: Monday 3rd May, 8pm
Auditions: Sunday 9th May at 6pm, and Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th May at 8pm, 2010
Performances: Tuesday 7th to Saturday 11th September 2010, Bell Theatre
This year’s Gala production is Ron Hutchinson’s screwball comedy set in the Hollywood office of movie mogul David O. Selznick in 1939, based on real events.
Selznick has just shut down production on the most eagerly anticipated movie in history, Gone With The Wind, scrapping the script and sacking the director for good measure. Determined to produce a rewrite in five days, he engages the reluctant services of ace script doctor Ben Hecht - possibly the only person in America who has not read the novel - and the movie’s new director Victor Fleming, straight from the set of The Wizard Of Oz after squabbling with the Munchkins and coming to blows with Judy Garland.
With his reputation on the line, and nothing but peanuts and bananas to sustain them, Selznick locks the three collaborators in his office, and a marathon creative session begins…
The characters
David O Selznick - Fanatically driven producer, son-in-law of the producer Louis B. Mayer, the movies were in his blood. The son of a movie distributor who became bankrupt in the 1920s, Selznick rose to the top of the Hollywood tree working at RKO, Paramount and MGM before starting his own Selznick International Pictures. He was notorious for his frantic, benzedrine-fuelled pace of work and the astonishing volume of memos he produced on every aspect of the productions (seen by some as meddling and by others as attention to detail).
Victor Fleming - Started his working life as a motor mechanic, but got a break in the film business as a camera assistant, moving on to direct many action movies in the 1920s and 30s. With a robust manner and love of outdoor sports Fleming was known as a “man’s director”, but his two best known and most successful directing credits were The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind. Coincidentally, in both cases he was a substitute, brought in to replace the original director in the early weeks of shooting.
Ben Hecht - A successful Chicago journalist, Hecht became one of the most celebrated and prolific screenwriters in the early days of Hollywood, as well as contributing uncredited work as a “script doctor” on many more (including Gone With The Wind). As well as journalism and screenplays he wrote short stories, novels, plays (including The Front Page) and later ghost wrote Marilyn Monroe’s autobiography. A lifelong activist for Jewish causes, his active support of the Zionist movement in Palestine led to a British boycott of his work in the late 1940s and 1950s.
Miss Poppenguhl - Selznick’s exceptionally efficient secretary. Usually tireless, by the end of the five days even she is more than a little dazed. A smaller part, but with the opportunity for some drily comic lines.
I am not too concerned about the actors’ ages, other than to say that, in order to be credible, the three men need to have playing ages at least in their mid 30s. This is an ensemble piece with three cracking parts for actors who spark off each other. Miss Poppenguhl can be played by an actor of any age.
Come along to the read through and see why you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.
For more details, please contact Mark Ireson, Director
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