Carrollwood Players Ready New Production

By STEPHEN HAMMILL

“Am I getting that line right?,” asked actor Bill Turcotte, from the stage of the Carrollwood Playhouse. He turned to the script-reader who looked up from the page to give him a nod.

“Now head offstage,” the director called out, “and don’t forget to take your suitcase with you!”

With 10 days to go before its opening, the cast of “The Other Fellow’s Oats” was still getting accustomed to the built-out sets and props. The rehearsal took place at the playhouse, located at 4335 Gunn Hwy. in Plantation Plaza. The theater hosts the Carrollwood Players, an acting troupe founded in 1980.

“This is a British farce,” said Carlyn Postle, the show’s director. Postle, herself married to an Englishman, likes to direct a British show every year. Cast members were running through the script, trying out their best English accents.

“We’re not in England, “she said. “As long as we’re close with the accents, we’re alright.”

During the calendar year, the Carrollwood Players typically perform nine plays by nine different directors. Postle said the plays are chosen by committee based on various criteria, including name recognition. She cited a recent drop in attendance as the committee’s impetus to look to some better-known plays.

“This year we looked for plays we think people would like,” she said. Poorer turnouts are a problem for community theaters across the country as they strive to compete with an ever-growing number entertainment choices all vying for audiences’ attentions.

“Part of it is the economics,” she said. “The gas prices, the tenor of the economy, plus the other community theaters. We’re competing for the same audience.”

The show’s producer, Toni Germinario, has been affiliated with Carrollwood Players for 11 years. She has also noticed that pulling audiences for shows is becoming more of a challenge, and mirrored many of Postle’s possible causes.

“A lot of it has to do with play selection,” she said. “Next season, instead of doing drama, we’re doing mostly comedies.” Germinario feels that audiences respond better to lighter fare, and although the actors typically prefer to play dramatic roles, she doesn’t think the change will adversely affect the talent pool.

“At every audition we get new faces,” she said.

Still, Postle admitted the struggle to pull in audiences is reflected in casting, where there has been a drought of sorts. For this production, she had to recruit her assistant director, Autumn Barthelemy, into the cast to fill a vacated role.

“I assumed the position,” Barthelemy said with a grin. A psychology student at the University of South Florida, she’s been acting with Carrollwood Players since the eighth grade. Last year she co-directed her first show for the youth theater, and this is her first stab as assistant director for the playhouse.
“I’ve done this my whole life,” she said. “It’s a good place for me.”

Turcotte, a Sun City resident, joined the cast of “The Other Fellow’s Oats” after being recruited by Postle, who was teaching a drama course for residents there. Turcotte, 70, is a community theater veteran, having performed in productions in his former hometown of Natchez, Miss.

“She had this role to fill and I read for it and I got the part,” Turcotte said. He is playing the male lead, Desmond Mayne, a jealous philanderer. For every rehearsal, Turcotte makes the drive from Sun City, where he has lived the past two years.
Turcotte expects a good turnout from his fellow Sun City residents.

“It’s good for Carrollwood Players,” he said. “It exposes the production to another population.”

The show’s director has been involved with the stage in some form for as long as she can remember. Postle moved to Tampa 1996, when she became acquainted with the Carrollwood Players after attending a performance.

“I came up and saw a show,” she recalled. “I liked these people and said, ‘Can you use me?’” Postle started out with the Carrollwood Players by working with its youth theater program. She had taught drama in high schools here and abroad for over 40 years. Now retired, she has found a new calling in the director’s seat.

“I came to Florida, like many, for the weather,” she said. “It’s the joy of bringing good theater to an audience – if my audience comes in and sees a show and enjoys it, then I’ve done my job, and if the actors feel good about it, I’ve done my job with them.”

“The Other Fellow’s Oats” opens April 20 and runs through May 12. Showtimes are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. with Sunday Matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets are $14 for regular admission and $12 for students and seniors. Group rates are available for pre-paid admission.

For information about the Carrollwood Players and for tickets, call 265-4000.
Admission is $12 and and $10 for seniors and students. For reservations, call 265-4000.