…the best laid plans of mice and men…

As of this time,we are sorry to say that the timeline for our production of “The Good Deli” is null and void. The original opening date at the end of June is not compliant with Governor Inslee’s phased re-opening plan, forcing the show’s production schedule to be delayed. Also, our normal venue, as a publicly owned facility, will not be available at all this Summer.

We here at Blaine Community Theater are eager to get back to trodding the boards, but, as I’m sure you’re aware, the world is crazy right now, and it’s hard to get all the moving parts lined up in a way that allow us that luxury.

“The Good Deli”‘s production status will have to be moved into limbo at this time–auditions cancelled and opening put on hiatus. We hope we can find a way to put it up before the end of Summer, but at this time we are pretty taxed for ideas on making it come together. And we’re dedicated to making a tradition of doing Halloween and Christmas productions for the end of the year, so worst case scenario “The Good Deli” will get pushed out to 2021.

We are also looking into possibly putting together online content for the time being to help keep us from going crazy. We were set to make 2020 the start of a pretty big roll-out of new Blaine Community Theater projects, so Covid-19 has stymied an awful lot of content we were hoping to produce, and we’re hard at work not to lose that momentum. If you have any ideas or wish to contribute in some other way, please feel free to email us at blainecommunitytheater@gmail.com

Thanks, and we hope to get to share the magic of the stage with you soon.

We said things may change. They have.

We have rescheduled the auditions for “The Good Deli” to May 16 & 17, and other posts on this site have been altered to include this new information. The rest of the show is, so far, still on the original schedule, but we will keep you posted as alterations are needed.

“May you live in interesting times.” ~ancient Chinese curse

We here with Blaine Community Theater have been quiet about the whole Covid-19 crisis because, for once, us being nomadic and having an inconsistent schedule has been to our advantage. We don’t have any shows currently running or in rehearsals, and we don’t have facilities to take care of, so for us, putting everything on hold at this point in time was almost unfairly easy compared to some of our peers in the local theater community.

At this time, we are currently running forward with our planned calendar until state and health officials announce we need to change that plan. The quickest upcoming events involved in our calendar are the auditions and production of “The Good Deli”.

We are still planning to do “The Good Deli” auditions on the scheduled dates, April 18 & 19. Auditions were already designed to be scheduled one actor at a time, so we feel exposure danger is severely mitigated compared to a standard cattle call audition. We have not yet heard whether the Blaine School District will continue to be able to let us use their facilities, but if they are unable to we will find an alternative venue. The good news about the rehearsal process for “The Good Deli” is that rehearsals were not scheduled to begin until May 25th, so casted actors will have plenty of downtime with their scripts if self-isolation orders are still in play. The show isn’t scheduled to open until late June, so for now we’ll operate as though all dates are still applicable and will make adjustments as necessary. If you have questions about any of these plans, please feel free to contact us.

Anyway, that’s how we look for the rest of the year’s first half. Like mentioned above, we are in a much better position than most of the county’s performance art groups. Most small arts groups depend on being able to put a show up this week to pay for overhead next week, so the necessary closures are a big problem for most of them. Please, if able, donate to a local art group. If you are kindly enough to want to donate to us, it can be done through our digital box office through the “Tickets on Sale” button on the top of the page, but there’s a lot of organizations that need your donations more than we do at this time:

• Sylvia Center for the Arts
• Bellingham Theatre Guild
• Lynden Performing Arts Guild
• Jansen Art Center
• Bellingham Theaterworks
• BAAY – Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth

Thanks,

Nick McDonald
Blaine Community Theater Board Member

Auditions coming up for the Pacific Northwest premiere of a new play by Kevin Cirone.

***PLEASE NOTE: AUDITION DATES FOR “THE GOOD DELI” HAVE CHANGED TO MAY 16 & 17***

We’re pleased to announce our next production, “The Good Deli”, written by Kevin Cirone and directed by Jennie Olson Six. Julia, a Boston comedian, is summoned frantically back home by her stepmom expecting to find her estranged father on his deathbed. Instead she finds him seemingly the same wise-ass curmudgeon he always was, if a tad obsessed with the Italian deli the family visited when Julia was a child. When her father’s health takes a turn, Julia and her brother Max attempt to find the place and give their father the sandwich of his dreams. Leaning on an unexpected kinship with an ex-priest and fighting her sense of flight, Julia takes a road trip with the family, hoping to reconnect with her father while trying to realize the memory of a mysterious deli that may not even exist.

The show has roles for 3 men (age 30-60) and 3 women (age 20-60). Rehearsals will start in late May and the production will run in mid- to late-June. Some language and content (this show will rate about a PG-13). Auditions are May 16 from 11 AM to 3 PM and May 17 from 2 PM to 4 PM (the original location was to be the Blaine Middle School Cafeteria–we will try to reschedule this location but if we cannot we will notify signed-up auditioners well ahead of time if we have to change the venue). Refer to this sheet for complete audition information. Schedule you audition slot with this calendar. For any additional questions, feel free to email blainecommunitytheater@gmail.com

Tell Us What YOU Want!

The folks here at Blaine Community Theater spend a lot of time tossing around ideas about what would be fun and engaging ideas for the community, and our list is getting pretty long! So we decided that it was time to run these options past the community itself and see what passes muster!

Please take some time (about 3 minutes) to fill out the following survey, and let us know what kind of activities you would like to see Blaine Community Theater produce!