Monthly Archives: May 2016

The Dayton Playhouse and Miami Valley Symphony are once again joining forces.  This season they will produce a fully-staged, full-orchestra presentation of the musical FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.  The production will take place at the Masonic Centre, October 28-30.  The production will be directed by Dayton Playhouse director and board chairman, Brian Sharp and music will be provided by the Miami Valley Symphony led by David Detrick.  Vocal director will be David McKibben.

Auditions will be held at the Dayton Playhouse, 1301 E. Siebenthaler Ave., Dayton, OH 45414, on Monday and Tuesday, June 6 and 7, starting at 7 p.m. and June 11, from 10am to 2pm.  Anyone who has appeared in the chorus of a Dayton Playhouse production over the past five years, and is only auditioning for a chorus role, will not be required to sing, but should stop by auditions and submit information.   Anyone auditioning for a lead role should prepare 16-32 bars of music to demonstrate vocal range.  An accompanist will be provided.  Please no acapella singing.  These auditions will be vocal only – call backs for dramatic roles and readings will be held the following week.  With additional questions contact: brianpsharp@hotmail.com.

Lead roles will include:

• Tevye, a poor milkman with five daughters. A firm supporter of the traditions of his faith.
• Golde, Tevye’s sharp-tongued wife.
• Tzeitel, daughter, 19. Loves her childhood friend Motel who is poor.
• Hodel, daughter, 17. Intelligent and spirited, falls in love with Perchik.
• Chava, daughter, 15. A shy book lover, who falls in love with Fyedka.
• Shprintze, daughter, 12
• Bielke, daughter, 9
• Motel Kamzoil, a poor, hardworking tailor who loves, and later marries, Tzeitel.
• Perchik, a scholar and revolutionary who comes to Anatevka and falls in love with Hodel.
• Fyedka, a young Christian. He shares Chava’s passion for reading and is outraged by the Russians’ treatment of the Jews.
• Lazar Wolf, wealthy butcher, widower of Fruma-Sarah. .
• Yente, the gossipy village matchmaker who matches Tzeitel and Lazar.
• Fruma-Sarah, Lazar Wolf’s dead wife, who rises from the grave in Tevye’s “nightmare”
• Grandma Tzeitel, Golde’s dead grandmother, also featured in the “nightmare”.
• Mordcha, the innkeeper.
• Rabbi, the wise village rabbi.
• Constable, a Christian man; the head of the local Russian police.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF offers music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein.  It is set in Imperial Russia in 1905.  The story centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon the family’s lives. He must cope both with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters, who wish to marry for love – each one’s choice of a husband moves further away from the customs of his faith – and with the edict of the Tsar that evicts the Jews from their village. FIDDLER’s original Broadway production in 1964 won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, score, and book.

The Dayton Playhouse is a community theatre providing outstanding theatrical productions to Miami Valley audiences of all ages for more than fifty years.  The Playhouse is nationally recognized for FutureFest, an annual festival of new plays.

The Miami Valley Symphony  is a community orchestra comprised of professional and non-professional members who perform for “the love of music.”  In addition to Fiddler, the Symphony’s season will also include: October 2- Classical gems by Schubert, Offenbach, Johann Strauss Jr., and features Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture;  December 10 – Ring in the holidays at this FREE concert with the MVSO, guests from Gem City Ballet, and more; February 26 – Eric Street performs Beethoven’s final piano concerto no. 5 – the “Emperor.” Mozart’s lively overture to “Cosi fan tutte” and the ever popular Symphony no. 40 in G minor; April 30 –  “Invitation to the Dance” featuring the music of Carl Maria von Weber, the “Slavonic Dances” of Dvorak,  St. Saens “Dance Macabre”, and Liszt’s  Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2.