HALLOWELL — Gaslight Theater will hold auditions for “Picnic” by William Inge at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 2, and at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 4. Directed by Ellen Lamb, casting includes seven women, four men, ages 15-70, in this classic story of complicated love. Performances will be held August 23-35 and 29-31 at Hallowell City Hall. Auditions will be cold readings and short improvisation exercises.

The story happens on a Labor Day weekend in the connected backyards of two middle-aged widows. One house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster school teacher. The other house belongs to Helen Potts, who lives with her elderly and invalid mother.

Into this female atmosphere comes a young man named Hal Carter, whose animal vitality seriously upsets the entire group. Hal is a most interesting character, a child of parents who ignored him, self-conscious of his failings and his position behind the eight ball.

Flo is sensitively wary of temptations for her daughters. Madge, bored with being only a beauty, sacrifices her chances for a wealthy marriage for the excitement Hal promises. Her sister, Millie, finds her balance for the first time through the stranger’s brief attention. And the spinster is stirred to make an issue out of the dangling courtship that has brightened her life in a dreary, minor way.

For more information, email Gaslighttheater@yahoo.com.

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