Auditions for Calendar Girls The Musical to be held next week

After the great success of Dramateurs, the Letterkenny Music and Drama Group (LMDG) is now preparing for its next production - Calendar Girls: The Musical.

Gary Barlow and Tim Firth wrote this show. The direction will be by Pluincéad Ó Fearraigh, the talented Denise Roper will be the musical director and the choreography will be in the capable hands of Tina Drein Higgins.

It will be staged in An Grianán Theatre in Letterkenny from Tuesday, November 29 until Saturday, December 3. It is hoped to get the cast in place before the summer and begin practices in September.

Auditions will take place in the Illistrin National School on Monday next, May 23, and Thursday, May 26 at 7.30pm each night.

This musical is based on the play Calendar Girls, which is a comedy based on a true story about the women of the Rylstone Women's Institute in North Yorkshire. This Women's Group produced a calendar each year based on scenes of the Yorkshire dales.

In 1999, one of the ladies husbands became ill with leukemia. He would say that if the ladies planted Sunflowers, he'd make sure he'd get better so he could see them. Unfortunately, he didn't pull
through and in order to raise funds for Leukemia research, the women decided to make an ‘alternative’ calendar of themselves hoping to sell a few hundred copies around their villages.

The calendar is a little different. Each woman is posing very tastefully behind a different task that the Women's Institute teaches its members, such as making bread rolls, knitting, planting flowers, and playing the piano.

This calendar in fact became a worldwide sensation, out-selling even those of Britney Spears and Cindy Crawford at the time. Eventually, the women are flown to America to be interviewed by television show host Jay Leno.

The calendar has made more than £3 million so far for Leukemia research.

The LMDG staged the play Calendar Girls to sold-out houses in An Grianán in 2012 and 2013 and it is envisioned that the musical will be just as successful.

The musical is slightly different from the play in that it has added more characters and of course, most of the main characters need to be able to sing.

The cast ranges from ages 18 to 65/70 and has male and female parts – no under 18s unfortunately.

If you are interested in taking part in this musical, come along to the auditions. The group is always glad to welcome new members. If you can’t sing don’t worry – there are non-singing parts as well.

If you would just like to be part of the group in any capacity – front or backstage, come along and make yourself known.

If you are interested in auditioning for one of the singing parts you may e-mail plunkettferry@gmail.com and he will send you some pieces to prepare.