Auditions open Thursday and Friday for 'Mystery Plays'

Theater Artists Olympia seeking local actors for planned July performances

This is the entrance to Theater Artists Olympia's performance space inside Capital Mall, modified in April 2023.

Photo courtesy of Theater Artists Olympia

Posted Tuesday, June 13, 2023 7:34 pm

By P. Jade Asumbrado

Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) will hold auditions for aspiring and experienced actors on Thursday and Friday, June 15-16, starting at 7 p.m. at its OlyTheater space in Capital Mall. The auditions are RSVP.

Six to eight actors will be cast, and it will be done through a cold reading of the script.

Chosen actors will play a part in the Mystery Plays written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa that will run in August, with rehearsals starting on June 25.

The Mystery Plays are two loosely interrelated one-acts, inspired by the tradition of medieval mystery plays but seen through the lens of The Twilight Zone.

Plays

In the first play, "The Filmmaker's Mystery," horror film director Joe Manning becomes the lone survivor of a horrific train wreck and is haunted by the ghost of another passenger. As the police investigate, Joe desperately tries to understand why he survived and what it cost him.

In the second play, “Ghost Children,” Joe's ex and attorney, Abby Gilley, travels to rural Oregon to deal with an unresolved issue surrounding her brother, who was incarcerated for murdering the rest of their family. The mystery play wrestles with the mysteries of death, the afterlife, faith, and forgiveness, with a side of the old TAO darkness.

Theater Artists Olympia (TAO), is a local non-profit organization has for 20 years been committed to making accessible, underrepresented, and “untamed” theater for the Olympia and greater Thurston County community. TAO is operated and maintained solely by a volunteer Board of Directors and staff dedicated to the mission and vision to produce great theater.

TAO is the resident company of Oly Theater, an intimate 60-seat "black box" area presenting outstanding live theater, dedicated to serving the South Sound theater community.

Aside from the upcoming production, TAO will also run an interactive show for 3-5-year-old kids, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, on June 15-17.

Visit TAO's website to see more of the upcoming productions or auditions.