Acting army needed for War of the Worlds

GROUNDBREAKING children’s theatre producer Arena Theatre Company is calling out for cast members for an innovative production of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.

The show is set to be performed simultaneously with Riverland Youth Theatre in Renmark and D’Faces Youth Arts in Whyalla.

It’s holding a group audition on Tuesday 23 July from 4pm to 6pm at its headquarters in the MacGillivray Hall at 132 McCrae St, and is seeking local actors aged 12 to 24 who identify as neurodiverse and/or queer, for which this adaptation of the play has been written for.

Christian Leavesley, Arena’s artistic director, said the play was written by a long term colleague, Fleur Kilpatrick, from the Riverland Youth Theatre.

“She works with a group of young people who are a really rich, diverse group of people,” he said.

“There’s a lot of neurodiversity, and there’s a queer group in there.

“She had this notion of doing a version of War of the Worlds, in which the people who are best equipped to get us through this alien invasion are actually those people.

“She walked me through all the reasons and I just thought it was brilliant.”

Leavesly said what he’s hoping for during the audition process is that “it’s a really safe space.

“We’ll walk a really gentle path through that,” he said.

“If people who are interested in the material and possibly interested in classics, but also have the lived experience, I think it’s an opportunity to come meet a whole lot of people that are like minded and work on some brand new theatre scenes, and then develop as a group.

“I think that’s what theatre does so well, particularly for young people who are feeling a bit disconnected.”

For further information visit arenatheatre.com.au/war-of-the-worlds.