Theatre lovers can't say they're lacking opportunity in Elizabeth City. Between Encore and the COAST Players, theatre season has five reasons to be grateful.

Kicking off in October, the Elizabeth City theatre season launches with a stage adaptation of a cinema classic and moves into November with a family comedy carved up just in time for Thanksgiving. Both COAST Players and Encore Theatre are holding auditions this month for their upcoming fall productions.

Staff photo by Justin Falls (ENLARGE)

Dean Schaan, (right), playing Greg, talks with his wife Kate, played by Ashley Campbell, as Sylvia, played by Alex Cohoon-Kight, sits on the floor during a rehearsal of 'Sylvia' at the College of the Albemarle's auditorium Tuesday night, Nov. 6.

Creep me out

OK, there are some things that don't seem suited for the stage, like a 1968 horror classic written and directed for the screen by George Romero. That would be the cult classic "Night of the Living Dead," and, yes, it is coming to the stage at College of the Albemarle in October.

Theatre program director Shannon Ivey Jones says Romero never bothered to place a copyright on his screenplay so it existed in the public domain until playwright Lorie Lome picked it up, dusted off the zombie parts and, presto, a really entertaining horror stage show is born.

The storyline, in case you've forgotten, involves a satellite fallen to earth after picking up some unknown substance somewhere near Saturn. Whatever the satellite brought back, it was nasty enough to wake the "unburied dead," and turn them into zombies.

That's right, zombies, and they're of the flesh eating variety, if you recall the plot. But don't worry; Ivey Jones says a play this creepy has to be full of laughs.

"Horror is funny," she says. "It just is."

And to add to the giggles, Ivey Jones is holding spots open for local, well-known personalities to join the cast as zombies.

"Yeah, zombie guest appearances in the zombie core," she says. "You might see people you know."

While acting on stage is important, two big components of this production will be make-up and staging. Make-up for the zombies is bringing back a popular credited course, stage make-up.

Ivey Jones says the theatre department brings the course around every few years. This year the class will learn stage make-up skills and put that to work creating zombies.

Staging the show is also important and Ivey Jones says the look of this horror event is sepia tone.

"We'll be using browns and grays and using the lighting and costuming," she says.

Auditions for "Night of the Living Dead" will be held Aug. 27 and Aug. 28. For speaking parts, come Aug. 27 with a memorized monologue. If you're interested in being a zombie show up Aug. 28.

The show will run Oct. 23, 24 and 25 and then again on Oct. 30 for a morning matinee and Oct. 31 for two evening shows.

COAST also puts on a spring musical and Ivey Jones says this year she wants to give the kids a chance to enjoy the fun. The players will stage "A Year with Frog and Toad," based on the book by Arnold Lobel.

"It's about friendship," says Ivey Jones. "It also chronicles the passing of the seasons of the year. It's sweet."

All in the family

For years now, Encore Theatre and Arts of the Albemarle (formerly Pasquotank Arts Council) have maintained a familial-like relationship, supporting one another, boosting the arts and offering a wide variety of artistic outlets to area artists and patrons.

That relationship is evolving now that Arts of the Albemarle readies its move to the much-celebrated space at the Lowry-Chesson Building, on Main Street in downtown Elizabeth City.

This year's Encore president, Mary Cherry, says the plan is for the theatre group to do its last show of the season in the new theatre space at the Lowry-Chesson building, but no one is ready to pin down a date due to possible delays in construction.

"It (spring musical) will either be our last show in our old space or our first show in our new space," Cherry says of the reprisal of the musical "A ... My Name Will Always Be Alice."

The group performed the play nine years ago, says Cherry. And while there will be some changes to the show this year, the biggest one would come if the group gets the high-sign to stage the show in the early 20th century vaudeville theatre space.

"It's going to be a cool little space," says Cherry. "The neat thing is the balcony space."

Until that time, however, Encore will be producing the next two shows in its popular space inside the Main Street Stage Theatre, atop Arts of the Albemarle's current home.

Inside that space, theatregoers will have a chance to see this fall's comedy, "A Nice Family Gathering."

"It takes place on Thanksgiving Day," says Cherry of the story. "The basic storyline is it's the first time the family is back together since the patriarch died and he comes back as a ghost and only one of the siblings can see him."

So you add the stress of a family holiday gathering on top of a ghost who, adds Cherry, has a purpose for his appearance, and you have a whole of lot familial insanity and a lot of laughs.

Auditions for this production happen Aug. 19 and Aug. 20 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. "Gathering" will take place the first three weekends in November.

For the winter show, Encore wants to warm up audiences with a little culinary competition in "Kitchen Witches."

"Witches," says Cherry, is the story of two cooking divas that found local fame on cable access. While one has lost her show, the other is on her way out when a fight ensues between the two on air.

Cherry says the promotional line for the show is, "The insults are flung harder than the food." When the cable access people see the audience response to the battling between the two women, they put them together as a television duo that would rival any reality show today.

"It's sort of like Martha Stewart meets Paula Dean," says Cherry.

This production also presents a first for Encore as veteran performer Robyn Eure directs "Witches." The show will happen the last two weekends in February and the first weekend in March.

Cherry says the location and the dates of the spring musical will be announced at a later date.