Now beginning its 16th season, Footlighters Theatre Society is looking for performers to take part in two very different productions, Shakespeare in the Park (or Something Like It) V and An Evening on Broadway.

This marks a change from the previously announced 2010-2011 season, which was to have begun on July 9 with Kaslo Kate, a musical melodrama by Grand Forks author-composer Helen Durham.

“We were very disappointed to cancel Kaslo Kate,” said Footlighters president Brian Lawrence. “Unfortunately, we had difficulty finding a complete cast. We certainly regret the inconvenience this may have caused for the cast members who were committed to the show, and to the people in the community who were interested in seeing it.”

The cancellation of Kaslo Kate prompted the addition of An Evening on Broadway to the season — Shakespeare in the Park on Aug. 19-21 at Millennium Park, and, at the newly renamed Prince Charles Theatre, An Evening on Broadway in October, Happy Hollandaise and Misdeeds at Mistletoe Mine in November and The Sound of Music in April.

This will be the final installment of Shakespeare in the Park, which has been an annual feature of the group’s schedule since 2006.

“We committed to running Shakespeare in the Park for five years,” said Lawrence. “So we’re hoping to make this the best yet and go out with a bang.”

Performers who would like to present any of William Shakespeare’s work — soliloquies, scenes, sonnets — are welcome to participate. For more information about Shakespeare in the Park (or Something Like It) V, contact Gail Kitt at 250-428-9415.

An Evening on Broadway, co-hosted by Lawrence and Simone Wiebe, will be a fundraiser for improvements to the Prince Charles Theatre. The Creston Community Auditorium Society has already spent about $6,000 on new black curtains, which block the wings from the audiences — the current curtains are more than 20 years old and held together with glue and duct tape. The goal of the concert is to raise a portion of the funds needed to purchase the rest of the curtains.

Lawrence, who hosts the Broadway-themed Curtain Call on CIDO 97.7 FM, is developing a list of songs he would like to see included — not that performers have to stick to that.

“If someone has a favourite song that isn’t on my list, I’m more than happy to accommodate them,” he said. “I do plan to have everyone involved in the opening and closing numbers — and sing backup on a couple in between — but beyond that, anything goes.”

The concert will run for two nights in late October, and rehearsals for group numbers will be held weekly starting in September.

Performers don’t just have to sing, though — instrumental pieces, dance routines and monologues from plays are also welcome.

“The only requirement is that the music or dialogue must have appeared on Broadway,” said Lawrence.

For more information about An Evening on Broadway, contact Brian Lawrence at 250-428-2266 ext. 103 or editor@crestonvalleyadvance.ca.