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Winchester to Hold Auditions: Players Believe Everyone Needs a Good Doctor

WINCHESTER, MA: An explosive sneeze on his boss mortifies a lowly clerk who sits behind him at the theater. An attractive charmer demonstrates how to seduce a beautiful woman. A novice dental assistant bungles his first extraction. Two lonely elders in a bittersweet duet question is it “Too Late for Happiness”? A frenzied peasant woman besieges a gout-ridden banker. These, plus twenty more equally engrossing characters, appear in the Winchester Players’ upcoming fall show, Neil Simon’s “The Good Doctor”.

Set in turn-of-the-century Russia, “The Good Doctor” is a joyous blending of Neil Simon and Anton Chekhov. In the late 1800’s, Russia’s noted literary doctor wrote colorful stories for local newspapers to pay for his medical studies. While based on observation of Russian life, the characters are universal and the stories are timeless. Simon adapted 10 of these stories, some hilariously funny and some sweetly sentimental, into a brilliant Broadway success.

BJ Williams, the Players’ veteran director, whose many productions include “Visiting Mr. Green” and “Stepping Out”, states she selected this show because it is vibrant and alive. It allows the actors, each of whom will appear in 2 or 3 of the stories, the opportunity to assume a complete change of age and character. It requires each actor to have good physicality, a sense of comic timing, and the willingness to take brave risks.

Open auditions for “The Good Doctor” will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, July 23 and 24 at 7 PM, in Metcalf Hall, Winchester Unitarian Church, corner 478 Main St. and Mystic Valley Pkwy. Cold readings from the script will be used at auditions. A copy of the script, for library use, is at the Winchester Library.  Performances are scheduled for October 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 31, November 1.  For further information call 781-646-8538 or visit the web site at www.winchesterplayers.org.