Audition Dates
- September 18 & 19 at 6:00pm with rehearsals to begin shortly thereafter
Performance Dates
- November 10, 11, 17, & 18 (all 7:30 pm)
- November 12 & 19 (both 2:00 pm)
Audition, rehearsal and performance location
J. Philip Gibbs, Jr., Centre for the Performing Arts
(Old Town Theatre) 1023 12th St., Huntsville, TX 77340
(Old Town Theatre) 1023 12th St., Huntsville, TX 77340
TIcket Prices
- Adults $12
- Seniors $10
- Military $10
- Student (w/ID) $6
- Children (17 and under) $6
Purchase or Reserve Tickets Online Here
Link to Come
PURCHASE ONLINE with credit or debit card
RESERVE will-call tickets online, or by calling HCT's message line at 936-228-1996.
Will-call tickets must be paid for with CASH or CHECK; credit/debit cards cannot be accepted at the theatre.
HCT Box Office opens ONE HOUR before each scheduled showtime.
Link to Come
PURCHASE ONLINE with credit or debit card
RESERVE will-call tickets online, or by calling HCT's message line at 936-228-1996.
Will-call tickets must be paid for with CASH or CHECK; credit/debit cards cannot be accepted at the theatre.
HCT Box Office opens ONE HOUR before each scheduled showtime.
Synopsis
The Lone Star Love Potion (comedy) - "Mr. Stancliffe, the owner of a vast fortune, and a two hundred thousand acre Texas ranch has died. His long time butler, Jarvis, and the maid, Melody, along with Mr. Stancliffe’s niece and only living relative Patrice, are there for the reading of the will by the family lawyer, Mr. Oakfield. Strangely, a Miss Tammy-Jo Harper, from the neighboring ranch, has also been invited! As expected, Patrice inherits the estate, with one clause, Jarvis may live out his life on the ranch, and Patrice may not sell it without Jarvis’s permission. After the presentation of the will, a Mary Lou Winston unexpectedly arrives. She is a dowdy ornithologist, (or is she?), who is doing research for her masters on woodpecker preservation. She requests to spend the night at the ranch, as her campsite has been rained out. Jarvis, has one other surprise for Patrice.
Acting on instructions from Mr. Stancliffe, he produces from the safe a formula, and a sample of what appears to be a love potion. Mr. Stancliffe wills 25% of the shares to Patrice, 25% to Michael, and 50% to Jarvis. But this is a love potion with a difference. Made from the bark of the Brazilian walnut tree from "Amazonia," it does not affect the person who drinks it. Rather, this powerful aphrodisiac causes them to give off an almost imperceptible odor, which affects the vomeronasal organ of the opposite sex, with devastating effect.
Can it really work? It has the potential to be worth billions. Before long everyone is testing it with hilarious results. The audience, at first convinced that it works, is then persuaded it doesn’t, and is finally left in doubt about both theories. Through all of this confusion, Michael and Patrice connive to acquire the rights to the love potion from Jarvis, by trading his shares for the forty million dollar ranch. !" (from Samuel French)
Acting on instructions from Mr. Stancliffe, he produces from the safe a formula, and a sample of what appears to be a love potion. Mr. Stancliffe wills 25% of the shares to Patrice, 25% to Michael, and 50% to Jarvis. But this is a love potion with a difference. Made from the bark of the Brazilian walnut tree from "Amazonia," it does not affect the person who drinks it. Rather, this powerful aphrodisiac causes them to give off an almost imperceptible odor, which affects the vomeronasal organ of the opposite sex, with devastating effect.
Can it really work? It has the potential to be worth billions. Before long everyone is testing it with hilarious results. The audience, at first convinced that it works, is then persuaded it doesn’t, and is finally left in doubt about both theories. Through all of this confusion, Michael and Patrice connive to acquire the rights to the love potion from Jarvis, by trading his shares for the forty million dollar ranch. !" (from Samuel French)
Character Descriptions
3 men, 4 women: 7 total.
PLEASE NOTE: The character descriptions given on this site are general descriptions; our directors have ultimate say in casting (unless contractually held to a trait by the production’s publisher). Please do not let a character trait in the description keep you from auditioning.
- MELODY - age 20-30; the late Mr Stancliffe's maid; drops things, breaks things; pursued throughout the play by Michael; a natural comedienne, young, perky, sexy
- JARVIS - age 50+; the late Mr Stancliffe's butler, can be English or American, but should not be Texan; suave and serious, but with a sparkling dry wit
- PATRICE - age 30-50; the late Mr Stancliffe's neice and heiress tohis estate; the love potion and reveals a romantic and passionate side of herself; elegant, attractive, sophisticated
- MICHAEL - age 30-50; Patrice's husband and an inveterate lecher; sets his sights on Melody; brash, loud, self-centered; not very likeable
- MR. OAKFIELD - age 40+; a short, balding, overweight lawyer, who gives the impression of a quiet, mild-mannered man until he spends most of Act II trying (unsuccessfully) to find a vacant bathroom
- TAMMY-JO - age 25-40; the neighbor from across the creek; appears to be a fairly straight character for most of the play, but later has her "moment in the sun" as a sensuous temptress; very Texan, very beautiful
- MARY-LOU - age 30-50; a serious, matronly ornithologist; changed by the love potion; plain then glamorous; conservative, then sexy; shy, then outrageous
About the Cast and Crew
TBA
About the Director
KAREN MILLER
About the Author
Michael Parker has been active in the theatre almost all his life. At age fourteen, in England where he was born and raised, he won the title role in a regional production of Terence Rattigan's play, The Winslow Boy, for which he received a "Best Actor of the Year" award. By age seventeen he was touring with The National Shakespearean Youth Company. He graduated in the top 3% of his class from The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, but describes his five years of miitary service as "uneventful". There being few employment opportuities in civilian life for infantry anti-tank specialists, at age twenty-three he emigrated to Canada where he began a Temporary Office Help business, which proved so successful that he was able to retire ten years later and move to the Caribbean. Over the succeeding years, while living in Bermuda, Grand Cayman, and The Turks and Caicos Islands, he was free again to indulge his passion for the theatre. Never far from The United States, he was able to audition for roles in many Florida Theatres. As an English actor, working in America, Mr. Parker became acutely aware of the difficulties experienced by American theatre companies, in producing English works, in particular modern farces. Re-creating the wide range of English dialects is almost impossbile, and many of the best farces simply do not "translate" well into "American". So he challenged himself to write a play which would integrate all the best loved and most familiar devices of the traditional British farce into a distinctly American setting. This had to be a play in which the verbal, visual, and above all, the circumstantial humor would be immediately available to American audiences. The result was an "American Farce", The Sensuous Senator, which was inspired by the then current sex scandal involving Senator Gary Hart. Encouraged by the success of his first play, and the popularity of the British "naughty but nice" concept, he went on to write a sequel called, The Amorous Ambassador. The rest, as they say, is history. In 1999, he wrote The Lone Star Love Potion, Hotbed Hotel in 2000, There's a Burglar in My Bed and Whose Wives Are They Anyway? in 2002, Who's In Bed with the Butler? in 2003, and Never Kiss a Naughty Nanny in 2006. He co-authored a play with his wife Susan, Sin, Sex & the CIA, in 2006, Sex Please We're Sixty! in 2008, and What is Susan's Secret? in 2010. His plays are published by Samuel French. from Samuel French)
Box Office Hours
HCT’s Box Office opens one hour before the start time of each production.
- 7:30 PM Productions – Box Office opens at 6:30 PM
- 2:00 PM Matinee – Box Office opens at 1:00 PM
Purchase or Reserve Tickets Online Here
Link to Come
PURCHASE ONLINE with credit or debit card
RESERVE will-call tickets online, or by calling HCT's message line at 936-228-1996.
Will-call tickets must be paid for with CASH or CHECK; credit/debit cards cannot be accepted at the theatre.
HCT Box Office opens ONE HOUR before each scheduled showtime.
Link to Come
PURCHASE ONLINE with credit or debit card
RESERVE will-call tickets online, or by calling HCT's message line at 936-228-1996.
Will-call tickets must be paid for with CASH or CHECK; credit/debit cards cannot be accepted at the theatre.
HCT Box Office opens ONE HOUR before each scheduled showtime.
PRESS CONTACT
HCT Message Line: 936-228-1996
Email: hct.board@gmail.com
Email: hct.board@gmail.com
Purchase a 2017-18 Season Membership HERE
"The Lone Star Love Potion" is produced by special arrangement with Samuel French.
