Auditions set for comedy penned by Jamestown writer

JAMESTOWN – A local author and playwright is bringing her second play to the stage and is looking for people to audition this weekend.

Jennifer Bourne’s comedy “Blue” is expected to take the stage in April at The Arts Center. All proceeds from the performances will benefit The Arts Center, Bourne said. She is also seeking financial sponsors for the production.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” she said of the play, which will be her second to be performed at The Arts Center. “I’m excited to be putting something back out there, watching it come to life on the stage …”

“Blue” is a three-act comedy with a large cast, Bourne said.

“The whole concept of the play is small-town USA … Upper Midwest,” she said. “A young man graduates from college and comes back to his hometown and decides that he wants to live his authentic life, and the whole town just freaks out.”

Half of the town is supportive and half of the town is not, she said.

Auditions will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, at The Arts Center, 115 2nd St. SW.

“There’s lots of roles, there’s lots of parts in this play, so people who want to wet their feet, there’s some parts that have not a lot of speaking and then there’s other parts that have a lot of dialogue,” Bourne said.

The play, which is tentatively being planned as a dinner theater event, will be directed by Samantha Irwin.

Bourne wrote “The Purple Orchid List,” a true-story comedy play that was performed at The Arts Center in 2011.

After that, it wasn’t long before the idea of “Blue” came to her, she said.

“I was pretty much done with it, writing the whole script and then my computer ate it,” Bourne said.

Only 23 pages of the 60- to 70-page script could be found on her computer, she said, and the rest couldn’t be retrieved. She was so upset, she said she couldn’t even look at her computer or those remaining pages from the play. It would be years before she would work on it again.

Bourne’s mother, Marilyn Teckenburg, who had inspired her to write “The Purple Orchid,” passed away in 2020, and Bourne said she quit writing after that. Two years later, a friend asked Bourne why she wasn’t writing and Bourne decided the time was right to try again.

I blew the dust off of ‘Blue’ … because it was already written, it was already in my head,” she said, so she just needed to put the words back on pages, with a few changes.

“I finished it and I realize now that the play has much more … social impact, it’s much more poignant now than it would have been had I released it in 2012 because everybody nowadays is about being authentic and living their best life,” Bourne said. “Back then, not so much. The timing of it, is I think much better now than it would have been 12 years ago when I originally wrote it.”

A Fargo theater group has expressed interest in performing “Blue,” she said, but she wanted The Arts Center to have it first.

"We are looking forward to another production from Jennifer," said Mindi Schmitz, executive director of The Arts Center. "Jamestown loves community theater and we are happy to provide the venue for this production."

Businesses interested in helping sponsor the event may contact The Arts Center or Bourne at (701) 269-1975.

Bourne said she is also almost finished with work on another play.

———————————————————

What: Auditions for “Blue,” a three-act comedy

When: 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5

Where: The Arts Center, 115 2nd St. SW