These are crazy times and we’ve all taken on a bunch of new projects as we socially isolate in order to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

 

We’re donating where we can, we’re cleaning the pantry, we’re organizing the 2300+ title dvd library. We finished work on the Nominee Interview Series even though the live event for our yearly Critics’ Pick Awards had to be cancelled (we’ve still got trophies to give out, eventually). We started the Corona Movie Club to help curb our boredom and constant need to talk about movies with other human beings. I’m even watching network procedurals and actually writing about them.

 

But what we all really need is comfort. We need our favourite things and our favourite people and right now those are hard to come by so we have to do everything we can to bring them together whenever possible. Our solution was to gather some of our favourite people every Saturday night throughout quarantine to read scripts over Zoom. We read all 38 Shakespeare plays in six months. Then we kept going. We decided to create mini-seasons featuring highlights from the canons of major writers across generations, plus a few bonus episodes thrown in. There’s a lot more to come, so stay tuned.

 

For the month of February, our troupe decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a selection of four movie scripts, our picks for four of the most romantic movies ever made.

 

Listen to Casablanca in audio form below (or on iTunes) then tune into our YouTube page to check out the video versions of all our live readings.

 

CLICK HERE to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes so you don’t miss an episode. 

 

The Cast of Casablanca

Stage Directions- Basel Daoud

Narrator/ Ilsa Lund- Saiya Floyd

Rick Blaine- Weldon Goree

Victor Laszlo- Nicanor Campos

Police Officer/Captain Louis Renault- Christopher Prentice

Major Strasser- Scott Garland

Annina Brandel/ Second Woman/ Ferrari/ Waiter/Headwaiter/ Emil/ German Officer- Shalyn Bass-McFaul

Jan Brandel/ Englishwoman/ Captain Tonelli/ Woman/ Sacha/ Officer /Gendarme/ Corina/ Tourist/ French Officer- Hilary Wartinger

Civilian/ Herr Heinze/ Man (various)/ German/ Cashier/ Customer/ Native/ Mrs. Leuchtag- Elizabeth Morriss

Second Policeman/ Conspirator/ Yvonne/ Carl- Rachael Nisenkier

Englishman/Moor/Ugarte/ Aide/Berger/ Frenchman/ Croupier/ Orderly- Fabiana Cabral

European/Refugee/ Sam/Abdul/ Arab/Mr. Leuchtag- Gaby Grice