The time has come – the time to audition for the first production of Bay Tree Council for the Performing Arts’ upcoming season.

“Christmas Belles” will open the new season for BTCPA, which closed its most recent season in April with “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

“This play is a sequel to the play ‘Dearly Beloved,’ a play we did last February, about a Southern family trying to put on a wedding,” Scotty Kennedy explained. “Since it was such a big hit, we decided to continue the story with this play by the same authors.

“As Southerners ourselves, I think we can all identify with these characters as well as the situations they find themselves in,” Kennedy said.

But long before the curtain opens on opening night, the first step, of course, is auditions.

Auditions will be held Sept. 18 at 2 p.m. and Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Weatherford Centre in Red Bay. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script, with parts for four men and seven women – some of which, Kennedy said, could be played by older teenagers.

“Some of the previous cast members will be auditioning, but there are some new parts that were not in ‘Dearly Beloved,’ and some parts will not be returning. We always welcome new people to audition,” Kennedy said.

Rehearsal will be begin Sept. 26, performance dates will be Nov. 10-13.

In addition to on-stage roles, “if anyone is interested in helping out backstage, we always need stage managers, help with painting the set and people to take up tickets and help with concessions,” Kennedy said.

This show is designed to get the audience in the holiday spirit. It’s Christmastime in the small town of Fayro, Texas, and the Futrelle Sisters – Frankie, Twink and Honey Raye – are not exactly in a festive mood. A cranky Frankie is weeks overdue with her second set of twins. Twink, recently jilted and bitter about it, is in jail for inadvertently burning down half the town. And hot-flash-suffering Honey Raye is desperately trying to keep the Tabernacle of the Lamb’s Christmas Program from spiraling into chaos.

But things are not looking too promising: Miss Geneva, the ousted director of the previous 27 productions, is ruthless in her attempts to take over the show. The celebrity guest Santa Claus – played by Frankie’s long-suffering husband, Dub – is passing a kidney stone. One of the shepherds refuses to watch over his flock by night without pulling his little red wagon behind him. And the entire cast is dropping like flies due to food poisoning from the Band Boosters’ Pancake Supper.

When Frankie lets slip a family secret that has been carefully guarded for decades, all hope for a successful Christmas program seems lost, even with an Elvis impersonator at the manger. But in true Futrelle fashion, the feuding sisters find a way to pull together in order to present a Christmas program the citizens of Fayro will never forget.

For more information contact Kennedy at 256-356-8758. Make plans now to see this hilarious production, and for more information on bringing groups for dinner and the show, contact Beth Hammock at 256-356-9286.