Grand Illusion Theatre holding two sets of auditions

Submitted by Tim Hesse

The Grand Illusion Theatre at Mena Mountain Resort will be holding two sets of auditions in December.

The first call is for comedy skits or musical performance auditions, taking place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2. They are seeking individuals with hidden talents to perform at the New Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 31.

Dewayne Hodges will be the featured performer and will provide musical entertainment from 9 p.m. to midnight. The other chosen acts, along with some karaoke from the audience, will be from 7-9 p.m. Karaoke will continue after midnight.

Auditions for the play, “Love Among the Ruins”, to be performed in February, will be held on Saturday, Dec. 9 at

2 p.m. Parts to be cast include:

- 3 actors (1 male and 2 females) able to play characters from 65-75.

- 1 male actor able to play 25-35.

- 5 actors (male or female) able to play characters 30-60.

In addition to actors, anyone interested in lighting, sound, props, costumes or backstage work are welcome to attend the auditions.

If you are unfamiliar with “Love Among the Ruins,” The film version starring Sir Lawrence Olivier is available on YouTube.

Rehearsals will start Jan. 2 and the show will be performed in a dinner theater setting on Feb. 9 and 10.

Please call the Resort at 479-3943110 with any questions.

Horses

continued from page 1 at Pilot Point, Texas. I’ve been shipping her up here. She’s our official vet for the rescue now. So very exciting.”

The Instagram videos with Stoudt speaking on the foals are in Texas. Olivieri said, “She took three babies with her that were the sickest. She does a 24-hour monitor and checks blood levels and all the things I can’t do on the front tier on the ranch.

“Cameron’s actually a family friend. My sister [Bettina] is a vet and Cameron and her, are alumni over in OSU, and that’s how I know Cameron. And they’re also, just because they’re in sports medicine, they have a cutting-edge facility so they’re able to really do a lot of things that it’s a little bit tougher to get from local vets, you know?

“But I still work with everybody. I still work with Randy and PETA over at the Ouachita [Equine Clinic] horse clinic there. Yeah. So, I get vitamin bags from them. I get a lot of medicines that I need quickly from them. So, we all work out together, you know, it’s just who, who has access to what?

Animals and causes

The actor’s love goes well beyond horses and isn’t just a spur of the moment fascination. She has a history of attending events such as the Genesis Awards, which are annually awarded by the Humane Society of the United States to individuals in the news and entertainment media for producing outstanding works that raise public awareness of animal issues. She also supports conservation groups, or the Environmental Media Association, and groups such as Global Green USA for a sustainable earth.

Then there are the groups to support cancer research or others for helping people in faraway places. As a matter of fact, she’s slated to be heading to India on horseback this coming weekend as she joins Relief Riders International to help deliver healthcare and spread goodwill to underserved populations in India.

Several years ago, she reportedly told Marie Claire magazine, “I will stop my car if there’s a stray animal along the side of the road. I’ve spent hours trying to catch lost dogs wearing collars so I can help people get their pets back.”

Her sister wasn’t the only one who had plans to be a vet. “I was gonna be a vet. I actually started my journey in pre-med and that is what I wanted to do. And then I made a pivot because I had this realization while I was in college and I thought, you know, I just love having animals and I don’t wanna always be surrounded by all the sick ones and the dying ones. Look at me now, the same thing I didn’t wanna do and now I’m just a frontline doctor in a way. And I’m surrounded by sick ones, I guess. But it’s got a path for you.”

“I’ve always rehabbed animals, from squirrels to skunks to you name it. If there was something hurting, I was like, I can fix it. Let me figure it out, you know, and being that I’m surrounded — my sister being a vet, my mom being a nurse — we have a very medical-centric family.

“I was always the one exploring herbal medicines and just other ways of curing things,” Olivieri said. “I always had the backup of the antibiotics and the heavier drugs that go to the pharmaceuticals and the animal industry. But I always wanted to try to do it the natural way and figure out how things moved. I have a very holistic way of maybe deucing sickness and my family has always been doing that. Nobody in my family runs a full-on rescue at all, but we do piecemeal, you know, like one animal will show up and we’ll fix that baby and then we’ll rehome it just like probably a lot of people do.

“When you’re doing that all the time, you kind of have to learn how to do things yourself because none of us can afford the vet bills every single time a stray shows up and you gotta figure a doctor or something, or, especially when you run a ranch and you’ve got 50-plus animals.

“We have a different relationship. We’re gonna try to do it ourselves first. Then, if we get to a point where it’s beyond our pay grade, then we’re gonna outsource the aid. But, for me with the horses, I honestly didn’t even mean to do this. It was a total, I call it a pop-up rescue because the actors’ strike started. Our union is striking still even now.”

At the time of the interview, the strike was still ongoing. Coincidentally, it ended Nov. 9, the day she was livestreaming in the rain.

[Ed. Read Part 2 of Olivieri’s interview in next week’s The Polk County Pulse.]

Basketball 11/16

Football season ends for Bearcats and Lions

By Ethan Nahté

Both the Mena Bearcats and the Mount Ida Lions football teams have been eliminated in the first round of the 2023 Arkansas Centennial Bank State Playoffs last Friday night. Mena traveled a long way across Arkansas and north of West Memphis to take on the No. 1 Rivercrest Colts in 4A play. The return trip probably felt even longer after a 36-0 loss.