“CENTENNIAL CASTING” A COMEDY OF MISTAKES AND LIES

When Pinocchio told a lie, his wooden nose grew and grew and then grew a little more.  It was easy to see when he prevaricated from the truth.  Not so easy to part fact from fiction when Vincent Didonato wanders into the land of falsehoods in Seven Angels Theatre’s current offering of the Gino DiLorio and Nancy Bleemer comedy “Centennial Casting” playing in Waterbury until Sunday, March 11.

When you enter Vincent’s family’s sheet metal shop that makes auto parts and tools, you’d hardly expect to find a casting couch.  But the ambiguity of the business’s name, Centennial Casting, allows for more than a little confusion.  Eager young starlets frequently submit their photos and resumes in the mistaken conclusion that the metal shop is really a theatrical agent’s office.

Now that Vincent’s mom has gone to that great resting place in the sky, he is the boss. The sight of an actress’s photo on his cluttered desk sets off a domino effect of actions and consequences that brings an enthusiastic and naïve actress Edie Keaton to Vincent’s “theatrical” door.  Edie (Elizabeth Meadows Rouse) thinks she is meeting Vincent (Lou Martini, Jr.), the producer of a new independent film about a racetrack, a fiction that Vince’s co-workers Doo Doo (Anthony Patellis) and Carmine (Nicholas Wilder) are helping him fabricate. Vincent has been in a funk and his friends feel meeting Edie will dispel his sorrows.

Edie’s best buddy Michele (Amanda Brooke Lerner), who works beside her at the Moondance Diner, encourages her to pursue her dream of being on stage instead of settling for a job as a drama teacher in Ohio.  Vincent’s little white lie soon blossoms into a rainbow of fabrications.

Semina De Laurentis directs this quirky and convoluted path to romance that detours with funny twists and turns before it crosses the finish line, by a nose (the winning horse’s, not Pinocchio’s).

For tickets ($29-39), call Seven Angels Theatre, Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org.  Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Come play Casanova and Cupid as Mr. Vincent Didonato takes on the role of big city theatrical agent by inviting aspiring actress Edie Keaton to test out the comfort of his casting couch.