Auditions This weekend for World Premiere Production of ONE KISS CAFE

Ted Swindely, author and creator of Always...Patsy Cline, will direct the world premiere production of Parrish Stanton's musical, One Kiss Cafe, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Ford Theatre, March 11-28. Produced by Nashville-based Phoenix Rising Entertainment Inc., auditions for the new musical will be held this weekend, January 30 and 31.

Auditions will be held at the Country Music Hall of Fame for the production, which will offer paid positions for those actors cast in the musical's four roles. Actors should be available for callbacks following the auditions and a headshot and resume are preferred, but are not required.

Producers are seeking one man and one woman, both in their 20s; a woman in her late 40s to 60s; and one man in his late 30s to 40s. Auditionees should prepare an up-tempo song and a ballad, to be sung to karaoke tracks or an accompanist will be provided. This is an open casting call, but for a specific appointment time, actors should call (615) 915-0891 for more information.

Rehearsals will be held February 22-March 10, with evening rehearsals scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. Actors should be available both day and evenings for tech week (March 8-11) at the Ford Theatre at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The musical's preview performance will be staged on Thursday, March 11, with public performances scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, March 12-28

A breakdown of characters follows:

• Ricky Stakonis "Ricky" is a good looking young man in his twenties who has left his small town home in Oklahoma and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to get "discovered" as a talented songwriter at the world famous One Kiss Café. He was raised by a struggling single mother and extended family. But what he lacked in stability he more than made up for with his good looks and charisma.  Success has always come easily for Ricky. He has a history of being a ladies man and using his wild imagination in his songwriting. Ricky can play guitar.

• Sara Baker "Sara" is from a small town in Ohio and has also moved to Nashville to pursue her songwriting dreams. Although she has already been in Nashville for nine months and is working as a waitress at the One Kiss Café, she is struggling in her music career and having a hard time being inspired to write new music. She is in her twenties and is attractive in a "girl next door" way. She is the oldest daughter in a farming family, active in every aspect of school music, theatre, and church activities as well. The "Truth" is her golden chalice in both her personal life and her songwriting.

• Tootsie McCoy "Tootsie" is a woman in her late forties to sixties and is the owner and bartender at the One Kiss Café. She traveled many years with her husband who was a rodeo cowboy. When he passed (may he rest in peace), she decided to pursue her second love, country music. She opened up this little music venue 16 years ago.  Its success as a place for songwriters to get "discovered" has garnered it world-wide fame in songwriting circles. She is humorous, wise, charismatic, and is very much a surrogate mother-figure to both Ricky and Sara.

• Carl "Midas" Bradford "Midas" is a man in his late thirties to forties. He is an Armani suit-wearing, smooth-talking city slicker from Los Angeles. He is the president of the Song Syndicate, the most successful music publisher in Nashville. He is motivated by greed and has little regard for country music or the songwriters who create it. His m/o is to sign as many talented songwriters as possible to "staff writing" deals in a "numbers game." His theory is that if you crank out enough songs a few of them will make it big.

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