LACONIA — Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, the resident theater company of the Colonial Theatre in Laconia, is excited to announce auditions for its first musical of 2026. Powerhouse will be producing the NH premiere and one of the first community theater productions of a brand new musical, “The Magician’s Elephant,” by Nancy Harris and Marc Teitler. If the title sounds familiar it may be because it is a musical adaptation of Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning novel which was also recently adapted into an animated film on Netflix.
In the town of Baltese nothing exciting ever happens. But one day a magician summons an elephant which crash lands through the roof of the Opera House and sets off a chain of events too impossible to believe, including helping Peter, a teen boy, search for his long lost younger sister.
Powerhouse has engaged Sherry Gardner to build an almost life-sized elephant puppet to be operated by three puppeteers and bring an elephant through the Colonial’s elephant door on Canal Street for the first time in many years.
Auditions will be open to kids and adults 10 and up and the show includes leading roles, supporting roles, roles for dancers, and of course puppeteers. Check out powerhousenh.org/auditions for more information.
Auditions for the leading teen/pre-teen roles of Peter and Adele will be held on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 6:30 p.m. and auditions for all other roles will be held Saturday, Jan. 24, at 1 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 25, at 6:30 pm. Performances will be May 1-3 at the Colonial Theatre.
The production will be directed by Powerhouse’s Bryan Halperin, who said, “when we were looking for an exciting musical for the May slot I got an email from one of the licensing agents that this new show was now available. I like magic and love elephants so I read it and immediately knew this was a perfect, unique show for Powerhouse to produce. I can’t wait to bring this theater magic to the community in May.”
For more information, visit powerhousenh.org or email info@powerhousenh.org.
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