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Date: 7/31/2019
WILBRAHAM – The Firefly Creative, a Wilbraham-based performance and theater company, is having open auditions for “Illuminate,” an original show produced by the Firefly Creative, and written by Colin Tracy, the Creative’s founder.
The auditions are scheduled for Aug. 10, 17, and 24 at City Church, 51 Taylor St., in Springfield. The rehearsals will be in the same space, though the production of “Illuminate” will be at Evangel Assembly of God, in Wilbraham, and will run Nov. 15 at 7 p.m., Nov. 16 at 2 and 7 p.m., and Nov. 17 at 6 p.m.
Auditions can be scheduled at www.signupgenius.com/go/70a054dadae2aa0f49-illuminate.
Tracy formed the Firefly Creative earlier this year. Their first production was of the satirical musical, “Urinetown” in June. They are now in rehearsals for an original play titled “Shadowlands,” that will run from Sept. 6 to 8. There are about 20 people regularly involved in the Creative’s productions.
For this production, there are 10 adult roles to fill – six female and four male, as well as a role for a young girl between the ages of 6 and 8.
“Illuminate” is the story of a human trafficker and his victim. Both characters are explored as three-dimensional people, Tracey said.
“We never like to see ourselves as someone villainous,” Tracey said, adding that characters who do horrible things are usually depicted as evil, “but that’s not really how things work.” Tracey said he wanted to explore how someone can do something terrible to another person. And then there’s the victim.
“She’s dealing with a lot of darkness inside,” Tracey said. She’s trying to learn how to trust again. Tracy said the characters share an emotional moment at the climax of the play.
The Creative will donate a portion of the proceeds to a non-profit that works with victims of human trafficking, Tracy said, although the details haven’t yet been finalized with the non-profit.
Tracy is passionate about human trafficking. He told Reminder Publishing that he had worked at a Pride gas station while in college and would see prostitutes hanging around nearby. When someone was later arrested for human trafficking there, he said, he realized that he had been oblivious to it happening in front of him. It deeply affected him.
“People need to be aware that it’s all over and it’s not what people think it looks like,” Tracy said.
Tracy researched and wrote about the topic in his senior thesis paper. From there, he wrote a series of novels about human trafficking, “Ebon Sky,” under his pen name, C.T. Daniels. “Illuminate” is adapted from those novels.