COMMUNITY NOTES: New production for resilient Menlo Players Guild; TheatreWorks auditions COMMUNITY NOTES: New production for resilient Menlo Players Guild; TheatreWorks auditions (December 03, 2003)

Despite losing their home theater and storage space, the members of the Menlo Players Guild are soldiering on with an original kids' show called "Jackie and the Beanstalk."

Staged in the Burgess Recreation Center at the Menlo Park Civic Center, the show opens Saturday, December 6, and runs through December 21. It's about a girl who dreams of being the hero of an adventure. After finding that no one will let her act out her dream, she makes up her own drama, director Dean Burgi said.

The guild has been Menlo Park's resident theater group for 64 years, but lost its home, the Burgess Theatre in the Civic Center, when it was demolished last year due to structural damage. Its storage annex, which was located next to the theater, was also recently torn down.

These events have driven the peripatetic players to perform in such locales as the Menlo Park City Council chambers, the historic courthouse in Redwood City and the grounds of Mid-Peninsula High School in Menlo Park.

Show dates for "Jackie and the Beanstalk" are December 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, at 8 p.m. on Fridays and 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is $12 for adults and free for children 12 and younger accompanied by a paying adult.

The Recreation Center is located at 701 Laurel St. For more information, call 322-3261.
TheatreWorks auditions.

TheatreWorks, the Peninsula's professional theater company, will hold open auditions January 12-18 at 1940 Colony St. in Mountain View. Performers may call December 1-20 for an audition appointment. They will be asked to perform a short memorized monologue and, for musicals, a brief song. Children must be at least 8 years old at the time of the audition. Leslie Martinson is the casting director. To schedule an appointment, call 463-7171.
Jing Lyman Lecture Series

Carol B. Muller, CEO/founder of MentorNet and consulting associate professor of mechanical engineering, will be the featured speaker on Wednesday, December 3, at the Jing Lyman Lecture Series on women in natural science and engineering.

Her talk will focus on mentoring, innovation and trends in interventions to advance women in science and engineering.

The program, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Stanford University Faculty Club's Gold Room, is free and open to the public.
Mentors needed

Friends for Youth, a nonprofit organization based in Redwood City, is looking for volunteers to serve as mentors on a one-on-one basis for young people in need.

For more information, call 482-2867 or email volunteer@friendsforyouth.org.

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