MARION — The Marion Art Center will hold open auditions next month for all roles in the upcoming production of The Puzzle with the Piazza, written by Mark Dunn and directed by Pippa Asker.

Auditions are scheduled on Saturday, January 8 from 10am-12pm and Sunday, January 9 from 2-4pm at the Marion Art Center, 80 Pleasant St.

Performance dates are Friday, March 11-Sunday, March 13 and Thursday, March 17-Sunday, March 20.

All Thursday-Saturday shows will begin at 7:30pm, and Sunday matinees will begin at 2:00pm.

Due to current MAC policies and for everyone’s safety, only fully vaccinated actors will be considered for roles.

Anyone entering the Marion Art Center must wear a mask. Please send any questions to the director at pasker@comcast.net.

Director Pippa Asker will be casting four females and one male.

Roles include: Althea Witlin - woman in her seventies; Leif Morrell - young man, thirties; Connie Morrell (Leif’s wife) – thirties; Mattie Pleshette - young woman, neighbor, in her twenties/thirties; and Ina Gluck - Althea’s sister – early- to mid-seventies.

The Puzzle with the Piazza is a new full-length comedy-drama by Mark Dunn, author of Belles, Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain, and The Glitter Girls.

It tells the story of septuagenarian Althea Witlin, who has one jigsaw puzzle among her large collection that she has never completed. It contains 3,000 pieces and she has less than a day to finish it, because poor health has forced her to move in with her younger sister … without her puzzles.

The Puzzle with the Piazza is a gentle, bittersweet comedy/drama about the fragility of family ties and the often much stronger bonds of friendship that lattice the final years of our lives.