This time it happened in reverse . . . a highly successful 2003 film was adapted into a stage play in 2008 with Tim Firth’s “Calendar Girls,” the Tryon Little Theater’s final offering for the 2015-2016 season, to play April 28 – May 8.

Director Chris Tinkler has set auditions for Sunday, March 6 at 3 p.m. and Monday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at the Workshop, 516 S. Trade Street. Based on a true story, a group of Yorkshire women produce a nude calendar to raise money for leukaemia research under the auspices of the Women’s Institute.

Critics raved about “Calendar Girls,” saying, “It’s marvelous theatre, guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and come out singing Jerusalem,” and “Dazzlingly funny, shamelessly sentimental and utterly captivating … the mingling of pathos and comedy here is simply unbeatable.”

When Annie’s husband John dies from leukaemia, her close friend Chris, anxious to purchase a comfortable sofa for the visitors’ lounge in the hospital where he was treated, hits upon the idea of printing a calendar featuring some of the members of the Knapely branch of the Women’s Institute discreetly posing nude while engaged in traditional WI activities, such as baking and knitting, in order to raise funds.

As Celia says, “Come and hang out with the real women of this country and learn a little debauchery before it’s too bloody late.” And from Chris: “Suddenly I want to raise money in memory of a man we all loved. And to do that I’m prepared to take my clothes off on a calendar.”

“Calendar Girls” calls for nine women and four men ranging in age from 20s to 70s.  Lest anyone should feel hesitant to audition, playwright Firth notes, “As in the best traditions of vaudeville fan dances, the art of the play’s nudity lies in what is withheld. The choreography of this sequence is best described as ‘fabulous concealment.’ Should we see anything we oughtn’t, the whole scene will deflate like a soufflé on which the oven door has been opened too quickly.”

Scripts are available for 24-hour check-out from The Book Shelf, 94 N. Trade Street, Tryon. For further information, call Chris Tinkler at 828-859-3006.

–Submitted by Connie Clark