The company's 41st season, which began in October with the suspense thriller In for the Kill, will continue in February with its next production, Play On, which the play's producer, George Doeltz, describes as a "poor man's Noises Off."

Written in 1980 by Rick Abbot, Play On is a farce about an inept community theater group that faces all kinds of obstacles while mounting a murder mystery, from technical difficulties to an egotistical first-time playwright who keeps meddling with the production.

"Since it is the playwright's first effort, she babies it along by not leaving the cast alone to do their job," says Doeltz, who also serves as the Santa Clara Players' treasurer. "Not only does she interfere but she goes so far as to change whole scenes and relationships three days before the opening."

Auditions for Play On will be held Jan. 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Triton Museum Hall Pavilion at Don and Warburton avenues in Santa Clara. The group is asking for actors to bring along any special skills, like juggling or "their best bad British accent."

"What this all leads to—if we do our job right—is a hilarious look at the production of a play with all its problems. We hope to have as much fun putting this on as the fictitious cast has problems," Doeltz says.

Play On will open on Feb. 28 and close on March 22. After Play On, Santa Clara Players will conclude the season in May with playwright Nancy Gilsenan's drama Tender Lies, the story of Arlo Gibson, the landlord of a shabby old Victorian house on Seventh Street in San Jose, and the "tender lies" he tells to his struggling tenants to boost their self-confidence.

Santa Clara Players stages three or four plays per season and has a touring group that regularly performs one-act plays for retirement homes and Elks lodges. Past Santa Clara Players productions have included the comic mystery Murder Most Fouled-Up, the Neil Simon plays Jake's Women and Come Blow Your Horn, the suspense thriller The Swan Song and Devour the Snow, a courtroom drama about the Donner Party.

Doeltz says the company, which is subsidized by the city, has been doing well financially this season, although it has been a difficult year for many other small arts groups due to the battered economy.

"About 15 percent of our budget comes from the city. Most of the rest of it comes from ticket sales. We're hanging in there," Doeltz says.

Santa Clara Players' current priorities include remodeling the chairs in the 75-seat Hall Pavilion, the company's primary venue, and fixing the building's malfunctioning air conditioning. The company members also hope to expand their subscriber base, which has increased this year from about 160 subscribers to 180.

Though he's aware that a career in community theater doesn't pay very much, Doeltz says he and his fellow Santa Clara Players members continue to work in community theater because they find it to be a fun line of work.

"You've got a lot of people who really want to do this. Nobody's doing it for the big bucks because there aren't any. You do it because you love theater," Doeltz says. "Community theater is especially fun because it's different every show and because you never know what's going to happen next."

For more information about the Santa Clara Players, visit www.scplayers.org or call 408.248.7993.