The Twin City Players (TCP) will hold auditions for a mainstage show of Calendar Girls by Tim Firth, directed by Dave Goodyear on Saturday, August 6 and Sunday, August 7 at 1:00 p.m.
Calendar Girls offers a variety of roles for four men and nine women. Interested participants of all ages are encouraged to attend.
Actors will be asked to read selections from the script.
Auditions will be held in the Twin City Players Campus at 600 West Glenlord Road, St. Joseph, Michigan 49085.
About Calendar Girls
After the death of her husband from cancer, one woman hatches a plan to raise money for a memorial to him. Based on the true story of eleven WI members who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for Leukemia research, Calendar Girls tells the story of how one charitable venture spreads like wildfire, and hordes of press descend on a small village in the Yorkshire Dales.
Character Descriptions – Note: Individuals of all ages are encouraged to audition. Character ages may vary from information listed below.
CHRIS – 50s. You want Chris at your party. She will talk to people she doesn’t know, and things to say to all silences and generate laughter. Part of this is because Chris is at home in crowds, holding court, being the centre of attention.
ANNIE – 50s. Annie will join in mischief but is at heart more conformist and less confrontational than Chris. After Chris has put a waiter’s back up in the restaurant, Annie will go in and pour calm.
CORA – around 40. Cora’s past is the most eclectic, her horizons broadened by having gone to college. This caused a tectonic shift with her more parochial parents.
JESSIE – late 60s/70s. Get on the right side of Jessie as a teacher and she’ll be the teacher you remember for life. Get on the wrong side and you will regret every waking hour. A lover of life, Jessie doesn’t bother with cosmetics — her elixir of life is bravery.
CELIA – age anything 35-50. The fact that Celia is in the WI is the greatest justification of its existence. A woman more at home in a department store than a church hall, she may be slightly younger than Chris or the same age, but she always feels like she’s drifted in from another world.
RUTH – 40s. Ruth’s journey is from the false self-confidence of the emotionally abused to the genuine self confidence of the woman happy in her own skin. Ruth is eager to please but not a rag doll, and despite being Marie’s right-hand woman she is desperate to be the cartilage in the spine of the WI and keep everyone happy. She has spine herself — if she was too wet, no-one would want her around.
MARIE – 50s. Marie has gradually built the current ‘Marie’ around herself over the years as a defense mechanism. She went to her Oz, Cheshire, and found Oz didn’t want her. She came back scorched. The WI is a trophy to her, which justifies her entire existence.
JOHN – 50s. John is a human sunflower. Not a saint. Not a hero. Just the kind of man you’d want in your car when crossing America. When he dies it feels like someone somewhere turned a light off.
ROD – Chris’s husband, 50s. You have to be a certain kind of guy to stick with Chris and Rod loves it. He can give back what he gets, and has a deadpan humor which has always made Chris laugh. He drinks a lot but never so much as to have a problem.
LAWRENCE – late 20s. Hesitant without being nerdy, Lawrence is a shy young man with enough wit to make a joke and enough spirit to turn up at the WI hall in the first place. When he arranges the shots he is close to female nudity but sees only the photo.
LADY CRAVENSHIRE – 60s. Lady Cravenshire really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing. But the WI girls seem from another world. The world of her estate workers. Dress: when she makes an entrance, she must make an entrance.
ELAINE – 20s. Elaine really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing. But Jessie seems from another world. The world of her gran. Dress: her clinical whites slice through like a knife. You feel you could cut yourself on that dress.
LIAM – late 20s. Liam would like to be directing other things than photoshoots for washing powders. He’s not so unprofessional as to let it show, but we can sense a slight weariness at having to deal with these women. There’s a resigned patience to his actions and each smile he makes we feel is professional.
Performance dates are September 30-October 23, 2016. This production is sponsored by The Herald-Palladium. Calendar Girls is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.
