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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

CHESTER THEATRE GROUP AUDITIONS ACTORS FOR GURNEY PLAY

THE CHESTER THEATRE GROUP at the BLACK RIVER PLAYHOUSE AUDITION NOTICE

THE COCKTAIL HOUR
By A.R. Gurney
Directed by Cindy Alexander

WHEN:  Sunday August 28, at 2 PM and Tuesday, August 30, at 7 pm
WHERE:
Black River Playhouse, located at the corner of Grove Street and Maple Avenue in Chester, NJ. 

Performances on Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 2 PM., November 4, 2011 thru November 20, 2011.

Readings will be from the script. Needed are two female and two male actors.

Contact info: Director Cindy Alexander 908.713.6207

  • Bradley, early 70's (70-74) -WASP patriarch of a wealthy up-state NY family. (Buffalo) Dresses well, plays golf, goes to "the club" and presides over the bar at the evening's cocktail hour.
  • Ann, early 70s - His wife- Also very tastefully dressed, Ann is an elegant lady who is skilled at handling the tasks of running a household. (i.e. managing the servants) She is also very refined and seemingly a little dotty. However, she is the northern version of a Steel Magnolia -stronger than she looks.
  • John - Their son- early 40s (42-44) Lives in NYC and works as an editor in a publishing house. However, his true calling is as a playwright. He has had several plays produced, but is by no means successful at it. He is in the midst of evaluating his life thus far.
  • Nina - Their daughter - two years older than her brother John. Happily married daughter who stayed in her hometown. She is obsessed with animals, particularly dogs and longs to change her life. She should have a repressed edge.

THE STORY
The time is the mid '70s; the place, a city in upstate New York. John, a playwright, returns to his family's house, bringing with him a new play which he has written about them. His purpose is to obtain their permission to proceed with production, but his wealthy, very proper parents are cautious from the outset. For them the theater is personified by the gracious, comforting era of the Lunts and Ina Claire, and they are disturbed by the bluntness of modern plays. And there is also John's sister Nina to contend with, although her reservations have to do with the fact that John has given her character such a minor role.

Their confrontation takes place during the ritual of the cocktail hour, and as the martinis flow, so do the recriminations and revelations, both funny and poignant. In the end it is evident that what John has written is closer to the truth than his family has heretofore been willing to admit and that beneath their WASP reserve, his parents and siblings are as beset with uncertainties and frustrations as their presumed "inferiors." But while they seem shackled by the past and tantalized disappointments and, with unfailing warmth and humor, they convert pained resignation into cautious but hopeful anticipation.