CHATHAM PLAYERS TO HOLD AUDITIONS FOR "AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY"
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
by Tracy Letts
WHEN: Thursday, June 11, and Monday, June 15 at 7:30 PM.
WHERE: The Chatham Playhouse 23 North Passaic Ave., Chatham
Production dates: October 7–22, with rehearsals to begin mid-August.
Winner of both the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play. This play is about a vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Mix in Violet, the drugged-up, scathingly acidic matriarch, and you've got a major new play that unflinchingly—and uproariously—exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family.
"This is a play that will leave us laughing and wondering, shuddering and smiling, long after the house lights come back on." —NY Newsday.
"This original and corrosive black comedy deserves a seat at the dinner table with the great American family plays." —Time Magazine.
Director Jeffrey Fiorello seeks six men / seven women (one able to play teenager) to fill out his cast.
- Auditions will consist of cold readings from sides provided in small groups.
- Sides and Auditions Form are available prior to the auditions. To access sides and form, please visit our website at http://www.chathamplayers.org/auditions.html
Character Breakdown (Ages given are only approximate)
- Beverly Weston: (69) Patriarch of the family. Polite, soulful, melancholic … and ultimately suicidal.
- Violet Weston: (65) Devious matriarch of the family. Addicted to pills. Sharp-tongued with a shrewd awareness of the many family secrets which she does not hesitate to reveal.
- Barbara Fordham: (46) Eldest Weston daughter. Trying to control everything and everyone. Cynical.
- Bill Fordham: (49) Barbara’s estranged husband. College professor (having an affair with one of his students).
- Jean Fordham: (14) Barbara and Bill’s “pot-smoking” daughter, vegetarian. Bitter about her parents’ split.
- Ivy Weston: (44) Middle daughter, known as “mom’s favorite,” though Violet constantly tells her that she is plan and needs a man. Teaches at the local college. Has a dark secret or two.
- Karen Weston: (40) Youngest daughter. “Fled” to Florida. Claims to have never been happy in her life, but is not happily engaged to Steve, whom she considers the “perfect man.”
- Mattie Fae Aiken: (57) As jaded as her sister Violet. She is naïve but also controlling and belittles her husband Charlie and especially their son Little Charles.
- Charlie Aiken: (60) Mattie Fae’s husband of 40 years. A genial man who was a lifelong friend of Beverly’s. Hen-pecked and timid … till he finally puts his foot down.
- Little Charles Aiken: (37) Mattie Fae and Charlie’s son. His mother calls him a “screw up.” Has a dark secret.
- Johnna Monevata: (26) Cheyenne Indian woman, hired by Beverly as a live-in housekeeper shortly before his disappearance. Not many lines, but is the most compassionate and morally grounded of all—swoops in like a warrior-angel saving characters from despair and destruction.
- Steve Heidebrecht: (50) Karen Weston’s fiancé, business man in Florida. Loathsome, lecherous character.
- Sheriff Deon Gibeau: (47) High-school classmate / boyfriend of Barbara. Investigates Beverly’s disappearance.
The Chatham Players have an open call casting policy. ALL roles are open, none are precast, and everyone is encouraged to audition.
For directions or additional information, please visit www.chathamplayers.org
