FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre Company announces auditions for:
To Kill a Mockingbird
A play by Christopher Sergel
Based upon the novel by Harper Lee
Designed and Directed by Wayne Miller
Produced by Jean Mahlmann
Production Stage Manager: Elizabeth Watt
Auditions and callbacks will be held at the
3rd County Courthouse, 441 Clarke Ave
Staten Island, New York, 10306
(part of Historic Richmondtown)
Auditions will be held on:
Monday, January 18th 7PM to 10PM
Wednesday, January 20th, 7PM to 10PM
Saturday, January 23rd, 3PM to 6PM
If necessary, callbacks will be held on Monday January 25th at 7:30 PM
The role of Atticus Finch will be played by Joseph Daly.
All other roles are OPEN.
Seeking the following: (as described by the playwrite)
Jean Louise Finch (SCOUT): A young girl about to experience the events that will shape the rest of her life. She should, ideally, be able to play as young as age 9. Scout is courageous and forthright. If a question occurs to her, she’ll ask it.
Jeremy Finch (JEM): He is a few years older than his sister Scout, and like his sister- perhaps even more than his sister- he’s reaching out to understand their unusual and thus thus not conventionally admirable father. Perhaps the strongest undercurrent in Jem is the desire to communicate with his father.
CALPURNIA: Black, proud and capable, she has raised the motherless Scout and Jem. She’s a self educated woman and she’s made quite a good job of it. Her standards are high and her discipline as applied to Scout and Jem is uncompromising.
DILL: Small, blond and wise beyond his years, he is about the same age as Jem. Dill is neater and better dressed than his friends. There is an undercurrent of sophistication to him, but his laugh is sudden and happy. Obviously, there is a lack in his own home life, and he senses something in Atticus that’s missing from his own family relationship.
MAUDIE ATKINSON: Younger than Atticus, but of his generation, she’s a lovely sensitive woman. Though belonging to the time and place of this play, she has a wisdom and compassion that suggests the best instincts of the South of that period.
WALTER CUNNINGHAM: Cunningham is a hard-up farmer who shares the prejudices of this time and place, but nevertheless a man who can be reached as a human being. He also has seeds of leadership, for when his attitude is changed during the confrontation with Atticus, he takes the others with him.
REVEREND SYKES: Rev. Sykes is the black minister of the First Purchase Church, called that because it was paid for with the first money earned by the freed slaves. He is an imposing man with a strong stage presence. He should have a strong “minister’s” voice.
HECK TATE: Heck is the town sheriff and a complex man. He does his duty as he sees it, and enforces the law without favor. The key to this man’s actual feelings is revealed in his final speeches to Atticus, and this attitude should be an undercurrent to his earlier actions.
STEPHANIE CRAWFORD: She’s a neighborhood gossip, and enjoys it to the hilt. There’s an enthusiasm in her talking over the people of he town that makes it almost humourous. Sometimes she says things that are petty, but partly it’s because she can’t keep herself from stirring things up.
BOO RADLEY: Arthur Radley is a pale recluse who hasn’t been outside his house in fifteen years. It takes an extraordinary emergency to bring him out, and once out he’s uncertain about how to deal with people, and with his mission accomplished, he’s eager to return to his sanctuary.
MRS. DUBOSE: She is an old woman – ill, walking with difficulty, her pain making her biting, bitter, and angry. However, she’s fighting a secret battle within herself, a battle about which few people are aware, and her existence has in it a point of importance for Jem and Scout.
TOM ROBINSON: Robinson is black, handsome and vital, but with a left hand crippled by a childhood accident and held against his chest. He is married to Helen and they have young children. He faces up to a false charge with quiet dignity. There is an undercurrent in him of kindness, sensitivity and consideration.
JUDGE TAYLOR: The judge is a wintry man of the South, who does what he can within the context of his time to see justice done in his court. While he tries to run his court impartially, his sympathy is with Tom.
MR GILMER: He is a public prosecutor who is doing his job in trying to convict Tom. In many ways his manner is cruel and hurtful. And yet under all this, he too has unexpressed doubts as to Tom’s guilt, and his heart isn’t really in the conviction. Still- he goes after it, and it’s a hard thing.
BOB EWELL: Ewell is a little bantam-cock of a man who lives with his family by the town dump. As Harper Lee describes their situation – “The town gave them Christmas baskets, welfare money, and the back of their hand.” Bob thinks this trial will make him an important man, and when atticus destroys his credibility, Bob’s rage and frustration border on paranoia.
MAYELLA: The daughter of Bob Ewell, she’s a desperately lonely and overworked young woman whose need for companionship- any companionship- has overwhelmed every other emotion. However, when her effort to reach out explodes in her face, she fights just as desperately for what she thinks is survival.
The play takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in 1935. It is the deep South at the time of the great depression.
Auditions will consist of readings from the script. Typing may occur.
For further information contact wmiller@sistny.org
Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre Company is a 34 year old Equity Showcase company that has produced over 175 productions in its history. To Kill a Mockingbird is being produced in cooperation with Historic Richmondtown and by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois.
This production is supported, in part, by funding by THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
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