Auditions - February 27th and 28th, 2017 - 7:00PM
Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward
Southwest Playhouse Inc. has set auditions for its next production, Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward.
Blithe Spirit is set at the house of writer, Charles Condomine, and his wife, Ruth. One evening, Charles invites local eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a seance at his house. He asks along his friends, Dr. and Mrs. Bradman, intending to gather character inspiration from Madame Arcati for his latest book. Despite initially thinking the seance has been a failure, it soon becomes clear that Madame Arcati has unwittingly brought back Charles’ first wife, Elvira, to haunt him. Once in his house, Elvira is unable to leave and, as she cannot be seen or heard by Ruth, she causes all kinds of mischievous trouble between the married couple. (http://stageagent.com/shows/play/2334/blithe-spirit#ixzz4XT5RzfwM)
Blithe Spirit calls for seven actors - two men and five women. Character descriptions are as follows:
Charles Condomine, a novelist in his forties. Charles is bright, sophisticated, articulate, and debonair but somewhat at the mercy of his wives, past and present.
Ruth Condomine, Charles’s second wife in her late thirties or early forties. Like her husband, Ruth is witty and sophisticated, and she is quite the society matron. Ruth is a bit stuffy and a little predictable.
Elvira, the ghost of Charles’s first wife - in her mid to late thirties. Elvira is gray from head to toe, and only Charles can see or hear her. In life, Elvira was spirited, outgoing, wild, and carefree. In death, she is no different; she has cocktails with Genghis Khan. She does love Charles, if somewhat casually, and is jealous of Ruth.
Madame Arcati, the local spiritualist and medium, she is anywhere from 45-65. Madame Arcati bicycles into the play wearing slightly outlandish clothes and talking to an eight-year-old contact on the other side.
Edith, the young maid. She's a bit high strung and is determined to impress her employers.
Doctor George Bradman, 40s and older, the village doctor and a good friend of Charles Condomine.
Violet Bradman, 40s and older, the doctor’s wife and comfortable in village life. She is simple and naive.
Character ages are suggestions. If you are determined to play Ruth and you are not in your 30s or 40s, that's just fine! Please come out and audition for her. Auditions will consist of cold reads from the script. We will be performing this production in a British dialect, so practice before you come out! We will have dialect CDs for all actors that are cast for the roles. Our rehearsal schedule will be Sundays at 2:00PM, with nighttime rehearsals on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at 7:00PM and Wednesdays at 8:00PM.
If you are interested in helping with the production of Blithe Spirit, but don't necessarily want to be on the stage, come to auditions anyway and meet the director, Ashley Underwood, and her assistant director, Jim Hull and tell them what you would like to help with. SWPH is always looking for new faces to help on and off the stage.
Auditions are February 27th and 28th at 7:00PM at Southwest Playhouse located on 6th and Nowahy in Clinton, Oklahoma. Our production dates are April 21, 22, 23, and 28, 29, 2017. Please bring a calendar of conflicts to auditions. We also request you arrive approximately 15 minutes prior to audition times so you may fill out your audition form.
Thank you for your interest in auditioning at SWPH. If you have any questions, please email Ashley at underwooda73@yahoo.com or swph@cableone.net.