The Cabrillo Playhouse announces auditions for:
CALENDAR GIRLS
By Tim Firth
Directed by: Holly Jones
Auditions are: Sunday, April 21 (6-9pm) & Monday, April 22 (7-10pm)
Please bring 2 copies of headshot & resume.
Be prepared to list all conflicts.
Acting sides provided at auditions.
See Character Breakdown for role info.
Callbacks (by invitation, as needed): Tuesday, April 23 (7-10pm)
Rehearsals begin Saturday, April 27, 2024 (11-3pm)
Rehearsal schedule: Mon-Wed (7-10pm) and Sat (10-4pm), with Thursdays added beginning May 16.
Performances at Cabrillo Playhouse will be June 7 – June 30 (Thurs, Fri & Sat at 7:30, and Sun matinee at 2:00).
All ethnicities and gender identifications are encouraged to audition. A small stipend is offered.
A NOTE ABOUT ACCENTS:
The women of the real calendar in truth came from many parts of the country. A general British accent is required but it does not need to be Yorkshire specific.
A NOTE ABOUT NUDITY:
Most people will be aware of the calendar shoot that is the best-known aspect of the Calendar Girls’ story. It will be carefully choreographed. The characters who are part of the scene are marked with an asterisk *. The art of the play’s nudity lies in what is withheld. The choreography of this sequence is best described as “fabulous concealment”.
Questions can be directed to: hollyjonesinfo@gmail.com
Casting the following roles:
CHRIS * (female presenting): approx 50’s. You want Chris at your party. She will talk to people she doesn’t know, find things to say to fill silences and generate laughter. Without Chris in her life, Annie would be better behaved, her life less fun.
ANNIE * (female presenting): approx 50’s. Annie will join in mischief but is at heart more conformist and less confrontational than Chris. She has enough edge to be interesting, and enough salt not to be too sweet. Together, these two are greater than the sum of their parts. They would be lesser humans had they not met each other. Each is spiritual mustard to the other’s meat.
CORA * (female presenting): approx around 40. Cora’s past is the most eclectic, her horizons broadened by having gone to college. She came back to them pregnant and tail-between-legs, but Cora has too much native resilience to be downtrodden. She is the joker in the pack, but never plays the fool. Her wit is deadpan. Cora needs to start the show singing “Jerusalem” and sing the portions of other songs required. Piano skills a plus but not necessarily required.
JESSIE * (female presenting): approx late 60’s/70’s. 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 * (female presenting): age – approx 40-50. 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 younger than Chris or the same age, but she always feels like she’s drifted in from another world. Which she has.
RUTH * (female presenting): approx 40’s. 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.
MARIE (female presenting): approx 50’s. 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.
BRENDA HULSE (female presenting): approx 45+. Brenda is a guest speaker Marie has invited along to the local branch of the Women’s Institute. She is very dull and has a history of giving exceptionally boring speeches – the previous year she talked about the history of the tea towel and this year her topic is broccoli.
JOHN (male presenting): approx 50’s. Annie’s husband. 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 off a light.
ROD (male presenting): approx 50’s. Chris’s husband. 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.
LAWRENCE (male presenting): approx late 20’s. 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 (female presenting): approx 60’s. Chairman of the Royal Yorkshire Golf Club. Lady Cravenshire really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing, but the WI girls seem from another world. The world of her estate workers.
ELAINE (female presenting): approx 20’s. Young Beautician. Elaine really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing. But Jessie and the other women of the WI seem from another world. The world of her gran.
LIAM (male presenting): approx late 20’s. 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.
UP NEXT: TBA
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