Westport Community Theater Hosts Auditions For THE WOMEN 4/18-20

Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. Familiarity with the play is suggested. Go to www.westportcommunitytheatre.com for directions to the theatre; for further information, or if you have any questions, contact the director at orsonround@optonline.net or leave a message at the theatre box office (203) 226-1983. Performance dates are Fridays and Saturdays June 4 - June 20, 2010 at 8:00 PM, Sundays at 2:00 PM, Thursday, June 10 at 8:00 PM and a preview Thursday, June 3 at 8:00 PM

This brilliant play has assumed the status of a modern classic. Clare Boothe Luce's social satire The Women was a smash hit when first performed on Broadway in 1936 and has enjoyed several revival productions during the 1970s and 1990s. A large cast of women (no male characters), it is set in the world of high society wives in New York City during the height of the Great Depression - an immensely entertaining panorama of a metropolitan world from the feminine viewpoint. The author carries us through a number of scenes - and digging under the surface, reveals a human understanding for, and sympathy with, some of its outstanding figures.

The plot involves the efforts of a group of women to play their respective roles in an artificial society that consists of vain show, comedy, tragedy, hope, and disappointment. Mary Haines, the protagonist, learns from a gossipy manicurist that her husband, Stephen, is having an affair with a shop-girl named Crystal. After the news of Stephen's affair is published in a gossip column, Mary decides to divorce him. To obtain her divorce, she travels to Reno, Nevada, where liberal divorce laws attracted many society women wishing to downplay any potential for scandal. While she is in Reno, Mary learns that Stephen has married Crystal. Two years later, Mary, now living back in New York with her children, learns that Crystal has been unfaithful to Stephen. With the help of her friends, Mary sets out to expose Crystal's infidelity in order to win Stephen back.

Note from the director: The story takes place in NYC society circles in the 1930s, and there are approximately 20 roles available - all for women between 20s and 60s (and one girl of about 10-11) - depending on doubling and/or combining some smaller roles. Along with the principals listed below, there is a small army of hairdressers, beauticians, saleswomen, fitters, dress models, domestics, etc. which can be doubled/tripled in some cases... but please do not think of these roles as negligible, as in many cases THEY are the ones who drive the story along by passing gossip and compromising information - and their dialogue is often just as crackling as that of the principals.

Mary (Mrs. Stephen Haines), mid-30s: the "heroine," as nice and as sweet as can be - she does not buy into the cattiness (and in some cases maliciousness) of her "friends," and is very reluctant to believe that her husband is cheating on her... which it turns out he is.

Peggy (Mrs. John Day): pretty, sweet, mid-20s; a young married about whom the author says: "Peggy's character has not, will never quite "jell." Almost immediately has marital problems because she has money and her husband has not.

Nancy (Miss Blake): The one unmarried member of Mary's immediate circle, mid-30s. "Sharp but not acid, sleek but not smart... a worldly and yet virginal 35."

Sylvia (Mrs. Howard Fowler): mid-30s. "Glassy, elegant, feline." As catty as they come; purports to be Mary's closest friend, but is not above causing her tumult and hurt through her gossip, innuendo and "advice." Cheats on her husband, whom she believes to be impotent (which he's not...)

Edith (Mrs. Phelps Potter): "A sloppy, expensively dressed (currently by Lane Bryant) 'matron' of 33 or 34. Indifferent to everything but self, Edith is incapable of either deliberate maliciousness or spontaneous generosity."

Crystal Allen: mid-20s; Stephen Haines' mistress - the classic, cold, calculating, gold-digging, beautiful, sexy, younger "other woman" - a shopgirl-turned-society woman after snatching Stephen; one pretty nasty "bitch."

Miriam Aarons (first appears as "Mud Mask"): mid-late 20s; a Broadway starlet and (as it turns out) mistress to one of the husbands. Not the cold-hearted bitch that Crystal is, by comparison.

Countess de Lage: 40s - 50s. "An amiable, silly, plump and forty-ish heiress type."

Other smaller but important, non-doubling roles include:

Mary's mother (mid-late 50s-60s), who has quietly seen and dealt with marital trouble herself - to Mary's surprise; advises Mary based on her own experience

"Little Mary" (Mary's daughter, 11)

Jane (20s, Irish-American), Ingrid and Sadie - domestics in the Haines household

Roles that can be doubled/tripled include Princess Tamara, a dress model; an exercise instructress; Stephen's secretary (also secretly in love with him); and numerous dress fitters, models, beauticians, hairdressers, saleswomen and society women.

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