4th Wall Theatre, a non-union New Jersey theatre company, will hold open auditions for all roles in two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage’s play, Intimate Apparel. Gwen Ricks-Spencer, 4th Wall’s Executive Director, will be staging the play, one of Nottage’s most personal and endearing scripts, in honor of Black History Month. The show will be presented at the Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts in Maplewood. Rehearsals will begin in late November, and performances are scheduled for February 22, 23, 24, 2019.
About the show: The time is 1905, the place New York City, where Esther, a black seamstress, lives in a boarding house for women and sews intimate apparel for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. One by one, the other denizens of the boarding house marry and move away, but Esther remains, lonely and longing for a husband and a future. By way of a mutual acquaintance, she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man named George who is working on the Panama Canal. When George arrives in New York, however, he turns out not to be the man his letters painted him to be.
About the auditions: Auditions are scheduled for Sunday, November 11, from 3:30 to 6:30 pm, and Tuesday, November 13, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Those auditioning only need to attend one of those evenings. Sign-up begins ½ hour prior to the audition start time, and anyone auditioning must arrive no later than 90 minutes after start time. Auditions on November 11 will be held at Montclair Operetta Club (494 Valley Road, Montclair), and auditions on November 13 will be held at the Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts at 10 Durand Road in Maplewood.
Please check http://www.4thwalltheatre.org/auditions.htm for directions and parking information.
4th Wall is seeking a cast of six. Actors should be prepared to read from the script; sides will be posted on the 4th Wall website. Please bring a headshot and resume stapled together, and be prepared to provide all potential conflicts for weekday evening and weekend daytime rehearsals beginning November 15. Non-union; no pay. Visit www.4thwalltheatre.org/auditions.htm for more information.
Please address questions to gwen@4thwalltheatre.org.
4th Wall seeks actors for the following roles:
ESTHER MILLS (35, African-American): Skilled, hard-working, “rather plain” looking seamstress who creates women’s intimate apparel. Intelligent, but illiterate. Lonely and unconfident yet hopeful and determined.
MRS. DICKSON (45 - 60, African-American): Landlady of the boarding house for women where Esther lives. Handsome, impeccably groomed, with an air of refinement. Motherly, inquisitive, but affected by her own mother’s views on love. She would like nothing better than to see Esther, who is almost like an adopted daughter, find a happiness and love.
MRS. VAN BUREN (30s, White American): Attractive, wealthy socialite, and one of Esther’s regular customers. Disillusioned and trapped in a loveless marriage, she longs for excitement and affection.
MR. MARKS (30 - 40, Romanian Jewish immigrant): Romanian Orthodox Jewish immigrant; smart, masculine, playful, detail-oriented. He is passionate about the fabrics he sells, and secretly in love with Esther; but society in 1905 forbids a relationship with her, and his religion doesn’t allow them even to touch; he expresses his desire through the texture, colors and smells of the beautiful silks he finds.
MAYME (30s, African-American): Strikingly beautiful, sexy/sultry prostitute, talented piano player/singer, and another of Esther’s regular customers. Jaded, matter-of-fact, world weary, but caring and with a real lust for life. NOTE: *Actual piano playing and singing ability are a definite plus but not absolutely essential.
GEORGE (30-40, Barbadian immigrant): Ruggedly handsome, muscular African-Caribbean manual laborer. Passionate, beguiling, but also cold and domineering. Speaks with a musical Barbadian accent.
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