[NEohioPAL] Audition Information for Hay Fever at Saint Joseph Academy - if you missed mtg

[KevinJosephKelly at aol.com]

Information Meeting regarding: 
HAY FEVER 
by 
NOEL COWARD 


directed by Kevin Joseph Kelly 




 
 
 
Hay Fever is a  comic play written by _Noël  Coward_ 
(file:///wiki/No%C3%ABl_Coward)  in 1924 and first produced in 1925. Best described as a cross 
between  high _farce_ (file:///wiki/Farce)  and a _comedy of manners_ 
(file:///wiki/Comedy_of_manners) , the play is set in  an English country house in 
the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members  of the Bliss family and 
their outlandish behavior when they each invite a guest  to spend the 
weekend. The self-centered behavior of the hosts finally drives  their guests to 
flee while the Blisses are so engaged in a family row that they  do not 
notice their guests' furtive  departure.




The Cast is as follows: 5 woman, 4 men 
Judith Bliss 
David Bliss 
Sorel Bliss 
Simon Bliss 
Myra Arundel 
Richard Greatham 
Jackie Coryton 
Sandy Tyrell 
Clara 
Auditions: 
Thursday, January 7th at 4  pm 
Friday, January 8th at 4  pm 
prepare a monologue, preferably performed in an  English accent 
Callbacks will be on Saturday, January  9th or the following Monday 



rehearsals begin approx Feb 22 2010 – show dates  April 23.24.25.26 


 




Plot
The action is set in the Hall of David Bliss' house at _Cookham_ 
(file:///wiki/Cookham) , _Berkshire_ (file:///wiki/Berkshire) , by the _River Thames_ 
(file:///wiki/River_Thames) . 
Act I
A Saturday afternoon in June 
Sorel and Simon Bliss, a brother and sister, exchange artistic and bohemian 
 dialogged. Judith, their mother, displays the absent-minded theatricality 
of a  retired star actress, and David, their father, a novelist, is 
concentrating on  finishing his latest book. Each of the four members of the Bliss 
family, without  consulting the others, has invited a guest for the weekend. 
Judith announces  that she has decided to return to the stage in one of her 
old hits, Love's  Whirlwind. She and Sorel and Simon amuse themselves acting 
out a  melodramatic passage from the play beginning, "Is this a game?" 
"Yes, and a game  that must be played to the finish!" They are interrupted by 
the ringing of the  doorbell. 
Clara, Judith's former dresser and now her housekeeper, opens the door to 
the  first of the four guests, Sandy Tyrell, a sporty fan of Judith's. The 
next  arrival is the vampish Myra Arundel, whom Simon has invited. The other 
two  guests arrive together, Richard Greatham, a diplomat, and Jackie Coryton 
a  brainless but good-hearted young _flapper_ (file:///wiki/Flapper) . Tea  
is served. Conversation is stilted and eventually grinds to a halt. The 
scene  ends in total and awkward silence. 
Act II
After dinner that night 
The family insists that everyone should join in a parlor game, a variety of 
 charades in which one person must guess the adverb being acted out by the  
others. The Blisses are in their element, but the guests flounder and the 
game  breaks up. Simon and Jackie exit to the garden, Sorel drags Sandy into 
the  library, and David takes Myra outside. 
Left alone with Richard, Judith flirts with him, and when he chastely 
kisses  her she theatrically overreacts as though they were conducting a serious 
affair.  She nonpluses Richard by talking of breaking the news to David. She 
in turn is  nonplussed to discover Sandy and Sorel kissing in the library. 
That too has been  mere flirtation, but both Judith and Sorel enjoy 
themselves by exaggerating it.  Judith gives a performance nobly renouncing her 
claim on Sandy, and exits. Sorel  explains to Sandy that she was just playing 
the theatrical game for Judith's  benefit, as "one always plays up to Mother 
in this house; it's a sort of  unwritten law." They leave. 
David and Myra enter. They too indulge in a little light flirtation, at the 
 height of which Judith enters and finds them kissing. She makes a t
heatrical  scene, with which David dutifully plays along. Simon rushes in 
violently,  announcing that he and Jackie are engaged. Sorel and Sandy enter from the 
 library, Judith goes into yet another bout of over-theatrical emoting. In 
the  ensuing uproar, Richard asks "Is this a game?" Judith, Sorel and Simon 
seize on  this cue from Love's Whirlwind and trot out the melodramatic 
dialog as  they had in Act I. David is overcome with laughter and the 
uncomprehending  guests are dazed and aghast as Judith ends the scene by falling to the 
floor as  if in a faint. 
Act III
The next morning 
A breakfast table has been laid in the hall. Sandy enters and begins eating 
 nervously. At the sound of someone approaching he escapes into the 
library.  Jackie enters, helps herself to some breakfast and bursts into tears. 
Sandy  comes out and they discuss how uncomfortable they were the night before 
and how  mad the Bliss family are. When they hear people approaching, they 
both retreat  to the library. Myra and Richard now enter and begin breakfast. 
Their  conversation mirrors that of Sandy and Jackie, who emerge from the 
library to  join them. All four decide that they are going to return to 
London without  delay. Sandy agrees to drive them in his motor car. They go 
upstairs to collect  their things. 
Judith comes down, asks Clara for the Sunday papers and begins reading 
aloud  what the gossip columns say about her. The rest of her family enter. 
David  proposes to read them the final chapter of his novel. Immediately, a 
minor  detail about the geography of Paris is blown into a full-scale family 
row, with  everyone talking at once about whether the _Rue Saint-Honoré_ 
(file:///wiki/Rue_Saint-Honor%C3%A9)  does or does  not connect with the _Place de 
la  Concorde_ (file:///wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde)  and hurling insults at 
each other. They are so wrapped up in their  private row that they do not 
notice when the four visitors tiptoe down the  stairs and out of the house. The 
Blisses are only momentarily distracted when  the slam of the door alerts 
them to the flight of their guests. Judith comments,  "How very rude!" and 
David adds, "People really do behave in the most  extraordinary manner these 
days." Then, with no further thought of their four  tormented guests, they 
happily return to David's manuscript and to what passes  for their normal 
family life.





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