[NEohioPAL] Auditions -- A Delicate Balance

Janis Harcar via NEohioPAL neohiopal at lists.neohiopal.org
Mon Dec 29 10:06:58 PST 2014


A Delicate Balance
Drama by Edward Albee
Directed by Craig Joseph
Run Dates: March 26 – April 12, 2015

AUDITIONS BY APPOINTMENT
Sunday, January 11 starting at 7 p.m.
Monday, January 12 starting at 7 p.m.
Callbacks, Tuesday, January 13 at 7 p.m.
Please call 330-836-2626 to schedule your appointment

CASTING REQUIREMENTS
Agnes 
Agnes is the main female character of the play. She is woman in her fifties, well off, and married to Tobias. She is also the mother of Julia and the sister of Claire. Agnes believes herself to be the fulcrum of the family, keeping everyone in balance. She often maintains this balance, or order, by not confronting issues, not taking a stand, and not processing emotions. She tries to keep the peace by not dealing with anything that might upset it.

Claire
Claire is Agnes’s younger sister. She claims that she is not an alcoholic but rather a willful drinker. Of all the characters in the play, whether it is due to the alcohol or not, Claire has the loosest tongue. She speaks her mind and is the least affected by social politeness.

Edna
Edna is Harry’s wife. It is not clear if she is really Agnes’s friend or if she and Agnes know one another only because their husbands are friends. Edna arrives one day at the door of Agnes and Tobias’s home. She takes it for granted that they will let her and Harry stay there for however long it takes them to get over their unnamed fear.

Harry
Harry is Edna’s husband and Tobias’s best friend. At one point in the past, Harry and Tobias, coincidentally, had an extramarital affair with the same young woman. Besides both having been businessmen and meeting at the same club, it is unclear what else Harry and Tobias have in common except that they have known one another for a long time and neither sleeps with his wife. Harry is something of a reflection of Tobias, but he is even more reserved. Of all the characters in this play, Harry speaks the least. And when he does speak, he is a man of few words with lots of pauses around each one. He prefers to talk around things rather than going at them straight on.

Julia
Julia is the thirty-six-year-old daughter of Agnes and Tobias. Three times divorced, she has just recently left her fourth husband and has returned home. Her father calls her a whiner, and her mother has little time for her. Julia, based on a relative of Albee’s, his cousin Barbara Lauder, has set a pattern in her life of marrying for the wrong reasons and then divorcing and returning home. Her parents welcome her, although they make it clear that they wish she would establish an independent life of her own.

Tobias
Tobias is Agnes’s husband and the father of Julia. He is a well-to-do, retired businessman. Although he is tolerant of people around him, he, like his wife, tends to avoid emotional topics. His tolerance toward his sister-in-law Claire is shown in his nonjudgmental attitude toward her drinking. Although he encourages her to return to Alcoholics Anonymous at one point in the play, he does not berate her for drinking. In some ways, he even encourages it or at least does not discourage it. There are a few subtle insinuations that Claire and Tobias might have at one time had an affair, but this is initially only alluded to by script directions that have Claire open her arms to Tobias in a “casual invitation”. Later in the play, Agnes asks Tobias (when he cannot sleep) if he went to Claire.

WHAT TO PREPARE FOR THESE AUDITIONS
Please prepare a 2 – 3-minute monologue; contemporary, dramatic or comedic. This MAY be from the script.

Janis Harcar
Interim Executive Director
(Director of Advancement)
Weathervane Playhouse
330-836-2626 X16
jharcar at weathervaneplayhouse.com




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