[NEohioPAL] CASTING CALL- ENSEMBLE THEATRE

[Ensemble Theatre]

Ensemble Theatre is proud to present EAST OF EDEN by John Steinbeck,
adapted by Frank Galati October 19th through November 11th 2018. Rehearsals
will begin in September. The production is directed by Ian Wolfgang Hinz,
the cast will be announced after this role is filled and is made up of all
local professional actors.

ANNOUNCING AUDITIONS BY APPOINTMENT FOR THE ROLE OF LEE.

Chinese-American
Male
40's-50's

The role is an important member of a strong ensemble based show. All other
roles are cast.
For more information about Ensemble Theatre's "The Future is Bright" Season
please visit our website" www.ensemble-theatre.org

To make an audition appointment please email ian at ensemble-theatre.org or
call 216-321-2930


*Character description:*

Lee

Lee is Adam Trask’s complex and interesting Chinese-American servant.
Readers meet Lee when he goes to pick up Samuel to bring him back to the
ranch to discuss boring wells with Adam.  On the surface, Lee appears a
stereotypical Chinese manservant, wearing a queue and speaking in pidgin
Chinese.  Within a few moments of meeting him and learning Lee was born in
America, Samuel tells Lee, “I mean no disrespect, but I’ve never been able
to figure out why you people still talk pidgin when an illiterate baboon
from the back bogs of Ireland, with a head full of Gaelic and a tongue like
a potato, learns to talk a poor grade of English in ten years” (161).  Lee
and Samuel are great friends from that moment on.  Lee explains he
essentially hides behind a stereotypical Chinese mask since that is what
the surrounding American culture expects from him.

Behind the façade, Lee is highly intelligent, thoughtful, well-read and
kind.  Rather than being humiliated by his position as a servant, he sees
servitude as a unique position to exercise power over a master who comes to
rely too heavily upon his servant.  Lee, however, does not take advantage
of this position.  He ends up running Adam’s household and raising his twin
sons while Adam languishes in his depression.  Once Adam emerges from his
stupor, Lee presents to him 10 years of carefully maintained accounts—every
household penny accounted for.

Besides his role as surrogate father to the twins, Lee plays an important
role in the novel by introducing the concept of “timshel.”  When the twins
are fifteen months old, Samuel descends upon the Trask property to force
Adam to name his unclaimed and unloved sons.  In the process, Samuel and
Lee end up discussing the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.  Together they
ponder the significance of the story, particularly that because Abel dies,
all of humanity is descended from the banished murderer, Cain.  Intrigued
by contradictory translations of the wording in the story, Lee consults
Chinese elders with whom he undertakes a study of Hebrew in order to
translate the passage more accurately.

Later in the novel, Lee explains his findings to both Adam and Samuel, who
has come to bid the men farewell.
-- 
*Information*
info at ensemble-theatre.org
2843 Washington Blvd. Cleveland Hts., OH 441118
216-321-2930/216-202-0938
*www.ensembletheatrecle.org <http://www.ensembletheatrecle.org>*
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