[NEohioPAL] Auditions: Same Time, Next Year & The House of Blue Leaves @ WRP

Wed Aug 6 10:31:15 PDT 2025

THE WESTERN RESERVE PLAYHOUSE IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE AUDITIONS FOR THE
FINAL TWO PLAYS IN OUR 2025/2026 SEASON

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR

A Play by Bernard Slade

Full-Length Play, Comedy

One of the most popular romantic comedies of the century, Same Time, Next
Year ran four years on Broadway, winning a Tony® Award for lead actress
Ellen Burstyn, who later recreated her role in the successful motion
picture. It remains one of the world’s most widely produced plays. The plot
follows a love affair between two people, Doris and George, married to
others, who rendezvous once a year. Twenty-five years of manners and morals
are hilariously and touchingly played out by the lovers.

Directed by Joe Soriano

&

THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES

A Play by John Guare

Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy

Artie Shaugnessy is a songwriter with visions of glory. Toiling by day as a
zookeeper, he suffers in seedy lounges by night, plying his wares at piano
bars in Queens, New York, where he lives with his wife, Bananas, much to
the chagrin of Artie’s downstairs mistress, Bunny Flingus, who’ll sleep
with him anytime but refuses to cook until they are married. On the day the
Pope is making his first visit to the city, Artie’s son Ronny goes AWOL
from Fort Dix, stowing a homemade bomb intended to blow up the Pope in
Yankee Stadium. Also arriving are Artie’s old school chum, now a successful
Hollywood producer, Billy Einhorn, with starlet girlfriend in tow, who
holds the key to Artie’s dreams of getting out of Queens and away from the
life he so despises. But like many dreams, this promise of glory evaporates
amid the chaos of ordinary lives.

       Directed by August Scarpelli

Audition Dates:

Thursday, August 28th, 2025 - 630pm-1030pm

Monday, September 1st, 2025 - 630pm-1030pm

Audition Location:

The Western Reserve Playhouse

3326 Everett Road

Bath, Ohio 44286

Callbacks:

Saturday, September 6th, 2025 - 11am-4pm (as needed)

Performances: SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR: 11/14/25-11/23/25 (Fridays and
Saturdays @ 8pm, Sundays @ 2pm, Thursday 11/20/25@ 8pm)

THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES: 01/16/26 - 01/31/26 (Fridays and Saturdays @ 8pm,
Sunday 01/25/26 @ 2pm)

Rehearsals: SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR: Will begin near the week of 09/22/25.
Rehearsals will typically run Sunday-Thursday based on cast availability

        THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES: Will begin  the week of 11/16/25.
Rehearsals will typically run Sunday-Thursday based on cast availability.
There will be breaks over the holidays

.

What to prepare:

   -

   A short speech that you find might be thematically related to either of
   the plays. Feel free to prepare your own or choose one of the following
   (below).
   -

   Cold reading from the script will also be provided
   -

   Please bring all conflicts for the rehearsal and performance process

How to sign up:

   -

   You may sign up here (
   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4BA5AB2FABF8C52-57819732-auditions)
   for a 15-minute audition slot. Please bring a headshot and resume if you
   have one. We also are asking for all conflicts at this time.  Please note
   tech week for SAME TIME NEXT YEAR will be November 9-13 , 2025. THE HOUSE
   OF BLUE LEAVES will be January 11-15
   -

   Video submissions are also accepted. Contact the Artistic director,
   august at thewrp.org for instructions.
   -

   Any questions or concerns may be directed to august at thewrp.org. We
   welcome actors of all backgrounds and encourage everyone to audition.
   -

   IF YOU ARE NOT AVAILABLE on the prescribed dates but would still like to
   audition in person, or would like ANY clarification  please reach out

No equity contracts available at this time. All positions are volunteer.

Roles are open to all races, ethnicities, gender/gender identities, ages,
and abilities, unless directly specified by the playwright as integral to
their storytelling.  None of these parts are precast.  All levels of actors
wanted!

Roles Available:

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR:

DORIS

GEORGE

THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES:

ARTIE SHAUGHNESSY - 45 years old

RONNIE SHAUGHNESSY - 18 years old

BUNNY FLINGUS - 39 years old

BANANAS SHAUGHNESSY - 44 years old

CORRINNA STROLLER - 22 years old

BILLY EINHORN - 45 years old

THREE NUNS

A POLICEMAN

THE WHITE MAN

SPEECHES:

DORIS. Oh, no, he’s gentle as a puppy. Anyway he tries to do different
things with each of the kids, you know? So he was having a hard time
finding something special to do with Tony, our four year old. Then he gets
the idea to take him out to fly a kite. So this one Saturday last winter
they go out but there’s no wind and they have trouble getting the kite to
take off. Well, after a while Tony who’s pretty bored by now, he’s only
four years old, asks if he can go sit in the car. Harry said “okay.” (She
starts to laugh.) About an hour later I come by on my way home from the
laundromat and I see Tony sound asleep in the car and Harry all alone in
the park, all red in the face and out of breath pounding up and down with
this huge kite dragging along behind him. (She sees that George is not
laughing.) Well, it really got to me.

George. Look, I know how you feel, I really do, and I wouldn’t even suggest
it if you weren’t a mother . I mean I wouldn't even think of it if this
crisis hadn’t come up. (He moves his suitcase to the bed and starts packing
through the following.) Oh, it’s not just the tooth-fairy, but she could
have swallowed the tooth. It could be lodged God knows where. Now I know
this leaves you up in the air but there’s no reason for you to leave too.
The room’s all paid for - have you seen my hairbrush? Anyway, I’m probably
doing you a favor . If I did stay I wouldn’t be very good company. (Doris
throws the hairbrush at him. It sails past his head and crashes into the
wall. There is a pause.) You feel somewhat rejected right? I can understand
that but I want you to know my leaving has nothing to do with you and me.
Doris, I have a sick child at home. This is an emergency.

ARTIE. I didn’t tell you this, Bunny. last week, I rode out to Long Island.
(to Bananas, taking her hand) You need help. We — I found a nice hosp … By
the sea … by the beautiful sea … It’s an old estate and you can walk from
the train station and it was raining and the roads aren’t paved so it’s
muddy, but by the road where you turn into the estate, there was a tree
with blue leaves in the rain — I walked under it to get out of the rain and
also because I had never seen a tree with blue leaves and I walked under
the tree and all the leaves flew away in one big round bunch — just lifted
up, leaving a bare tree. Whoosh…It was birds. Not blue leaves but birds,
waiting to go to Florida or California … and all the birds flew to another
tree a couple of hundred feet off and that bare tree blossomed — snap! like
that — with all these blue very quietleaves… You’ll like the place,
Bananas. I talked to the doctor. He had a mustache. You like mustaches. And
the Blue Cross will handle a lot of it, so we won’t have to worry about
expense … You’ll like the place … a lot of famous people have had
crackdowns there, so you’ll be running in good company.

BANANAS:

I see a scene that you wouldn’t see in your wildest dreams. Forty-second
Street.

Broadway. Four corners. Four people. One on each corner. All waving for
taxis.

Cardinal Spellman. Jackie Kennedy. Bob Hope. President Johnson. All carrying

suitcases. Taxi! Taxi! I stop in the middle of the street – the middle of
Broadway – and I

get out of my Green Latrine and yell, “get in.”

They keep waving for cabs. I run over to President Johnson and grab him by
the arm.

“Get in.” And pull Jackie Kennedy into my car and John-John, who I didn’t
see, starts

crying and Jackie hits me and I hit her and I grab Bob Hope and push
Cardinal Spellman

into the back seat, crying and laughing, “I’ll take you where you want to
go. Get in!

Give me your suitcases” - and the suitcases spill open and Jackie Kennedy’s
wigs blow

down Forty-Second Street and Cardinal Spellman hits me and Johnson screams
and I hit

him. I hit them all. And then the Green Latrine blew four flat tires and
sinks and I run to

protect the car and four cabs appear and all my friends run into four
different cabs. And

cars are honking at me to move.

I push the car over the bridge back to Queens. You’re asleep. I turn on
Johnny Carson

to get my mind off and there’s Cardinal Spellman and Bob Hope, whose
ski-nose is still

bleeding, and they tell the story of what happened to them and everybody
laughs.

Thirty million people watch Johnny Carson and they all laugh. At me. At me.
I’m

nobody. I knew all those people better than me. You. Ronnie. I know
everything about

them. Why can’t they love me?

And then it began to snow and I went up on the roof…

BUNNY:

Oh, I love you! You said you’ll come with me to see the Pope! That’s
tantamount to a promise. Tantamount. Tantamount. You hear that? I didn’t
work in a law office for nix. I could sue you for breach of promise. (Near
tears) I know what you’re going to say--- I won’t cook for you—You bend my
arm and twist my heart, but I got to be strong. Now rinse your mouth out to
freshen up and come on, let’s go. It’s really cold out so dress warm—look,
I stuffed the New York Post in my booties—plastic just ain’t as warm as it
used to be. I won’t cook for you! I cooked veal parmigeena for me last
night. It was so good I almost died. But I won’t cook for you till after
we’re married. I’m no that kind of girl. I’ll sleep with you anytime you
want. Anywhere. In two months I’ve know you, did I refuse you once? Not
once! You want me to climb in the bag with you right now? Unzip it—go
on—unzip it—Give your fingers a smack and I’m flat on my back. I’ll sew
those words into a sampler for you in our new home in California. We’ll
hang it right by the front door. Because, Artie, I’m a rotten lay and I
know it and you know it and everybody knows it—I’m not good in bed. It’s no
insult. I took that sex test in the Reader’s Digest two weeks ago and I
scored twelve. Twelve, Artie!! I ran out of that dentist office with tears
gushing out of my face. But I face up to the truth about myself. So if I
cooked for you now and said I won’t sleep with you till we’re married,
you’d look forward to sleeping with me so much that by the time we did get
to that motel near Hollywood, I’d be such a disappointment, you’d never
forgive me. My cooking is the only thing I got to lure you on with and hold
you with. Artie, we got to keep some magic for the honeymoon. It’s my first
honeymoon and I want it to be so good, I’m aiming for two million calories.
I want to cook for you so bad I walk by the A&P , I get all hot jabs of
chili powder inside my thighs...but I can’t till we get those tickets to
California safe in my purse, till Billy knows we’re coming, till I got that
ring right on my cooking finger...Don’t tempt me....I love you...

-- 
August Scarpelli
Artistic Director
Western Reserve Playhouse
Operations Manager
Cain Park
august at thewrp.org
(440)654-3624

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