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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"
size=5>Information Meeting regarding:</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"
size=5>HAY FEVER</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><FONT size=4>by</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"
size=5>NOEL COWARD</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 15pt"
size=4>directed by Kevin Joseph Kelly</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=center><BR></P>
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<P><A name=content></A><FONT size=4><B>Hay Fever</B></FONT><FONT size=4> is a
comic play written by <A href="file:///wiki/No%25C3%25ABl_Coward">Noël
Coward</A> in 1924 and first produced in 1925. Best described as a cross between
high <A href="file:///wiki/Farce">farce</A> and a <A
href="file:///wiki/Comedy_of_manners">comedy of manners</A>, 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.</FONT></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P align=center><A name=bodyContent></A><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"
size=4><B>The Cast is as follows: 5 woman, 4 men</B></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Judith Bliss</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>David Bliss</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Sorel Bliss</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Simon Bliss</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Myra Arundel</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Richard Greatham</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Jackie Coryton</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Sandy Tyrell</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4>Clara</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><B>Auditions:</B></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><B>Thursday, January 7<SUP>th</SUP> at 4
pm</B></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><B>Friday, January 8<SUP>th</SUP> at 4
pm</B></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><B>prepare a monologue, preferably performed in an
English accent</B></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><B>Callbacks will be on Saturday, January
9<SUP>th</SUP> or the following Monday</B></FONT></P>
<P align=center><BR><BR></P>
<P align=center><FONT size=4><B>rehearsals begin approx Feb 22 2010 – show dates
April 23.24.25.26</B></FONT></P>
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<H2><A name=Plot></A><A name=bodyContent1></A>Plot</H2>
<P>The action is set in the Hall of David Bliss' house at <A
href="file:///wiki/Cookham">Cookham</A>, <A
href="file:///wiki/Berkshire">Berkshire</A>, by the <A
href="file:///wiki/River_Thames">River Thames</A>.</P>
<H2>Act I</H2>
<DL>
<DT style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.2in">A Saturday afternoon in June </DT></DL>
<P>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, <I>Love's
Whirlwind</I>. 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.</P>
<P>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 <A href="file:///wiki/Flapper">flapper</A>. Tea
is served. Conversation is stilted and eventually grinds to a halt. The scene
ends in total and awkward silence.</P>
<H3>Act II</H3>
<DL>
<DT style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.2in">After dinner that night </DT></DL>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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 theatrical
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 <I>Love's Whirlwind</I> 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.</P>
<H3>Act III</H3>
<DL>
<DT style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.2in">The next morning </DT></DL>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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 <A
href="file:///wiki/Rue_Saint-Honor%25C3%25A9">Rue Saint-Honoré</A> does or does
not connect with the <A href="file:///wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde">Place de la
Concorde</A> 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.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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