*Audition Notice: * *The Half Life of Marie Curie * by Lauren Gunderson Directed by Anne McEvoy *STORY:* In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. By 1912, she was the object of ruthless gossip over an alleged affair with the married Frenchman Paul Langevin, all but erasing her achievements from public memory. Weakened and demoralized by the press lambasting her as a “foreign” Jewish temptress and a homewrecking traitor, Marie agrees to join her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, at her summer home in England. *The Half-Life of Marie Curie* revels in the power of female friendship as it explores the relationship between these two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry.*“A fast-paced, frisky, feminist crowd pleaser…80 minutes of wit and wisdom powered by two turn-of-the-century female STEM stars…a powerhouse theatrical opportunity for two, middle-aged actresses.”* *Characters:* 2 women*MARIE CURIE:* 40 – 50 yr. of age. Slight Polish dialect. A French national…and brilliant, shrewd, private, and patient scientist. At this point, she has already won her first Nobel prize in physics with her husband, Pierre, in 1903. She is the mother of two daughters, Irene(4) and Eve (7) and was widowed in 1906 when her husband died tragically.*HERTHA AYRTON:* Mid to late 50’s. Refined British dialect but she’s not above using strong language. A brazen, ambitious, fiercely, intelligent, engineer, inventor, and suffragist. Widowed in 1908, she continued her work in electrical experimentation while secretly housing suffragettes running from police. Of Jewish origin, she became an agnostic pragmatist who changed her name from Sarah to Hertha after a Swinburne poem about a goddess of the earth.Please come prepared with a short (90 second max) monologue and be prepared to read from the script. Scripts are available for 3 days at the Clague Playhouse Box Office for a $10 refundable deposit. All perusal scripts must be returned by Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. Headshots and/or resumes greatly appreciated but not required.*NOTE: If Anne has directed you in a previous play, no need to prepare a monologue. Information can also be found on the Clague Playhouse website at https://clagueplayhouse.org/index.php/auditions/. Clague Playhouse, Inc. 1371 Clague Road Westlake, OH 44145 *info@ClaguePlayhouse.org <info@clagueplayhouse.org>* 440-331-0403 www.ClaguePlayhouse.org <http://www.clagueplayhouse.org/> *Follow us on **Facebook* <https://www.facebook.com/ClaguePlayhouse/> and *Instagram.com* <https://www.instagram.com/clague.playhouse/>*!*