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Auditions

 

The Memory of Water
Auditions

Auditions:
Saturday, January 12  & Sunday, January 13 (time: 3pm to 5pm)
(Callbacks: Tuesday, January 15 at 7:30pm)

Location:
750 Center Street, Herndon, VA (NOTE: auditions are not at the theatre)
Mapquest

Audition Process:
Cold readings from the script, but prepared (brief, one-minute) monologues to illustrate comic timing and accent are welcome.

Casting:

4 women (30's to 40's), 2 men (30's to 40's)
Casting will be age appropriate and some attention to physical similarities will be included in casting decisions.
Modified British accent. Any questions contact director at melody.fetske at gmail.com.
The play opens with three very different sisters brought together in a North England (Yorkshire seaside town) snowstorm for their mother’s funeral.
Theresa - the oldest (about 42 or so) has fallen into the role of martyred caregiver, but she can’t overcome her resentment of her sisters for abandoning her with a woman in the throes of Alzheimer’s. Theresa might be called obsessive and neurotic. She runs a health-food store with her reluctant husband, Frank (who we find out later would much rather own his own pub.) She has a young daughter.
Mary - is the middle sister (39), classic overachiever, a seemingly pragmatic medical professional involved in a five-year affair with a married man (another doctor). But there are hints that this typically self-possessed woman is in crisis. Her dreams of her dead mother have become full blown hallucinations, and her obsession with a young amnesia patient has reached the point where she is researching neural disorders during the funeral arrangements. Brief other worldly scenes between Mary and her dead mother reveal unresolved issues, reminiscent of the TV show Providence. During the play she is hoping that she is pregnant and searching for information on a child that she gave up for adoption when she was a teenager.
Catherine - the youngest daughter (33) arrives last and is the emotionally needy daughter, a self-absorbed, slightly lost soul desperate for affection. This character is a little wild and immature. Seems to be always looking for permanence in a transient lifestyle.
Also
Vi - the dead mother, (in the play as 40ish), seen in vignettes with Mary, seems to be a woman crying out for understanding from her daughters.
Mike - Mary’s lover and TV Doctor talk show personality, married with children, wife is ill but he claims to love Mary and is happy with the status quo.
Frank - Teresa’s husband, who she found online after a failed first marriage. While he seems to hate his work, he still seems well suited for Teresa and there does seem to be real affection between them.
The men serve as bookends to a play that involves the sister’s reconciliation with each other and their memories.

About the Author:
Shelagh Stephenson was born in 1955 in Tyneside, England (Northumberland) and studied drama at Manchester University. She has written several original award winning plays including some for BBC Radio.

About the Play:
The play revolves around shared memories from four perspectives, recollecting (or misremembering) family stories, and the familial conflict with the resulting bickering, love, anger, laughter, and tears giving us a bittersweet, humor-through-tragedy comedy. There are some twists, family secrets and family skeletons. All keeping with the idea that as one character says, “all memories are false, yours in particular.” Individual histories are revealed and some paths are turned and by the end of the play we fell like we know this family, seeing things familiar and shared. The dialogue is witty and poignant. The comedy is a little dark but sharply delivered. Humor is important, rhythms of the play fairly straightforward and predictable.

The play is set at the family home, in the mother’s bedroom. The weather is snowing, there is a window to the outside. The dress is modern day except for the dresses in Vi’s closest which are period 1950’s and critical to the plot and action. The play is in two acts, the second act has 3 scenes.

It won The Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy (2000). The Memory of Water first opened at the Hampstead Theater in North London in July of 1996, and went on to a successful run in London’s West End from 1998-1999.   It opened in New York at The Manhattan Theater Club in 1998.

Production Team:
Produced by Richard Durkin
Directed by Melody Fetske
Set Design by Michael Schlabach and Cathy Rieder
Lighting Design by Jeff Boatright
Costumes by Kathy Dunlap
Props/Set Dressing by Robin Zerbe

The Elden Street Players (ESP) is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit, community theater. All roles are volunteer positions and un-paid.

Performance Dates: March 21 - April 12, 2008 (11 performances)

All roles are volunteer positions.

 

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