OPEN AUDITIONS – TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

The Auburn Players Community Theatre invites actors and actresses of all ages, types and ethnicities, to audition for Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book To Kill a Mockingbird.  Auditions will take place at First Presbyterian Church, 112 South St. in Auburn NY on February 9 & 10, 2014, with callback auditions to take place on Wednesday, February 12^th.

Set in fictional Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird is the coming of age story of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the daughter of Atticus, a lawyer who, despite threats to himself and his family, defends a black man accused of assaulting a white woman.  The narrator of the story, a grown-up Scout, looks back at her childhood, delivering a powerful message about prejudice, injustice, and humanity.

When:              Open Auditions (in order of arrival):
Sunday, February 9 at 2:00 pm (Youth: Ages 8 – 14), and 4:00 pm (Adults)

Monday, February 10 at 6:00 pm (Adults Only)
Callbacks (by invitation only):  Wednesday, February 12 at 6:00 pm

What to prepare:  Children will be asked to tell a story and may be asked to read from the script.   Adults prepare a monologue about one minute in length.

Where:  First Presbyterian Church, 112 South St. in Auburn NY

Performances:  April 4 – 6, 2014 at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, NY

·         SCOUT:  She is courageous and forthright. If a question occurs to her, she’ll ask it. (Youth 8-12)

·         JEM: He is a few years older than his sister Scout, with a strong desire to communicate with his father. (Youth 8-15)

·         DILL: Small, blond and wise beyond his years, he is about the same age as Jem. (Youth 8-15)

·         ATTICUS: He’s tall, quietly impressive, reserved, civilized and nearly fifty. He’s quietly courageous and without heroics, he does what he considers just.

·         WALTER CUNNINGHAM: He is a hard-up farmer who shares the prejudices of this time but is nevertheless a man who can be reached as a human being.

·         REVEREND SYKES: He is the black minister of the First Purchase Church, called that because it was paid for with the first money earned by the freed slaves. He is an imposing man with a strong “minister’s” voice.

·         HECK TATE: He is the town sheriff and a complex man. He does his duty and enforces the law without favor.

·         NATHAN RADLEY: He is a thin, leathery, laconic man. May be doubled-Boo Radley.

·         BOO RADLEY: Arthur Radley is a pale recluse who hasn’t been outside his house in fifteen years. It takes an emergency to bring him out, and once out, he’s uncertain about how to deal with people and anxious to return to his sanctuary.

·         TOM ROBINSON: He is black, handsome and vital, but with a left hand crippled by a childhood accident and held against his chest. He’s married to Helen and they have young children. He faces up to a false charge with quiet dignity. There’s an undercurrent in him of kindness, sensitivity, and consideration.

·         JUDGE TAYLOR: He is a wintry man of the South, who does what he can within the context of his time to see justice done in his court. While he tries to run his court impartially, his sympathy is with Tom.

·         MR. GILMER: He is a public prosecutor who is trying to convict Tom. In many ways, his manner is cruel and hurtful. And yet under all this, he too has unexpressed doubts as to Tom’s guilt, and his heart isn’t really in this conviction.

·         BOB EWELL: He is a little man who lives with his large family by the town dump. Bob thinks this trial will make him an important man, and when Atticus destroys his credibility, Bob’s rage and frustration border on paranoia.

·         JEAN LOUISE: She’s Scout, grown older, looking back on the time she was the young Scout, looking for answers to questions that still exist in her memory of that time. She isn’t connected directly to the people in the play, though on occasion there’s almost a communication between them.

·         MAUDIE ATKINSON: Younger than Atticus, she’s a lovely sensitive woman. Though belonging to the time and place of the play, she has a wisdom and compassion that suggests the best instincts of the South of that period.

·         STEPHANIE CRAWFORD: She’s a neighborhood gossip.  There’s an enthusiasm in her talking over the people of her town that makes it almost humorous. She simply can’t keep herself from stirring things up.

·         MRS. DUBOSE: She is an old woman–ill, walking with difficulty, her pain making her biting, bitter, and angry.

·         HELEN ROBINSON: She is half numb with the shock of the false charge against her husband, Tom. She is a young black woman caught in a nightmare.

·         MAYELLA EWELL: This is a young woman whose need for companionship has overwhelmed every other emotion. However, when her effort to reach out explodes in her face, she fights just as desperately for what she thinks is survival.

          CALPURNIA: Black, proud and capable, she’s raised the motherless Scout and Jem, she’s made quite a good job out of it. Her standards are high and her discipline as applied to Scout and Jem are uncompromising.