Auditions
The Lake Worth Playhouse is a non-profit community theatre that provides entertainment, education and opportunities for artistic expression through volunteerism and community involvement and support.
THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL (Limited Engagement)
Book by Betsy Kelso, Music & Lyrics by David Nehls
Director: Daniel Eilola
Music Director: Michelle Presley
Choreographer: Lara Palmer
Audition Dates: July 5th & 6th, 2021at 7pm
Production Dates: September 3rd – 12th, 2021 (6 Performances)
About:
There’s a new tenant at Armadillo Acres – and she’s wreaking havoc all over Florida’s most exclusive trailer park. The story has, at its center, a love triangle between an agoraphobe, a highway toll collector and an exotic dancer with an unhinged ex-boyfriend. A Greek-chorus-eque trio of trailer park women helps guide the narrative, playing any character or gender they choose while breaking the fourth wall at whim to air their own dirty laundry. The result is a sense of informality and community – the lifeblood of neighborhoods everywhere.
More than a decade after its New York premiere, “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” continues to connect with audiences and sold-out crowds. Beyond the broad comedy and Jerry Springer-worthy confrontations, the show is about rising above our impulses, our mistakes and our surroundings to make a future we can believe in despite the past.
“A show that actually lives up to the hype of its title.” —Village Voice.
“A delicious new musical. The joint is jammed and jumping with raucous laughter. It’s like The Honeymooners meets The Best Little Whorehouse in Urinetown.” —NY Post.
“South Park meets Desperate Housewives in this big-hearted new musical comedy with a cheeky script by Betsy Kelso, an infectious score by David Nehls and a richly talented cast. TRAILER PARK sparkles with treasure.” —NY Sun.
Roles
JEANNIE GARSTECKI – 35–45 Years old
Jeannie has lived in a trailer at Armadillo Acres for 20 years with her husband and high-school sweetheart, Norbert. A faded beauty, she was 17 when she married, 18 when her son was born and 23 when he got kidnapped. That, coupled with a really bad perm, has turned her into an agoraphobic. She hasn’t left her trailer in all these years, and the man she loves is drifting further and further away and she’s determined to get him back … that is if she could manage to get out of the trailer to do it …
NORBERT GARSTECKI – 35–45 Years old
Jeannie’s husband Norbert collects tolls for a living and tries to be as good a husband as one can be to an agoraphobic. A former high- school football star, he has rugged good looks marred by fatigue and the stress of his difficult marriage. He is a simple man who desperately wishes his wife could get out of the trailer, but he’s not equipped with the emotional or intellectual tools to help her do it. He has never loved or slept with a woman other than Jeannie. That is until he meets …
PIPPI – 28–35 Years old
Pippi is a striking beauty with a great body and a taste for clothing that shows it off. Up to this point, Pippi’s life has been about surviving. She is a professional stripper who has gotten by on her looks and talents for dancing and petty theft. She means no harm and is ready to stop making bad choices and start making changes, but first she has to get lost in a hick-town trailer park in North Florida so she won’t be found by her last bad choice
DUKE – 24–28 Years old
Duke is Pippi’s obsessive, possessive and excessive Magic Marker–sniffing boyfriend; “ex”-boyfriend according to Pippi. Not so, according to Duke. Not the brightest guy south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Duke leaves a trail of disaster in his wake wherever he goes. His road trip to Starke is no exception and his arrival at the trailer park is full of surprises — even for a group of people who have had their share of excitement …
BETTY – 38–50-Something
Betty attended high school with Norbert and Jeannie Garstecki and has lived at Armadillo Acres for just as long. She now runs the leasing office and makes it her business to know everything about everybody who passes through the trailer park. Though a self-proclaimed “bad-ass,” Betty is really a mother hen to the denizens of the trailer park. Of all “The Girls,” Betty is the most grounded, earthy and dry.
LINOLEUM “LIN” – 30s
So-named because her mother gave birth to her on the kitchen floor, Linoleum has a husband on death row at the Florida State Prison. His fate is an electric chair that doesn’t work properly unless most of the town’s electricity is turned off. So Lin watches everyone’s lights and appliances very closely in the hopes that she can keep the chair on the fritz. Sometimes self-absorbed and sometimes just a smart-ass, she hints at a wild, rock-and-roll past and is the fieriest of “The Girls.”
DONNA “PICKLES” – 20’’s
A newlywed, Donna is called “Pickles” because she is perpetually hysterically pregnant — that is, she’s so convinced she should be pregnant she’s exhibiting symptoms. Her husband is a lot fancier than she is, as he is from the big city of Jacksonville. His parents haven’t been very supportive of his marital choice, so Pickles is desperate to give her husband a family of his own — even if she has to fake it. The dimmest of “The Girls,” Pickles is airy, sweet and blissfully ignorant.
Requirements: Please prepare 32 bars of a song in the style of the show. An accompanist will be provided for you – please provide sheet music. In addition, smartphones and digital devices with an accompaniment track are accepted provided it is cued correctly prior to your audition.
Playhouse Black Box Series
The Shadowbox by Michael Cristofer
Director: David Simson
Stage Manager: Phyllis Cafarelli
Audition Dates: July 11th and 12th, 2021 at 7pm
Performance Dates: September 3rd – 12th, 2021 (9 performances)
About:
Joe, Brian, and Felicity come from different walks of life, different parts of the country, and are in different stages of accepting the things they have in common: they are all dying of cancer, and they are all living out their final days, in company with friends and family, in homey hospice cottages on the green and pleasant grounds of a large California hospital. They are observed, studied, and counseled by an invisible Interviewer as they talk candidly about their emotional and physical struggles, and face interpersonal challenges: Joe’s wife Maggie, in denial about her husband’s impending death, refuses to go inside his cottage; artistic Brian, busy trying to write and paint enough for twelve lifetimes, must mediate between his ex-wife Beverly and his boyfriend Mark; and Felicity, confused and in pain, refuses to die until she gets a visit from her daughter Claire — a daughter who has been dead for years. Michael Cristofer’s sensitive, emotionally devastating, ground-breaking play exploring the end of life experience won both a Tony Award for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1977.
Roles:
Joe (age 40’s-50’s- lead role), Joe is a working man from the Northeast. Strong, but gentle family man, very close to his son, Steve. Joe is relatively inarticulate about his own feelings toward his illness. All of his emotion is focused on his family. He is very worried about his wife’s acceptance of his terminal illness and how they will share this news with their son. Joe has no visible signs of illness or infirmity.
Steve (can act, look 14 to 16 yrs- featured role). Actor should be able to play the guitar, but doesn’t need to play well, just chords and strumming as he is practicing a song during the play. Steve has a mix of emotions, he is excited to be visiting his father, is perplexed by his mother’s erratic behavior and this role involves interacting with his parents during this visit to his father’s cottage.
Maggie (age 40’s-50’s-lead role). Maggie is a complex character, primarily a loving wife and mother, funny and warm, but wraps it up in a no nonsense, bossy demeanor as she comes for a visit to the cottage. But Maggie is very conflicted and has not accepted the terminal nature of her husband’s illness. She would like everything to be back to normal. She also bears the burden of not having told their son about the severity of his father’s illness. Also from the Northeast.
Brian (age 40’s-50’s- lead role) Brian is a cerebral, literate man who is trying to reason his way through acceptance of his terminal illness. He generally keeps his tone light, but erudite, and his emotions in check. He is surprised and moved by a visit from his ex-wife who has always been more emotional, spontaneous, physical. He has to manage the hostility between his partner Mark and his ex-wife, Beverly. Brian has no obvious signs of illness except for tremors until the end of the play when he faints; the character also has a dancing sequence with Beverly
Mark (age 30’s-40’s- lead role) Mark is very good looking. He is Brian’s caretaker and lover. Mark is dealing with his emotions about Brian’s illness by pretending that he doesn’t have any. He has a great deal of conflict with Beverly who tries to make him confront his fears and, as a result, be a better, more loving caretaker to Brian.
Beverly (age 40’s-50- lead role) Beverly is Brian’s ex-wife, she is funny, full of life and fun, profane, sarcastic, prone to dancing and discussing her love life. Her brittle humor masks her love and concern for Brian. She is also someone who goads Mark and her scenes involve conflict with Mark and quick witted humorous interactions with Brian. Beverly is a life force, with an edge. Beverly is responsible for a lot of humor in the play.
Felicity (ages 60’s-70’s- lead/featured role) Felicity is the character most obviously impacted by her illness. She is blind and in a wheelchair. She is an earthy, feisty, take no prisoner old lady who morphs from quick witted, no nonsense acceptance and lucidity to confused rambling due to her pain and illness. She often challenges her daughter and caretaker, Agnes.
Agnes (ages 40’s-50″s- lead role) Agnes is a repressed, restrained woman who is devoted to her mother but often frustrated by her behavior. She has been under a lot of tension as her mother’s illness has been protracted. She is also concealing a secret that is revealed during the play. Agnes is a character who surprises with her passion and representation of the challenges of being a caretaker for a parent.
Interviewer (featured role) Usually played off stage by a male, in this play the interviewer will likely be both off and on stage and acting as a counselor. Can be male or female, age range undetermined, but likely best to be 40’s or older. The Interviewer interacts primarily with the patients, Joe, Brian, and Felicity, but has some scenes with the caretakers as well. Interviewer is generally empathetic but can seem detached and clinical at times as well. Interviewer is present throughout the play and it is a large featured role.
Requirements: Please prepare a contemporary monologue no more than 2 minutes in length. Actors may also be asked to read from the script.
Auditions will be held in the Stonzek Studio Theater at the Lake Worth Playhouse
The Lake Worth Playhouse is a non-profit community theatre that provides entertainment, education and opportunities for artistic expression through volunteerism and community involvement and support.