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The Walpole Footlighters Announce Auditions for The Humans

5/10/2022

The Walpole Footlighters are pleased to announce open auditions for The Humans by Stephen Karam, on Sunday, June 5 and Monday, June 6 at 7:00 pm. Callbacks, if needed, will be held Tuesday, June 7 at 7:00 pm. Please download and complete the audition form at https://bit.ly/3BmM4Xs.

Performance dates are October 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, November 5 and 6. Friday and Saturday performances start at 8:00, matinees start at 2:00.

Rehearsals will begin on Sunday, July 31st and will be on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings. This is a non-union production and there is no pay for actors.

If you have any questions or can’t make the audition dates, please contact the director at [email protected] to make other arrangements.

Plot Summary

The Humans is a one-act drama that has a multi-generational family coming together on Thanksgiving in Brigid and Richard’s run-down New York City Chinatown apartment. The daughter and fiancé host the holiday. Aimee, Brigid’s lesbian lawyer sister, comes over for dinner as well as their working-class, religious parents and grandmother who travel in from Scranton, PA. The engaged couple has recently moved in, the sister has recently gone through a traumatic break-up, and the parents go back and forth almost the entire length of the play debating about when and how to inform the girls of something unknown to the audience. Momo, the wheel-chair-bound grandmother with Alzheimer’s spends her time in and out, but mostly out of, conscious thought. The play reminds us that all families have their own dramas and even though they are surrounded by and in love, the real-life events, like illness and poverty, can take control over emotions and test a family’s strength.

Roles

ERIK BLAKE – 60; All Ethnicities
Irish-American. Catholic, working-class background from Scranton, PA. Has been head of maintenance at a high school for 28 years; loves his family and has worked hard all his life; has very recently been fired from his job because he was discovered having an affair with a teacher at the school; he is trying to remain stalwart in the face of having lost his job, his pension, his life savings, and his self-worth. The rug has been pulled out from under him. He is struggling to make sense of his life and the world.

DEIRDRE BLAKE – 61; All Ethnicities
Irish-American. Working-class background from Scranton, PA. Overweight. Her Catholic beliefs have sustained her entire life, especially through her husband's recent infidelity and the subsequent economic catastrophe to the two of them that it produced; she's found a way to forgive her husband for his transgression; she is both a pragmatist and a romantic; she has worked for the same company since graduating from high school.

BRIGID BLAKE – 26; All Ethnicities
Irish-American, born in Scranton, PA. The youngest of two daughters; she currently lives in NYC; a musician and composer with an artistic (mercurial) nature and frustrated that she is bartending and collecting unemployment and not able to pursue her career; a bit spoiled, upbeat most of the time, and full of energy; she loves her parents but is embarrassed by their provincialism now that's she's become a big-city dweller; in spite of that, she still seeks their approval and wants them to love her new apartment and her boyfriend.

AIMEE BLAKE – 34; All ethnicities
Irish-American. Grew up in Scranton, PA. Is now a lawyer, working for a large corporate firm in Philadelphia and makes a good living; possibly a little overweight; she has recently broken up with her longtime girlfriend and is heartbroken; she also suffers from ulcerative colitis which causes her constant discomfort and has to have major surgery soon; she is the eldest of two girls; gentle and sensitive but strong; by nature, and perhaps because she has learned to be, the more even-keeled of the two sisters, often playing peacemaker in the family.

RICHARD – 38; American with Middle Eastern (Arabic) ancestry.
Comes from privilege and money; in a few years he will come into a trust fund; probably from the Boston area; his family also has a house on Cape Cod; he is currently studying to get his masters in social work (his mother has a private practice as a therapist); bright, tries to stay upbeat and positive, and is very sensitive to the Blakes' complicated family dynamics. He tries to keep things running smoothly during this holiday dinner; suffers from depression and apparently had a breakdown a number of years ago; he's willing to reveal that to Brigid's parents, as he feels he's moved on in his life.

MOMO – 79; All Ethnicities
Erik's mother; Irish-American Catholic. In the throes of dementia for the past four years; most of her speech doesn't make sense and is repetitive, although her gibberish may be related to what she senses is going on around her; occasionally prone to wild outbursts of rage; much beloved by all members of the family for the loving person she once was.

For auditions, please bring a headshot and resume. Please download and complete our audition form or come prepared to fill out the form before the audition starts, including scheduling conflicts.

Please come prepared with a 1-2 Minute contemporary Monologue. It is preferred that it be memorized. If you do not have a monologue prepared, there will be a side at auditions available for you.

Callbacks (if needed) will consist of working with your audition monologue and cold readings from the script.

All auditioners must be fully vaccinated and masks will be required in the Playhouse unless you are on stage auditioning.

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