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<div><pre>Auditions for SCP’s season-ending production, Our Country’s Good by <br>
Timberlake Wertenbaker, to be directed by Joe Phillips, will take place on <br>
Tuesday, Feb. 27 and Thursday, March 1 at the Playhouse, 12 S. Church St., <br>
Schenectady, NY 12305. Registration for auditions begins at 7:00 p.m. each night. <br>
Possible callback on Saturday or Sunday, March 3-4, if needed. Performances of <br>
the drama are scheduled for May 11- 20. <br>
<br>
The play, at turns funny, harsh, and thoughtful, deals with the redemptive <br>
power of simple decency and the capacity of theater to inspire and elevate. An <br>
Olivier Award winner on the London stage, loosely based on the historical <br>
novel The Playmaker by Schindler’s List author Thomas Kennealy, Good is set <br>
in 1789 in New South Wales, Australia, shortly after the arrival of the first <br>
prison ships, loaded with eighteenth-century Britain’s social refuse -- <br>
prisoners whose offenses aren’t serious enough to merit hanging but sufficient by <br>
the standards of the day to earn them “transportation for life.” Neither <br>
they nor the bottom-of-the-barrel officers who will guard them are ever likely <br>
to return from this desolate spot literally half a world removed from <br>
civilization. <br>
<br>
New governor Arthur Phillip, a former naval captain, has been dispatched to <br>
establish order and is determined to make a real, civilized colony of this <br>
wretched place. One of his junior officers, determined to impress His <br>
Excellency, proposes to direct a cast of prisoners in the first theatrical venture in <br>
this brave new world -- a trifling comedy, The Recruiting Officer. <br>
<br>
Lt. Clark must overcome the illiteracy and indifference of most of his cast, <br>
and the threat of hanging facing some; the vehement opposition and active <br>
interference of his superiors; the governor’s ineffectual if inspirational <br>
support; and his own growing loneliness and despair. Through it all, the play <br>
ennobles its once-downtrodden participants and inspires hope for the future. <br>
<br>
The ensemble includes 5 roles for women, 17 roles for men, although the role <br>
of Johnston will likely be eliminated, and Dawes and Faddy double-cast with <br>
Arscott, Caesar or Freeman. Casting will be race-blind, and a variety of ages <br>
are needed. The role of Caesar, a prisoner of French-Malagasque origin, <br>
requires a black actor; there is also a role for an Australian aborigine. Other <br>
actors will require a variety of accents from throughout the British Isles, <br>
Cockney, Irish and Scottish among them. (Accents will not be required for <br>
auditions, although auditioners may use one if comfortable with it.) Several roles <br>
in the ensemble – Capt. Tench, Rev. Johnson, Meg Long, The Aborigine, <br>
possibly Capt. Collins -- will share the task of narrating the proceedings. <br>
The play includes graphic and frank sexuality and language, and gritty <br>
situations. Audition readings will be from the script. <br>
<br>
AVAILABLE ROLES: <br>
<br>
A breakdown of the roles and some idea of ages: <br>
<br>
Officers: <br>
<br>
LT. RALPH CLARK: Homesick; empathetic; patient; sometimes unassertive; a <br>
bit of a dreamer. Old enough to have a wife and a young son he will likely <br>
never see again during a long career in the service, if he has one – for in <br>
directing the prisoners, he’s angered his superiors and jeopardized his future. <br>
<br>
CAPT. ARTHUR PHILLIP: Probably in his late 30’s or up. The prototypical “<br>
fuzzy-headed liberal,” the new governor can be persuasive, even inspiring – <br>
but is not particularly organized, practical or effectual. <br>
<br>
MIDSHIPMAN HARRY BREWER: Phillip’s aide-de-camp and the overseer of public <br>
executions. Probably around 30, well past the point when he should be a <br>
commissioned officer. Sensitive, haunted, temperamental, self-torturing, and <br>
hopelessly in love with mercurial Duckling. <br>
<br>
CAPT. DAVEY COLLINS: Probably about Phillip’s age, a military lawyer, <br>
scholar and would-be judge for the new colony. Clever, sly, a skilled debater and <br>
manipulator of arguments, often playing devil’s advocate for the governor. <br>
<br>
MAJOR ROBBIE ROSS: commander of the guard detachment, older than the <br>
others, he’s a hard-boiled marine combat veteran and disciplinarian, a fuming, <br>
crusty, salty, short-tempered, sputtering Scot with little regard for the <br>
prisoners’ humanity – and a formidable, irredeemable foe of Clark and his play. <br>
<br>
CAPT. JEMMY CAMPBELL: a funny, quirky, mumbly Scot, of few, but pithy, <br>
words, shuffling in Ross’s shadow – with occasional sparks of independence. <br>
<br>
CAPT. WATKIN TENCH: An intellectual gentleman, he’s intelligent, rational, <br>
and adamant that reform, and this play, will never work. Possibly of similar <br>
age to Phillip and Collins. <br>
<br>
REV. JOHNSON: the chaplain, a prissy Methodist, soft-spoken, polite and <br>
malleable. Age negotiable. <br>
<br>
GEORGE JOHNSTON, WILL DAWES, and WILLIAM FADDY – Young officers, 20’s <br>
maybe. Dawes is inattentive and easily distracted; Faddy, jealous, hostile, <br>
sniping; Johnston has a mistress among the prisoners and a soft spot in his heart <br>
for them. <br>
<br>
Prisoners: <br>
<br>
MARY BRENHAM: Probably 18 to early 20s, attractive, shy, intelligent, <br>
literate; whatever her criminal history, she has been sexually abused and is <br>
deeply ashamed of it. She blossoms under Lt. Clark’s artistic and romantic <br>
attentions and the opportunity to exercise her mind by starring in his play. <br>
<br>
LIZ MORDEN: Likely Mary’s contemporary or older, and her temperamental <br>
opposite, a thief and whore with a fiery temper, a chip on her shoulder and a <br>
haughty attitude; first in line to be hanged. Yet she has an inner fragility and <br>
finds unexpected dignity in being in the play. <br>
<br>
JOHN WISEHAMMER: late 20s to 30s, Jewish and thus a bit of a social outcast <br>
here, he doggedly maintains his innocence. Eloquent, self-educated and <br>
literate, a brooding romantic and a rival to Clark for Mary’s attentions. <br>
<br>
THOMAS SIDEWAY: A pickpocket who once worked London’s theater district. <br>
Well-spoken, with a disheveled elegance, he affects grand manners and civility <br>
and, as an actor, comically broad, gestural overacting. Age negotiable. <br>
<br>
KETCH FREEMAN: A strapping Irishman convicted of assault who escapes <br>
hanging by “nosing” on his co-conspirators, thus earning the scorn of his fellow <br>
prisoners. Compounds their hatred by volunteering to serve, reluctantly, as <br>
the hangman – yet hopes the play will win him respect. Age negotiable. <br>
<br>
DABBY BRYANT: Deeply cynical, funny, hard-bitten, feisty petty thief with a <br>
smutty imagination and sharp tongue. Age negotiable. A pragmatist with a <br>
hint of the mysterious about her, she longs to escape and go home to Devon. <br>
<br>
JOHN ARSCOTT: An illiterate, hard-luck criminal, age negotiable, who sees <br>
the play as a pretext to escape – but is transformed by the “escape” it <br>
affords him from his shabby existence. <br>
<br>
DUCKLING SMITH: Maybe 15-20, a petulant teen with a vengeance, she can be <br>
sulky, cruel, and flirty (or worse). Reluctant to be vulnerable, her <br>
relationship with Harry Brewer blows hot and cold. <br>
<br>
CAESAR: A black native of French Madagascar imprisoned for who-knows-what, <br>
with the gentility of a former servant. Articulate but illiterate and <br>
superstitious, seeks out the play to avoid punishment for an attempted escape and <br>
later, to recover his bruised dignity. Age negotiable. <br>
<br>
MEG LONG: A small role as a tough, toothless, blunt, older (50 or up?) <br>
convict with bawdy ideas about what “trying out” for Mr. Clark’s “play” means. <br>
<br>
And… <br>
<br>
THE ABORIGINE: A sagacious native presence, often a silent witness to the <br>
odd behavior of these newcomers to his land; offers occasional pithy comment <br>
on what he observes. Age and ethnicity negotiable. <br>
<br>
Our Country’s Good will be directed by Joseph Phillips. Production dates <br>
are May 12-14 and 17-21, 2007. Perusal scripts are available. Volunteers are <br>
needed to help build the set and work backstage. House managers and <br>
hospitality staff are also needed. For more information, contact the director, <br>
Joseph Philips at (518) 464-2698 or email him at <a href="http://dx.ayw.org/mailman/listinfo/capdist-auditions">joepdrew at aol.com.</a> </pre> </div>
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