[Capdist-auditions] 2nd Notice - OUT COUNTRY'S GOOD - Schenectady Civic Players - Feb 27 & Mar 1

[lwandruski at aol.com]

 Auditions for SCP’s season-ending production, Our  Country’s Good  by 

Timberlake Wertenbaker, to be directed by Joe Phillips, will take place on  

Tuesday, Feb. 27 and Thursday, March 1 at the Playhouse, 12 S. Church St.,  

Schenectady, NY  12305.  Registration for auditions begins at  7:00 p.m. each night.  

Possible  callback on Saturday or Sunday, March 3-4, if needed. Performances of 

the drama  are scheduled for May 11- 20.   



The play, at turns  funny, harsh, and thoughtful, deals with the redemptive 

power of simple decency  and the capacity of theater to inspire and elevate. An 

Olivier Award winner on  the London stage, loosely based on the historical 

novel The  Playmaker by Schindler’s  List author  Thomas Kennealy, Good  is set 

in 1789 in New South Wales, Australia, shortly after the arrival of the  first 

prison ships, loaded with eighteenth-century Britain’s social refuse --  

prisoners whose offenses aren’t serious enough to merit hanging but sufficient  by 

the  standards of the day to earn  them “transportation for life.” Neither 

they nor the bottom-of-the-barrel  officers who will guard them are ever likely 

to return from this desolate spot  literally half a world removed from 

civilization.  

 

New governor Arthur  Phillip, a former naval captain, has been dispatched to 

establish order and is  determined to make a real, civilized colony of this 

wretched place. One of his  junior officers, determined to impress His 

Excellency, proposes to direct a cast  of prisoners in the first theatrical venture in 

this brave new world -- a  trifling comedy, The  Recruiting Officer. 

 

Lt. Clark must  overcome the illiteracy and indifference of most of his cast, 

and the threat of  hanging facing some; the vehement opposition and active 

interference of his  superiors; the governor’s ineffectual if inspirational 

support; and his own  growing loneliness and despair. Through it all, the play 

ennobles its  once-downtrodden participants and inspires hope for the  future. 



The ensemble includes  5 roles for women, 17 roles for men, although the role 

of Johnston will likely  be eliminated, and Dawes and Faddy double-cast with 

Arscott, Caesar or Freeman.  Casting will be race-blind, and a variety of ages 

are needed. The role of  Caesar, a prisoner of French-Malagasque origin, 

requires a black actor; there is  also a role for an Australian aborigine. Other 

actors will require a variety of  accents from throughout the British Isles, 

Cockney, Irish and Scottish among  them. (Accents will not be required for 

auditions, although auditioners may use  one if comfortable with it.) Several roles 

in the ensemble – Capt. Tench, Rev.  Johnson, Meg Long, The Aborigine, 

possibly Capt. Collins -- will share the task  of narrating the proceedings.  

The play includes  graphic and frank sexuality and language, and gritty 

situations. Audition  readings will be from the script.  



AVAILABLE  ROLES: 



A  breakdown of the roles and some idea of ages: 



Officers:   



LT.  RALPH CLARK:  Homesick; empathetic; patient; sometimes unassertive; a 

bit of a dreamer. Old  enough to have a wife and a young son he will likely 

never see again during a  long career in the service, if he has one – for in 

directing the prisoners, he’s  angered his superiors and jeopardized his future. 



CAPT.  ARTHUR PHILLIP:  Probably in his late 30’s or up. The prototypical “

fuzzy-headed liberal,” the  new governor can be persuasive, even inspiring – 

but is not particularly  organized, practical or effectual. 



MIDSHIPMAN  HARRY BREWER:  Phillip’s aide-de-camp and the overseer of public 

executions. Probably around  30, well past the point when he should be a 

commissioned officer. Sensitive,  haunted, temperamental, self-torturing, and 

hopelessly in love with mercurial  Duckling. 



CAPT.  DAVEY COLLINS:  Probably about Phillip’s age, a military lawyer, 

scholar and would-be judge for  the new colony. Clever, sly, a skilled debater and 

manipulator of arguments,  often playing devil’s advocate for the governor.   



MAJOR  ROBBIE ROSS:  commander of the guard detachment, older than the 

others, he’s a hard-boiled  marine combat veteran and disciplinarian, a fuming, 

crusty, salty,  short-tempered, sputtering Scot with little regard for the 

prisoners’ humanity –  and a formidable, irredeemable foe of Clark and his play. 



CAPT.  JEMMY CAMPBELL:  a funny, quirky, mumbly Scot, of few, but pithy, 

words, shuffling in Ross’s  shadow – with occasional sparks of independence.  



CAPT.  WATKIN TENCH:  An intellectual gentleman, he’s intelligent, rational, 

and adamant that reform,  and this play, will never work. Possibly of similar 

age to Phillip and Collins.   



REV.  JOHNSON:  the chaplain, a prissy Methodist, soft-spoken, polite and 

malleable. Age  negotiable. 



GEORGE  JOHNSTON, WILL DAWES, and WILLIAM FADDY –  Young officers, 20’s 

maybe. Dawes is inattentive and easily distracted; Faddy,  jealous, hostile, 

sniping; Johnston has a mistress among the prisoners and a  soft spot in his heart 

for them.  



Prisoners: 



MARY  BRENHAM:  Probably 18 to early 20s, attractive, shy, intelligent, 

literate; whatever her  criminal history, she has been sexually abused and is 

deeply ashamed of it. She  blossoms under Lt. Clark’s artistic and romantic 

attentions and the opportunity  to exercise her mind by starring in his play.  



LIZ  MORDEN:  Likely Mary’s contemporary or older, and her temperamental 

opposite, a thief and  whore with a fiery temper, a chip on her shoulder and a 

haughty attitude; first  in line to be hanged. Yet she has an inner fragility and 

finds unexpected  dignity in being in the play. 



JOHN  WISEHAMMER:  late 20s to 30s, Jewish and thus a bit of a social outcast 

here, he doggedly  maintains his innocence. Eloquent, self-educated and 

literate, a brooding  romantic and a rival to Clark for Mary’s attentions. 



THOMAS  SIDEWAY:  A pickpocket who once worked London’s theater district. 

Well-spoken, with a  disheveled elegance, he affects grand manners and civility 

and, as an actor,  comically broad, gestural overacting. Age negotiable.  



KETCH  FREEMAN:  A strapping Irishman convicted of assault who escapes 

hanging by “nosing” on his  co-conspirators, thus earning the scorn of his fellow 

prisoners. Compounds their  hatred by volunteering to serve, reluctantly, as 

the hangman – yet hopes the  play will win him respect. Age negotiable.  



DABBY  BRYANT:  Deeply cynical, funny, hard-bitten, feisty petty thief with a 

smutty imagination  and sharp tongue. Age negotiable. A pragmatist with a 

hint of the mysterious  about her, she longs to escape and go home to Devon.  



JOHN  ARSCOTT:  An illiterate, hard-luck criminal, age negotiable, who sees 

the play as a  pretext to escape – but is transformed by the “escape” it 

affords him from his  shabby existence.  



DUCKLING  SMITH:  Maybe 15-20, a petulant teen with a vengeance, she can be 

sulky, cruel, and  flirty (or worse). Reluctant to be vulnerable, her 

relationship with Harry  Brewer blows hot and cold.  



CAESAR:  A black native of French Madagascar imprisoned for who-knows-what, 

with the  gentility of a former servant. Articulate but illiterate and 

superstitious,  seeks out the play to avoid punishment for an attempted escape and 

later, to  recover his bruised dignity.  Age  negotiable.  



MEG  LONG:  A small role as a tough, toothless, blunt, older (50 or up?) 

convict with bawdy  ideas about what “trying out” for Mr. Clark’s “play” means.  

 

And… 



THE  ABORIGINE:  A sagacious native presence, often a silent witness to the 

odd behavior of these  newcomers to his land; offers occasional pithy comment 

on what he observes. Age  and ethnicity negotiable. 



Our  Country’s Good will  be directed by Joseph Phillips. Production dates 

are May 12-14 and 17-21,  2007.  Perusal scripts are  available.  Volunteers are 

needed to  help build the set and work backstage.  House managers and 

hospitality staff are also needed.  For more information, contact the  director, 

Joseph Philips at (518) 464-2698 or  email him at  joepdrew at aol.com.   
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