[Capdist-auditions] Auditions for BLITHE SPIRIT with The Two Of Us Productions

[stephensanbornphd at gmail.com]

The Two Of Us Productions, the award winning theater company based in Copake
NY., is holding auditions for their Fall 2023 mainstage production of Blithe
Spirit by Noel Coward.  

 

*	Auditions: 

*	Tuesday August 15th at 7pm.
*	Thursday August 17th at 7pm.
*	Saturday August 19th at starting at Noon.  

 

*	Callbacks:

*	Callbacks will be Sunday August 20th starting at 4pm (as needed) 

 

*	All auditions and callbacks will be at the Copake Grange, 628 Empire
Road, Copake NY.  The Grange Building is on Empire Road about 50 yards from
the clocktower intersection in the center of Copake. 
*	All roles are available except as noted below.  
*	Sides will be provide at auditions.  If potential auditioners would
like to look at sides in advance, or need additional information, please
write the director at StephenSanbornPhD at gmail.com
<mailto:StephenSanbornPhD at gmail.com> 
*	COVID vaccination is required in order to be cast.  Please bring
proof of vaccination to your audition.  

 

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward

*	Performances:  November 10th, 11th, 12th, & the following weekend of
Nov. 17th, 18th & 19th.  
*	7 roles:

*	EDITH – the speedy maid who has spiritual connections of her own
*	RUTH  - the 2nd wife of Charles Condimine
*	CHARLES – an established write living in the country and now trying
to write about clairvoyance and connections with the spirits
*	DR. GEORGE BRADMAN – a member of the local grentry and friend of
Charles
*	MRS. VIOLET BRADMAN – DR. BRADMAN’s wife and confidant
*	MADAME ARCATI – a well-known medium engaged by Charles to conduct a
séance for his literary research
*	ELVIRA -  the 1st wife of Charles, who has died but responds to the
séance run by Madame Arcati

*	Synopsis:  

Blithe Spirit is a comic play by
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No%C3%ABl_Coward> Noël Coward, is set in the
home of socialite and novelist Charles Condomine.  At the start of the play,
while dressing for dinner, Charles and his second wife, Ruth, discuss his
first wife, Elvira, who died young, seven years earlier. He comments, "I
remember her physical attractiveness, which was tremendous, and her
spiritual integrity, which was nil".Among the Condomines' dinner guests is
an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, whom Charles has invited in the hope of
learning about the occult for a story he is writing. He has arranged for her
to conduct a séance after dinner. During the séance she plays a recording of
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin> Irving Berlin's song "
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_(Irving_Berlin_song)> Always" on the
gramophone, inadvertently attracting the ghost of Elvira. The medium leaves,
unaware of what she has done. Only Charles can see or hear Elvira, and Ruth
does not believe that Elvira exists, until a floating vase is handed to her
out of thin air. The ghostly Elvira makes continued, and increasingly
desperate, efforts to disrupt Charles's current marriage. Charles accuses
her of being "feckless and irresponsible and morally unstable". She finally
sabotages his car in the hope of killing him so that he will join her in the
spirit world, but it is Ruth rather than Charles who drives off and is
killed. 

Ruth's ghost immediately comes back for revenge on Elvira, and though
Charles cannot at first see Ruth, he can see that Elvira is being chased and
tormented, and his house is in uproar. He calls Madame Arcati back to
exorcise both the spirits, but instead of banishing them she unintentionally
materializes Ruth. With both his dead wives now fully visible, and neither
of them in the best of tempers, Charles, together with Madame Arcati, goes
through séance after séance and spell after spell to try to exorcise them.
It is not until Madame Arcati works out that the housemaid, Edith, is
psychic and had unwittingly been the conduit through which Elvira was
summoned that she succeeds in dematerializing both ghosts. Charles is left
seemingly in peace, but Madame Arcati, hinting that the ghosts may still be
around unseen, warns him that he should go far away as soon as possible.
Charles bids his vanished wives farewell and leaves at once; the unseen
ghosts throw things and wreck the room as soon as he has gone.  

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://capdisttheater.org/pipermail/capdist-auditions/attachments/20230704/157579a9/attachment.html>