Category Archives: Auditions

March 19 & 20 at 7pm

X*ACT Xenia Area Community Theater
45 E 2nd St, Xenia, Ohio 45385

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
A Comedy in 3 acts
Kaufman and Hart’s madcap comedy. When Tony Kirby and Alice Sycamore become engaged, disaster ensues when her crazy family meets his, until Alice’s Grandfather lectures everyone on the importance of living life to the fullest and doing what makes you happy.

Directed by Kylee Pauley

NEEDED: 9M, 7 W
SHOW DATES: May 25-June 3

AUDITIONS ARE COLD READINGS FROM THE SCRIPT, NO PREPARATION NEEDED

CHARACTERS:

• Penelope Sycamore: The daughter of Martin Vanderhof, mother of Essie and Alice, and wife of Paul, Penelope is the fluttery, gentle lady of the house. She decided to become a playwright when a typewriter was delivered to their house by mistake.
• Essie: The daughter of Penelope and Paul, granddaughter of Martin Vanderhof, and wife of Ed, Essie is a pixie in toeshoes. At the age of twenty-nine, she wants to be a dancer in the worst way–and, according to any unbiased observer, that is exactly what she is.
• Rheba: The maid in the Vanderhof household, she probably understands this unusual family better than anyone.
• Paul Sycamore: The husband of Penelope and father of Essie, Paul Sycamore is in his mid-fifties, but with a kind of youthful air. However, under that unassuming exterior lies a man who lives for his fireworks–the ones he manufactures in the cellar.
• Mr. De Pinna: Years ago Mr. De Pinna was delivering ice to the Vanderhof home–and just decided to stay. Now the mad genius of pyrotechnics helps out Paul in the cellar.
• Ed: The husband of Essie, Ed is a nondescript young man in his mid-thirties. However, he has two passions: the printing press and the xylophone.
• Donald: Rheba’s boyfriend, Donald spends a lot of comfortable time at the Vanderhof home.
• Martin Vanderhof: The patriarchal head of the family, Grandpa Martin Vanderhof is about seventy-five, a man whom the years have treated kindly. He is a man who made his peace with the world long, long ago, and his whole attitude and manner are quietly persuasive of this.
• Alice: The daughter of Penelope and Paul and sister of Essie, Alice is a lovely, fresh young girl of about twenty-two. She is in daily contact with the world and seems to have escaped the tinge of mild insanity that pervades the rest of the family; she is engaged to Tony Kirby.
• Tony Kirby: The boyfriend and later fiancé of Alice, Tony Kirby is a personable young man not long out of Yale and Cambridge.
• Boris Kolenkhov: Essie’s dance teacher, Boris Kolenkhov is a hearty, explosive, Russian ballet-master.
• Mr. Kirby: Tony’s father and Alice’s boss in the Wall Street office, Mr. Kirby is a successful businessman who wants his son to follow in his footsteps; thus, he is very disapproving of the Vanderhof family and of his son’s engagement to Alice.
• Mrs. Kirby: Tony’s mother, Mrs. Kirby is of the same mind and temperament as her husband.
• Wilbur C. Henderson: An employee of the IRS. He comes to collect the tax money owed by Grandpa, and can’t understand why the latter won’t pay income tax.
• The Grand Duchess Olga Katrina: She was one of the Grand Duchesses of Russia before the Revolution, another being her sister, the Grand Duchess Natasha. Since then she has been forced to flee to America where she has found work as a waitress in Childs Restaurant.
• Gay Wellington: An actress whom Mrs. Sycamore meets on a bus and invites home to read one of her plays. She is an alcoholic, gets very drunk and passes out shortly after arriving at the Sycamore’s home.