Category Archives: On Stage

The Drama Workshop’s Production of
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST

Written by Dale Wasserman
Based on the novel by Ken Kesey
Directed by Joe Penno
Produced by Ray Persing

May 5 & 6, 2014
Callbacks to follow on May 7, 2014 if necessary.

At The Glenmore Playhouse
3716 Glenmore Ave.
Cheviot, OH 45211

SHOW DATES: Nov 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22 at 8 pm, Nov 9, 16, 23 at 2 pm.

A wickedly funny parable set in a mental ward, the play chronicles the head-on collision between its hell-raising, life-affirming hero Randall Patrick McMurphy and the totalitarian rule of Nurse Ratched. McMurphy swaggers into the mental ward and turns the place upside down, starting a gambling operation, smuggling in wine and women, and egging on the other patients to join him in open rebellion. But McMurphy’s revolution against Nurse Ratched, and everything she stands for, quickly turns from sport to a fierce power struggle with shattering results. Contains adult language.

Auditions will begin at 7 pm on both May 5 and May 6 at the Glenmore Playhouse. Doors will open at 6:30 pm. Please bring a resume and headshot if available. If you do not have a headshot please be prepared to have your photo taken at the auditions.

Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. You may optionally prepare a 60 second contemporary monologue to be performed in conjunction with cold readings. Make sure that the monologue is in keeping with the tone of the play.

The cast of characters cover a wide age range for both sexes. There are plans to do some extensive character work prior to beginning blocking performances. Rehearsals will be three to four evenings a week beginning in early September. Most, if not all, will take place at The Glenmore Playhouse.

This show contains mature themes and language and this should be weighed when considering auditioning. Any questions may be directed to the producer, Ray Persing, at 937-877-6116. If you are cast and the role is accepted you must become a member of The Drama Workshop prior to receiving your script.

CHARACTER SYNOPSES

THE PATIENTS

• Chief Bromden: The narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden is the son of the chief of the Columbia Indians and a white woman. He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, has received multiple electroshock treatments, and has been in the hospital for ten years, longer than any other patient in the ward. Bromden sees modern society as a huge, oppressive conglomeration that he calls the Combine and the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform. A large, physically imposing presence.
• Dale Harding: An acerbic, college-educated patient and president of the Patients’ Council. Harding helps McMurphy understand the realities of the hospital. Although he is married, Harding is a homosexual. He has difficulty dealing with the overwhelming social prejudice against homosexuals, so he hides in the hospital voluntarily.
• Billy Bibbit: A shy patient. Billy has a bad stutter and seems much younger than his thirty-one years. Billy Bibbit is dominated by his mother. Billy is voluntarily in the hospital, as he is afraid of the outside world.
• Scanlon: The only Acute (patient seen to be “curable”) besides McMurphy who was involuntarily committed to the hospital. Scanlon has fantasies of blowing things up.
• Cheswick: The first patient to support McMurphy’s rebellion against Nurse Ratched’s power. Cheswick is a man of much talk and little action.
• Martini: Another hospital patient. Martini lives in a world of delusional hallucinations, but McMurphy includes him in the board and card games with the other patients.
• Ruckley: A man of few words or actions. He spends most of his time emulating a crucifiction.
• Randle P. McMurphy: McMurphy is larger than life, a man destined to change the asylum forever. Whether he’s a psychopath or not, we’ll never know. Regardless, he sure is smart and he sure is likeable and and he sure does give the patients the ability to seize back the power that Nurse Ratched has stolen from them with her petty little rules and her many small cruelties. Though McMurphy has the opportunity to conform to the rules and save himself, he ultimately chooses to fight for the men on the ward.

THE STAFF

• Aide Warren, Aide Williams: Williams and Warren are the orderlies at the ward. These men are always around trying to figure out a way to make life miserable for the patients. Chief sees them as full so full of hate (like Nurse Ratched) that they’re able to anticipate Nurse Ratched’s commands before she has to verbalize them. They enjoy humiliating the patients and exerting their power over the men.
• Dr. Spivey: A mild-mannered doctor who may be addicted to opiates. Nurse Ratched chose Doctor Spivey as the doctor for her ward because he is as easily cowed and dominated as the patients. With McMurphy’s arrival, he, like the patients, begins to assert himself. He often supports McMurphy’s unusual plans for the ward.
• Nurse Ratched: The head of the hospital ward. Nurse Ratched, the novel’s antagonist, is a middle-aged former army nurse. She rules her ward with an iron hand and masks her humanity and femininity behind a stiff, patronizing facade. She selects her staff for their submissiveness, and she weakens her patients through a psychologically manipulative program designed to destroy their self-esteem. Ratched’s emasculating, mechanical ways slowly drain all traces of humanity from her patients.
• Nurse Flinn: Another Ratched minion. Nurse Flinn is afraid of the patients’ sexuality.
• Aide Turkle: Has the night shift on the ward. Can be bought for a bottle of liquor.

OTHERS

• Candy Starr: A beautiful, carefree prostitute. Candy Starr visits McMurphy and then comes to the ward for a late-night party that McMurphy arranges.
• Sandy: Sandy is a prostitute who knows McMurphy. She joins in on the ward party.