Mariemont Players will be holding auditions for Noel Coward’s classic, HAY FEVER.
Unconventional, risqué, and often downright rude, the Blisses are everything an upper-crust English family should not be. This is made abundantly clear when each family member invites a guest for the weekend. Alliances form, affairs begin, and formality is thrown to the wind. Noel Coward’s perfect comedy will send you home laughing.
Audition Dates: Monday & Tuesday, November 9 & 10
Audition Time: 7 PM
Location: Mariemont Players – 4101 Walton Creek Road, Cincinnati, OH 45227
Callbacks: Wednesday, November 11 (if necessary)
Performance Dates: March 4 – 20, 2016
Rehearsals: Determined by the availability of those who are cast.
Character Descriptions
- Judith Bliss – David Bliss’s wife and Sorel and Simon’s mother, Judith Bliss is a retired actress, although she still loves to act and keeps insisting she will return to her craft. She invites Sandy Tyrell as a weekend guest.
- David Bliss – Judith Bliss’s husband and Sorel and Simon’s father, David Bliss is a novelist of some acclaim, who is looking for his next muse. He invites Jackie Coryton as a weekend guest.
- Sorel Bliss – Judith and David’s daughter, Sorel Bliss is nineteen years old and bored with most of life. She invites Richard Greatham as a weekend guest.
- Simon Bliss – Judith and David’s son, Simon Bliss is a would-be artist. He invites Myra Arundel as a weekend guest.
- Myra Arundel – Simon’s invited houseguest, a socialite
- Jackie Coryton – David’s invited houseguest, “a perfectly sweet flapper”
- Sandy Tyrell – Judith’s invited houseguest, a young boxer
- Clara – The housekeeper. She’s a bit rough around the edges.
Synopsis – In HAY FEVER we spend a weekend with the eccentric Bliss family — Judith, a recently retired stage actress, David, a self-absorbed novelist, and their two equally unconventional children — live in a world where reality slides easily into fiction. Upon entering this world, the unfortunate weekend guests—a proper diplomat, a shy flapper, an athletic boxer, and a fashionable sophisticate— are repeatedly thrown into melodramatic scenes wherein their hosts profess emotions and react to situations that do not really exist. The resulting comedic chaos ends only when the tortured visitors tip-toe out the door.
Accents – British accents will be used for this production. We have an excellent dialect coach as part of the production team. You do not need to use an accent for auditions, although you are certainly welcome to try one on.
Those auditioning should bring a resume and conflicts between the period January 11th and March 20th. Headshots not necessary but welcome.
Questions? Please contact jef Brown at jefwi1f@gmail.com.
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