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Auditions for "The Mai

The Mai by Marina Carr

directed by Nancy Curran Willis

THE STORY: An accomplished, beautiful forty-year-old woman, The Mai has always sought an exceptional life. Robert, her cellist husband, has always felt stifled by The Mai’s ideals of perfection. After seventeen years he leaves her, whereupon she sets about building a dream house in the hope that he will one day return to her. From her fairytale castle, The Mai waits by the window for her dark-haired prince to return. Set in the inspiring surrounds of the West of Ireland, on the banks of the legendary Owl Lake, we enter this world on the day of Robert’s return after an absence of five years. The other Fraochlán women each drift in and out of the house at Owl Lake to offer their perspective and opinion on the family history and on Robert and The Mai’s relationship.

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AUDITIONS WILL BE BY APPOINTMENT – Please indicate your preferred date and timeslot. Send your audition request to production manager, Ginger Webb at gs_webb@yahoo.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9th7:00 – 10:00 pm

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 11th– 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

CALLBACKS (if required) SUNDAY, JANUARY 12th from 1:00-5:00

REHEARSALS BEGIN IMMEDIATELY AFTER CASTING:

READ THRU –Monday, January 13

NORMAL SCHEDULE: Monday, Thursday, Friday eves; Sunday afternoon

TECH WEEK: Friday, Feb. 21st– Feb. 27th

OPENING NITE: Friday, Feb. 28th – March 2 & 7 - 9

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS:

Please prepare a 2 to 3 minute monologue from a contemporary Irish playwright. You may choose from other Marina Carr plays such as “The Bog of Cats” but please do not use one from “The Mai.” Other playwrights to consider: Martin McDonagh, Brian Friel, Conor McPherson. Your monologue does not have to be memorized but should be well prepared to show you at your best. Director is looking to hear the lilt of an Irish accent in your audition monologue. So please give it your best shot. We will have a dialect coach for the production.

THE CHARACTERS: 7 Female Roles; 1 “lucky” Male! Note on age: the ages listed are the ages specified for the characters in the script. We are looking for people who can portray a specific age. We do not expect there are many 100 year old actresses out there to play Grandma F! And we have an amazing hair and make-up person onboard to help us!

The Mai (40)(pronounced May) a well-educated national school principal and mother of four children. She was herself an accomplished cellist, something she gave up in deference to her husband, Robert’s own career goals. A woman of desire, determination and drive to build the home on Owl Lake for Robert to return to.

Robert (42)is The Mai’s husband, a professional cellist who abandoned his family five years earlier. An ego-driven charmer and womanizer, Robert returns to the home The Mai built for him expecting to pick up where the relationship left off.

Millie (30)The Mai’s daughter and the only one of her four children to appear in the play. She is the adult narrator of her mother’s story. This character is at once an observer of and a participant in the action of the play. She must move easily from telling her mother’s story from an adult perspective to joining in the action of the play as a 16 year old participant.

Connie (38)is the middle sister, two years younger than The Mai. She is married with children and a comfortable life. Connie regrets that she always played it safe in her life and is a bit jealous of the more reckless life her younger sister Beck has led.

Beck (37) is the youngest of the three sisters with a wild, single lifestyle. She returns home abruptly from Australia and is secretive about why. Finally revealing a failed marriage to a much older man and regrets her choices in life and not having children of her own.

Grandma Fraochlán (100) the maternal grandmother to The Mai and her sisters. She raised the girls when their mother died in childbirth. Grandma F. is an opium-smoking and scene-stealing old woman who likes her smoke and drink and has conversations with ghosts, particularly her dead husband, the nine-fingered fisherman!

Aunt Julie (75)the Mai’s aunt and the eldest of Grandma Fraochlán’s seven children. Julie carries a lot of resentment toward her mother as she had to take the major responsibility for the family’s care.

She and her sister, Agnes, have become the self-appointed guardians of the family name and reputation.

Aunt Agnes (61)is a very docile character who follows Julie’s lead in most things, with the exception of her teetotalism.

NOTE: You may request a perusal copy of the script by request to Ginger Webb at gs_webb@yahoo.comFor questions for the director:imadirektor@rcn.com

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