Auditions for White Plains, Blue Mountain will be August 8-9, 2022 at 6:00 pm
A new play by William and Donna Thornton
*Performance dates are October 28-November 6*
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Life was pretty simple back in the 1950’s. In White Plains, Alabama, Viola Hyatt was living a quiet life on her father’s farm with her father, Martin, and his wife, Miss Jessie. Viola and Martin have a rather odd relationship; they are very close and usually leave Miss Jessie out of their conversations and their plans. Whether Miss Jessie minds this arrangement or not doesn’t matter. She has no voice in this family.
Viola and Martin like to go to gospel singings and at one such event, Viola meets Lee Harper and his brother Emmett. Viola immediately likes Lee and invites the brothers to come and live on her daddy’s farm. Lee immediately likes the idea of sponging off not only Viola, but her father also, and the brothers accept the offer. They construct a very small metal shed that sits on concrete blocks, has no insulation, and no plumbing. They need no kitchen because Viola has invited them to eat at her family’s table. Life settles into a slow pace, and Viola begins to work toward her goal of marrying Lee. Lee has no intention of marrying her. Once Viola learns the truth and has had enough of being used, she strikes out, and the brothers pay with their lives. Almost 20 years later in the community of Blue Mountain, Alabama, Audrey Marie Hilley decides she is finished with her husband so she simply poisons him. The funeral and burial go off without a hitch. She is a beautiful widow who is grateful for all the help the community has to offer, but she’s especially grateful to the men who take her under their wings to “protect” her. She has several well known area business men that she calls on regularly to pay her many department store bills. She has proven time and again that she can talk her way out of any situation and has great success when her benefactors are late with paying her bills. She still manages to get stores to continue extending credit to her even though she has proven to be a bad risk. Audrey Marie is a true narcissist and firmly believes that anything she says will be taken as the absolute truth and that no one will ever challenge her. John Thomas Carter is a law abiding, good man. He is an investigator with Calhoun county law enforcement. He was given the Viola Hyatt murder case in the 1950’s and brought that murderer to justice. Now in the 1970’s, he’s tasked with solving another murder case. He knows there’s something about Audrey Marie Hilley that is very, very wrong. The problem is that knowing something is wrong and proving it is wrong are not the same. With over 20 years experience and a drive to solve cases to get justice for the victims, he comes up with the best plan of all. He won’t let Audrey Marie talk her way out of this. He will simply let her talk her way into it. AVAILABLE ROLES: MRS H (Audrey Marie Hilley) —narcissist, self assured, places a tremendous value on her looks, thinks she has everyone fooled and feels untouchable, murderer. JOHN THOMAS CARTER—detective who worked the murder case in the 1950’s and the one in 1970’s, intelligent, methodical, wise, likes all puzzle pieces to fit perfectly, spins the perfect web to catch a murderer SHERIFF—intelligent, hard worker, straightforward, a little bit of a good ole country boy MRS PARTLOW—fussy, nervous, mother of too many kids, only wants to check on rental property she and her husband own, finds the first body part, becomes part of local history by accident DR BIRDSONG —state medical examiner, not easily rattled by the evil he sees, called in to conduct autopsies on the two torsos, very intelligent, but given to projecting a little drama into his predictions MARTIN HYATT—father to Viola, simple country man, uneducated, overbearing-especially to his wife, is way too involved with his adult daughter’s life VIOLA HYATT—seemingly simple country girl, can be bossy, thinks she has found the perfect man to spend the rest of her life with, does not handle rejection well, murderer MISS JESSIE HYATT— wife to Martin, step-mother to Viola, plain, simple, uneducated, quiet, extremely subservient to Martin, fearful of speaking her own mind LEE HARPER and EMMETT HARPER— brothers from South Alabama, living in a metal shed on cinder blocks on the Hyatt farm, Anniston Army Depot workers, don’t mind toying with women’s feelings, think women are for their use and pleasure, unfortunately they met and displeased Viola NORRED and PHILLIPS— lawyers appointed (pro bono) to represent Viola in her murder trial, they try to be helpful to her and to understand her, but that will take her cooperation and she never gives that |
Audition MaterialsCold readings will be performed from the script for auditions. No preparation is necessary.
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Audition Form - Please print and bring completed to your audition. Blank forms will be available for any unable to print in advance.
| theatre_of_gadsden_audition_form2.pdf |
Location
310 N 27th Street Gadsden, AL 35904 |
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