The Constant Wife

by W. Somerset Maugham

Performance Dates: 5th - 12th October in The Ron Barber Studio

Audition	Tue, 11 June	7:30 PM - 10:00 PM	Bar
Audition	Fri, 14 June	7:30 PM - 10:00 PM	Rehearsal Room

 

Constance is Perfect.  The Perfect wife, friend, and mother of the perfect British family.  And she is also perfectly sensible in handling her husband's infidelity with her greatest friend.

Cast Breakdown

Constance Middleton - 36
... is perfect.  Serene, sensible; a modern woman without breaking too many traditions.

John Middleton - 45
... doctor with a sensitive bedside manner.  deceiving his wife with her greatest friend.  Is about to learn he has a... situation.

Mrs. Culver - 60's
... Mother to Constance and Martha.  Will age into Norma Shearer's mother in The Women and ultimately Rex Harrison's mother in My Fair Lady.  Wise, witty and sometimes wrong.

Martha Culver - 32
... Sister to Constance, younger daughter to Mrs. Culver.  A cross between Lady Edith and Lady Mary of Downton Abbey - opinionated, direct, not always nice, tactless at times but well dressed.  And is delighted to have the opportunity to let Constance know of her... situation.

Marie Louise Durham - early to mid 30's
... Greatest friend to Constance.  A lovely, doe eyed, innocent minx with a helpless bit of fluff come hither nature.

Bernard Kersal - 45
... former beau to Constance.  Made his fortune in China and has returned to England in the hopes of putting out a flame.

Barbara Fawcett - 40's
... Business owner friend to Constance and wants her to join in her decorating company.  A widow, so having a job is "respectable", she also wants to help her friend through her... situation.

Mortimer Durham - 40's
... Almost perennially red faced, by anger or embarrassment; counting his money instead of courting his wife.

Director: Jaz Davison jaz.davison@gmail.com

The History Boys

by Alan Bennett

Main House - 7 - 14 September

Audtions

June 2nd to be for The Boys only - 10:00am Rehearsal Room
June 7th for Adult roles only - 7pm Rehearsal Room
The callbacks will then be on 8th June - By appointment from 3pm

The title of the play says it all: it is about the eight post-A level pupils; their hopes, aspirations and dreams for the future. In the hands of a lesser playwright, the Boys would be not much more than archetypes; stereotypical young males invented to serve the comedy and pathos in the script. Bennett has managed to paint eight strong characters. Posnar and Dakin in particular have more stage time and their actions do affect the outcome of the play. The challenge is to allow them to all be portrayed realistically and avoid choral / pantomimic responses in class.

The teachers (Hector, Irwin and Mrs Lintott) are the education triangle on which Bennett's admiration / criticism of teachers and teaching rests. They all have to be played for real (certainly not for laughs – any comedy has to come out of the situations) and, although they fight different corners, they should all make the audience think about all of the arguments. Although the Head could be seen as the least sympathetic of the characters, he too needs to be painted carefully. He has to have a certain gravitas for, although his focus is (needs to be?) on league tables and making the school look good, he genuinely wants the Boys to succeed.

The History Boys discusses education. Bennett informs the audience of his opinions on how best to enrich young people's lives cleverly, by pitching three/ four contrasting teaching styles against one another in the classroom and those rooms out of bounds to the Boys; the Boys themselves remain largely ignorant of this: their goals are immediate and visceral. The audience need to be able to smell the testosterone.

The play, therefore, is not just about education and what it can offer young people, but about how young people respond to what is offered. Young audiences can identify with Dakin and the others even if their aspirations are different to those of Irwin's history class, whilst anyone who has left school will find themselves reminiscing about their own education and the state of modern education. Even though the play is firmly set in the 1980s to allow for the preparation for the entrance exams to be realistic, the piece is quite an attack on how modern government policy can interfere with what really matters: listening to students and guiding them to make the correct aspirational choices. Several years after the play was written it has an almost prophetic resonance with today's audiences, as successive governments have continued to use schools and colleges for their own political gains.

The drama does not present huge technical obstacles, and therefore a greater amount of time can be spent in rehearsals exploring characters and their relationships with one another. It is seen as Bennett's comeback piece, and the challenge is to allow Bennett's voice to shine through whilst still telling the Boys' stories.

People will come because it is an Alan Bennett play; I would like them to leave talking and caring about the fate of the characters. As with all Bennett's work, The History Boys is clever, witty, a little bit naughty, and hugely enjoyable to read. It is our job to make it ingenious, funny, a little bit irreverent, and hugely enjoyable to watch.

Character breakdown

The Boys

Character	Stage Age	Gender	Characteristics
Ahktar	18	Male	Bright. Muslim.
Crowther	18	Male	Loves to act.
Dakin	18	Male	Alpha Male. Handsome.
Lockwood	18	Male	Bright. Opinionated.
Posner	18	Male	Youngest of the Boys. Gay. Jewish. Strong singing voice.
Rudge	18	Male	Underdog. Better known for athletic skills than for intelligence.
Scripps	18	Male	Piano player. Religious. Anglican. Aspiring writer.
Timms	18	Male	Joker in the pack. Likes eating.

The Adults

Headmaster	50s	Male	Old fashioned. Straight-laced. No sense of humour.
Hector	50s	Male	A charismatic old school English pedagogue of studied eccentricity.
Irwin	25	Male	Supply teacher. An up-and-coming rationalist.
Mrs Lintott	50s	Female	Excellent and wise History teacher.
Fiona	20s	Female	Headmaster's secretary. Double up as MP (non-speaking roles).
TV Cameraman	NA	Female/Male	Double up as MP (non-speaking roles).
TV Director	NA	Female/Male	Double up as MP (non-speaking roles).

Director: Ian Moule ianrobertmoule1@btinternet.com