AUDITION ANNOUNCEMENT:
All roles are open for Plaza Theatre Company’s upcoming production of HARVEY by Mary Chase. An open audition is being held at Plaza Theatre Company to cast the show on February 21st. HARVEY is being directed by Aaron Siler. Auditions are by appointment only which can be made by visiting plaza-theatre.com
Audition Preparation:
Auditioners will be asked to come with a short monologue or read cold from the script at the audition. Each auditioner should plan to spend about five minutes auditioning for the Director. A call back audition will be held on Wednesday February 23rd, 7 to 10pm. Those auditioners who the Director wish to see further will be invited to the call back audition which may last up to three hours time.
About the Play:
Harvey tells the story of an affable man named Elwood P. Dowd and his unseen to all but Elwood, presumably imaginary friend Harvey, a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall rabbit. When Elwood starts to introduce Harvey to guests at a society party, his society-obsessed sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to spare her daughter Myrtle Mae and their family from future embarrassment. Comedy ensues when the folks at the Sanitarium have Veta committed instead of Elwood. This is the play on which the famous movie starring James Stewart is based.
Rehearsal and Performance dates:
Rehearsals for HARVEY will commence on Monday, Febraury 28th and continue thru opening the show on Friday, April 22nd. The show will play every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30pm and Saturday afternoons at 3pm thru May 14th.
About the Theatre:
Plaza Theatre Company is a non-profit community theatre located at 111S. Main in Cleburne, TX. While performers are provided complimentary tickets and other considerations, they are not compensated financially as Plaza operates as a community theatre.
Cast breakdown of avaliable roles:
Ethel Chauvenet – an old friend of the family. She is a member of the town’s social circle, which Veta wants Myrtle to break into, and so they both flatter her and curry her favor.
Betty Chumley (the doctor’s wife) – more concerned with socializing than with science: told that her husband has to examine a patient, she tells him, “Give a little quick diagnosis, Willie — we don’t want to be late to the party.”
Dr. William B. Chumley – an esteemed psychiatrist and the head of the sanitarium, “Chumley’s Rest,” to which Veta has taken Elwood. He is a difficult, exacting man, feared by his subordinates, unwilling to tolerate his mistakes.
Elwood P. Dowd – the central character of the play, a friendly eccentric who spends his days and nights in the taverns of his unnamed town. Elwood’s best friend is Harvey, an invisible six and a half-foot-tall rabbit. The play leaves open several possibilities regarding exactly what Harvey is, whether he is a figment of Elwood’s imagination, as the psychiatrists would like to believe, or he is, as Elwood asserts, a supernatural being known as a pooka.
Judge Omar Gaffney – an old family friend of the Dowds, a representative of the people in town who are accustomed to seeing Elwood talking to Harvey and who do not think anything of it.
Miss Johnson – listed in the Cast of Characters as “a cateress,” but her dialog in the play is tagged “Maid.” She only appears briefly in the first act: when Veta asks if she has seen the guest list, she says, “No, I haven’t Mrs. Simmons,” and leaves promptly.
Nurse Ruth Kelly – a sympathetic character, a pretty young woman who appears to have some sort of love/hate relationship with Dr. Sanderson.
E. J. Lofgren – Cab driver who makes Veta realize that the treatment that is supposed to make Elwood stop seeing Harvey might drain him of his kind personality.
Dr. Lyman Sanderson – young, for a psychiatrist, but very qualified — Dr. Chumley has picked him out of the twelve possible assistants that he tried. He is just as infatuated with Nurse Kelly as she is with him, but he only reveals his concern indirectly.
Myrtle – a young woman, the daughter of Veta. The main reason why she and her mother are concerned about their standing in the community is that they both are concerned that Myrtle find a man to marry.
Veta Louise Simmons – Elwood’s sister, an important character in this play because she joins the play’s two opposing forces, logic and imagination.
Wilson – the muscle of Chumley’s Rest, a devoted orderly responsible for handling the patients who will not cooperate voluntarily.
