Casting Call: 'Osage County'

Pinnworth Productions of Kelsey Theater will hold auditions for "August: Osage County" in a little over a week.

The show centers around the Weston family, brought together after their patriarch, world-class poet and alcoholic Beverly Weston, disappears. The matriarch, Violet, depressed and addicted to pain pills and “truth-telling,” is joined by her three daughters and their problematic lovers, who harbor their own deep secrets; her sister Mattie Fae and her family, well-trained in the Weston family art of cruelty; and finally the observer of the chaos, the young Cheyenne housekeeper Johnna, who was hired by Beverly just before his disappearance. Holed up in the large family estate in Osage County, Oklahoma, tensions heat up and boil over in the ruthless August heat.

Auditionees should prepare a two- to three-minute monologue not from the show that reflects the character they wish to audition for.

Violet Weston (65)	Bev's wife. In treatment for oral cancer, Violet has turned to prescription drugs (mostly pain pills) to drown out her troubles, as she has many times before. She and her sister Mattie Fae faced a difficult childhood rife with physical and emotional abuse, and she explains away her vicious barbs and pointed insults under the the guise of truth-telling. Her marriage to Bev was distant and often bitter. Violet also seems to know everything about everybody in the family, things that most had thought were well-kept secrets.
Barbara Fordham (46)	Bev and Violet's oldest daughter, a college professor in the midst of a nasty separation from her husband Bill, who has taken up with a grad student. Barbara miserably exemplifies the abandoned older woman that her mother reminds her daughters they will become. Barbara is hard-as-nails, and of the sisters is most like her mother.
Bill Fordham (49)	Barbara's husband. Despite having taken up with one of his students, Bill attempts to be present for Barbara and Jean when they arrive at the house in Osage County. An intelligent linguist, Bill uses humor and wit to attempt to soften family tensions, much to Barbara’s chagrin. A pot smoker.
Jean Fordham (14)	Barbara and Bill's daughter. A vegetarian, old movie buff, and frequent smoker, bitter about her parents’ divorce. Although Jean likes to act like she’s all grown up, she is caught off-guard by the breakdown she sees in her family through the course of the reunion, particularly her mother Barbara’s demonstration of painful weakness.
Ivy Weston (44)	Bev and Violet's middle child. A quiet, self-conscious woman, Ivy is the only daughter to remain in Oklahoma, and as such, has been Violet's caretaker since the rest of the family left. She’s a teacher at the local community college, and generally keeps to herself, which Violet interprets as laziness and a lack of interest in her appearance or in men. In actuality, Ivy has consummated a sweet, genuine romance with her cousin, Little Charles, who is eventually revealed to be her brother.
Karen Weston (40)	Bev and Violet's youngest, a real estate agent in Florida. Though often flighty and clueless to the pain of the rest of her family, understands well that sometimes imperfection is the best one can manage in this life. She is engaged to Steve and willfully ignores his three previous marriages, his opaque business dealings in the Middle East, and his proclivity for young girls.
Mattie Fae Aiken (57)	Barbara's younger sister. She is jaded and often as cruel as her sister, particularly to her son, Little Charles, who she constantly demeans and criticizes. Her sassiness can be amusing, but there’s a deeper pain underneath. Her marriage with Charlie has lasted many years, but her constant needling of Little Charles leads Charlie to threaten divorce. Late in the play, she reveals that she had an affair with Beverly, who fathered Little Charles.
Charlie Aiken (60)	Mattie Fae's husband. Friendly with a good sense of humor, Charlie was dear friends with Beverly and is crushed by his disappearance. Although he loves Mattie Fae, he is disturbed by the cruelty she inflicts on her family and on her son, Little Charles. In Charlie’s opinion, everyone should just be nice to each other. A mediator who often helps dissolve family tensions.
Little Charles Aiken (37)	Shy, clumsy, and unemployed, Little Charles has always been known by his diminutive stature and seems to have fulfilled every unimpressive expectation that others hold for him. However, he also shows himself to be sweet and creative when he writes a song for his cousin Ivy. Little Charles marches to his own drum, and despite his inability to overcome the cruelty of his mother, finds a real connection with Ivy and makes big plans with her.
Johnna Monevata (26)	The Westons' new housekeeper, a young Cheyenne woman whose father Beverly bought fireworks from years ago. Her personal history is very important to her. Johnna is training to become a nurse and is desperate for a job when Bev hires her. She chooses to stay even after Barbara gives her an opportunity to cut and run. Johnna is a great cook and a quiet presence in the house, observing everything and saying nothing.
Steve Heidebrecht (50)	Karen's fiancee. Steve conducts most of his business, which he claims is security work, in the Middle East to avoid “a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy.” He has been married three times. Flirts grossly with Jean throughout the play, including smoking marijuana with her.
Beverly Weston (69)	The missing patriarch. A former award-winning poet and world-class alcoholic. He is quiet, polite and self-aware, yet desperate and depressed. It is his disappearance, which, it seems clear, ends in his suicide by jumping off his boat in the lake, that spurs the family reunion.
Sheriff Deon Gilbeau (47)	The local sheriff. He was a high school classmate of Barbara’s and her prom date. He grew up with an alcoholic father who now is in a home with Alzheimer’s. Kind, polite, but somewhat inexperienced, Deon is not particularly delicate when it comes to revealing the sad truth about Beverly. He is divorced with three children, and still thinks about the Weston sisters. Upon learning of Barbara’s impending divorce, he asks if he can call her for lunch.

Auditions will occur at 1 p.m. September 12 and 13. The first rehearsal will occur at 7 p.m. September 28, and the show will run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays Jan. 8-17.

For more information, or to schedule an audition appointment, contact August_osagecounty@yahoo.com. Kelsey Theater is located on the Mercer County Community College campus at 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor.