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Auditioning for the Sewell Barn


Audition Notice: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas


Director: Cassie Tillett

Contact details: cassie@tillett.org.uk / 07802 475110

Performance dates:  14-16, 20-23 July (including a matinee on 23 July) 2022


THE PLAY

Originally created as a 'play for voices', this beautiful and evocative piece describes a typical day in the life of the inhabitants of a small Welsh town. We meet the extraordinary characters and 'hear their dreams', getting to know their wishes and ways, their loves and desires, their happiness and their darker side. There's a great deal of humour and love alongside sadness, disappointment and occasionally the downright sinister; the characters are familiar and supernatural, hilarious and tragic, disturbing and reassuring.


PARTIAL CASTING: 4 actors required (2M/2F)

The play was previously cast for our cancelled 2019/20 season, and first refusal has been given to those actors, some of whom are available. As a result, we have four vacancies as shown below.


CASTING:  10 actors* - 5M/5F

If cast on a one-person-one-role basis, the play would involve a cast in excess of 45. This production will take a much simplified, stylised, multi-casting approach, involving five men and five women in the ensemble*. Each of the ten ensemble actors will play at least three named roles, plus several other un-named roles (e.g. children, gossiping women, fishermen and so on). Finally, all speeches allocated to the First Voice (the Second Voice is not shown separately in the script we'll be using) will be given to members of the ensemble. In other words, nobody will be off-stage for more than a few minutes at a time!


For audition purposes, I will cast a total of 5F/5M to play the following primary roles. Once these have been cast, the remainder of the roles will be allocated as appropriate to the performers. The other roles that actors will take on will be very different to those shown below, so prepare to be challenged with variety.


PARTS AVAILABLE (F):

Polly Garter - 20s/30s  - loves nothing better than having babies, cares nothing for local gossip, warm and loving, cleans for the local wives

Mrs Pugh – 50s/60s - knows perfectly well that her husband occupies his days trying to fathom ways to murder her, enjoys criticising every single thing he does


ALREADY CAST:

Rosie Probert - 30s - the ghost of Captain Cat's favourite lover in his youth. Gentle, lovable, representative of all that he has lost.

Myfanwy Price - 40s - house-proud, independent, 'natty as a jenny-wren', practical, self-contained.

Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard - 50s - formidable, obsessively clean, still controls and terrorises the ghosts of her two dead husbands


PARTS AVAILABLE (M):

Mog Edwards - 40s - the town draper, in love with Myfanwy Price in the abstract, but has no intention of doing anything about it beyond writing impassioned love letters every night

Mr Pugh - 60s - downtrodden, fawning, underhand, balances Mrs Pugh (see above) to perfection


ALREADY CAST:

Cherry Owen - 30s - a loving husband by day, an excessive drunkard by night, and his wife loves them both

Mr Waldo - 50s - 'barber, herbalist, catdoctor, quack', drinker, lech, untroubled by conscience

Revd Eli Jenkins - 70s - idealistic, poetic, musical, devout minister


*Please note: In addition to the ten ensemble players, the following role has been pre-cast:

Captain Cat: David White


ADDITIONAL SKILLS


Music: The characters of Rosie Probert, Polly Garter, Mr Waldo and Revd Eli Jenkins all have solo songs to sing. These are not in any sense 'professional' singers, but must be pleasant, tuneful and confident. Please note that there is also much ensemble music in the show, especially the Evening Hymn - led by Revd Eli Jenkins - and I would like the ensemble to provide the traditional harmonies for this very moving moment in the play. As such, all performers need some musical ability (to the level of 'can carry a tune in a bucket').


Accents: obviously this play is the very epitome of all things Welsh. However, Thomas commented that Laugharne (the real-life inspiration for Llareggub) was a “peculiarly English town” with few Welsh speakers. Coupled with the need for the play to be truthful and believable, without resorting to pastiche, I feel that the accent should be soft and understated. Having said that, we will obtain assistance to ensure that the voices are appropriate to the south coast of Wales.


REHEARSAL DETAILS

The show will require every member of cast at most rehearsals. As such, rehearsals will be built around the availability of the cast. Saturdays will not be used, nor Sunday mornings, but all other evenings and Sunday afternoons are possible. There will be three rehearsals per week for the first month, potentially increasing to four after we have got into the Barn, and the usual commitment during tech, dress rehearsals and show weeks.


There will be a readthrough towards the end of April. Rehearsals will begin w/c 16 May 2022.


AUDITION DETAILS

Friday 25 February at 7.00pm in the Barn

 If you are interested in auditioning but are unable to make this date, please contact the director and we will do our best to arrange an alternative.


SCRIPT

Under Milk Wood: The Definitive Edition

Orion Books ISBN 9781780227245

(there are two versions available - the covers being multi-coloured with a girl's face, and blue with grey dots - both have the same pagination)


IMPORTANT NOTE

It is expected that all members of the cast and crew will have received all appropriate COVID jabs. While matters have improved of late, the threat of the virus has not gone away, and it would only take one member of this large cast to test positive – or worse, to fall seriously ill – to jeopardise the whole production. The Sewell Barn Management Committee, advised by the Health & Safety Officer, feels that this is an appropriate measure in order to minimise risk.