On Golden Pond Auditions to be Held
The Theatre of Gadsden will conduct open auditions for its production, On Golden Pond, on Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3. Auditions both days will be at 6:00pm at The Ritz Theatre in Alabama City. No preparation is needed. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. Danny Townsend will direct this production and is also in charge of auditions.
Characters in the play are:
Norman Thayer, Jr., male, age70 – 90, lead role
Ethel Thayer, female, age 60 – 80, lead role
Chelsea Thayer Wayne, female, age 35 – 55, lead role
Charlie Martin, male, age 40 – 55, supporting role
Bill Ray, male, age 40 – 55, supporting role
Billy Ray, male, age 10 – 16, supporting role
There are six characters in the play. The following descriptions provide some very cursory, general statements about them. However, these descriptions are not "what we are looking for" at auditions. Rather, they are a starting point for the actors' own analysis.
Norman Thayer -- Norman is a retired college professor, who describes himself as being "older than dirt." He is set in his ways, and hard to get along with. He has a dry wit, and he enjoys having fun at others' expense. He also uses his wit and intellect to mask his growing infirmities.
Ethel Thayer -- Ethel is Norman's wife, and is several years younger than Norman. She is happy, outgoing, and content. Since they met, she has taken the rough edges off of Norman's personality. Intelligent and well grounded, she has been content to defer to Norman on many issues without losing her own identity.
Chelsea Thayer -- The only daughter of Norman and Ethel, she has a difficult relationship with her parents. She has never gotten along with Norman, and she feels that Ethel always takes Norman's side of things.
Charlie Martin -- The only character in this play who is a native of Golden Pond, Maine. He is close in age to Chelsea, and has always liked her. Growing up, he saw Chelsea as a pretty, mysterious city girl, and he was fascinated with her. He is the mailman for Golden Pond, having taken over those duties from his uncle.
Bill Ray -- The dentist to whom Chelsea is engaged. Bill has a thirteen year old son, Billy. Prior to becoming a teenager, Billy has spent more time with his mother than with Bill. Billy will now be living with his father, who is becoming very satisfied with new-found changes in his life, both on personal and professional fronts.
Billy Ray -- Thirteen years old, but precocious and worldly for his age. Billy is intelligent, but suspicious and guarded. At this point in his life, he has not spent a lot of time with his father, or any male role model. Billy recognizes that he has been passed back and forth between his parents out of necessity, but has not really been "raised" by either of them.