Auditions for "Hay Fever"

Audition registration is open for Noel Coward's "Hay Fever," directed by Evan Mueller.

Register by 5 p.m. on May 27 if you wish to audition.

Auditions are scheduled for Sunday, May 28 in PA 399. The auditions will be in one-hour sections with up to ten people in each section. Be prepared to stay for the full hour for which you sign up.

Auditions are open to all current Western students.

While vaccinations will not be required to participate in this production, we still strongly encourage that everyone auditioning be vaccinated and boosted for Covid-19. This will help protect the cast, production team, and audience from being exposed to Covid-19 and keep everyone healthy.

Synopsis

Celebrated playwright Noel Coward's "Hay Fever" is a stylish comedy set in an English country house in the 1920s. The play deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish behavior when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend.

Rousing fights, surprise engagements, and fevered declarations of love finally drive their guests to flee, as the Bliss family carries on with their over-the-top games, bickering and outrageous behavior.

Character Breakdown

We will be casting 9 actors and 2 understudies.

Descriptions of Primary Roles

1. Judith Bliss. David Bliss’s wife and Sorel and Simon’s mother. She is a recently retired actress which correlates with her personality of everything is a performance to Judith, a way to make herself and higher status known to those around her. She is not afraid to take up space. Judith is a singing role. Judith sings a song which will be selected collaboratively.
2. David Bliss. Judith Bliss’s husband, and father to Sorel and Simon. He is an egomaniac but loveable, he is a novelist of some acclaim. He feels as if he understands style and feels it.
3. Sorel Bliss. Daughter of Judith and David, at 19 years old she has a strong sense of independence.
4. Simon Bliss. Son of Judith and David, Simon puts his talent into caricatures, creating cartoons of other people. He wants to be loved and is ironic and sarcastic to whomever he meets.
5. Myra Arundel. Myra is the ideal of a 1920’s woman, she is put together at all times as well as sassy. She stands clear on who she is. Myra was invited to the dinner party by Simon.
6. Richard Greatham. Richard is a diplomat in the group. He has a tall presence yet stands kind of grey. Inside, he is a passionate and warm character, but that is rarely shown. He was invited by Sorel.
7. Jackie Coryton. Jackie is a ‘perfectly sweet flapper’. She is not the brightest, maybe a little over her head. She is invited by David.
8. Sandy Tyrell. Sandy is animated, loving, a man who hardly has enemies. He is an athlete-jock character, a ‘boxer in his prime’. He is invited by Judith.
9. Clara. Clara is the housekeeper, and she is not a good one. Being very loud, she makes her, sometimes dirty, presence known.

Content Disclosure

• In a comic context, this play depicts flirtation, sexuality, and infidelity.
• This play depicts physical displays of affection between characters, such as hugging, handholding, kissing on the cheek, and similar physical contact which is both affectionate and romantic in quality.  
• This play depicts both consensual flirtation, and what may be interpreted as unwanted flirtation.
• This play has moments of alluding to or discussing sexual intimacy.
• This play depicts romantic, passionate kissing and intimate contact related to kissing.  
• This play depicts smoking.
• One character slaps another character in the face.
• As ensemble members, all actors in this play will engage in robust movement and physical expression.

Theatrical Violence

Myra slaps David in the face. This moment will be choreographed by the Director, and will not involve actual contact.

Character Actions Disclosure

Instructions for your audition

• Choose a side from those provided.
  • Choose a side from the character you think you most strongly identify with and/or would want to play.
  • We may also consider you for additional roles other than the side you’ve chosen.
  • We encourage memorization of the sides, but it is not required.
  • We are also interested in hearing the sides done with a British accent, but this is not required.
  • Those actors who want to be considered for the role of JUDITH: please bring a song (16 bars will suffice), which they can sing a capella or with a recorded accompaniment (please be responsible for your own sound). Any song will suffice for this audition, though we recommend a song from the 1920s/30s.
• Make sure to fill out the online form below and sign up for an audition time.
• Please note the rehearsal schedule of this play when you sign up, rehearsals will begin a few days before the start of classes in the fall quarter.
• Deadline to sign up is May 27 at 5 p.m. If you need to change your audition time or if you missed the deadline please reach out to Production Manager, Savannah LeCornu (lecorns@wwu.edu) to see what options might be available to you.
• Auditions will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 28 in PA 399.
  • We will have up to 10 actors sign up in one hour increments
  • Please plan on staying for the entire hour.
  • First we will hear the sides which each actor has prepared (you may present the sides with a reader who we will provide or you may come in with a partner), and we will use the remaining time to assign additional sides if necessary.
  • Sign ups are online only – complete the form below.
• Callbacks: We do not foresee having call backs for this production.
• Vaccination Requirement: While vaccinations will not be required to participate in this production, we still strongly encourage that everyone auditioning be vaccinated and boosted for Covid-19. This will help protect the cast, production team, and audience from being exposed to Covid-19 and keep everyone healthy.

Why we ask for certain information to audition

Questions on this form include opportunities to share information about your identity, including gender, race and cultural background. Your answers help WWU prioritize authentic, appropriate casting as called for in each script. Please share only what you feel comfortable sharing.

Our department is committed to anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices in all areas, including casting. Our goal is to create a casting process that is welcoming, absent of intimidation, and serves those auditioning as well as the creative team in the full exploration of the material in an environment of mutual trust.

In reference to the character descriptions above: these are descriptions of the characters as identified in the script and in collaboration with the creative team. They are not meant to be exhaustive of who should play these roles and we seek to cast expansively and intentionally. We are striving to make our production and audition practices inclusive of performers of all races, ethnicities, national origins, gender expressions, body types, and abilities.

We also recognize that these characters are written on the binary (use he/him or she/her pronouns) and we invite gender non-conforming, genderqueer, transgender, and non-binary actors to submit for any roles they identify with.  We also welcome performers of all abilities and are prepared to provide any reasonable accommodations and resources needed in order to cast performers with disabilities. (Thanks to the Actors Theatre of Louisville for their language and inspiration in this statement).

Some questions on this form involve disclosing what you are comfortable with as a performer.  Show specific questions are below and you will also be given a longer, more detailed disclosure form to fill out the morning of auditions. You will be asked to return this form by 2 p.m. on Audition Day.

Additionally, there are some resources made available here to inform you of Western Washington University’s procedures and protocols for moments of intimacy in our productions.

Audition Resources

Below are links to very useful Word documents which are resources to inform you of Western Washington University’s procedures and protocols for moments of intimacy in our productions.

• Production incident report
• WWU Actor Consent Form
• WWU Audition Disclosure Form
• WWU Intimacy and Instructional Touch Policy
• WWU Intimacy Protocols