AUDITION INFORMATION



CRIMES OF THE HEART

Beth Henley

Audition Dates:

Sunday, September 17, 2023   6-9 pm

Tuesday, September 19, 2023   6-9 pm

Rehearsals:

Sundays: 4:00 - 6:30 PM

Tuesdays & Thursdays:  7:00 - 9:30 PM


Performance Dates:

December 1-3, 8-10, 2023


Auditions, Rehearsals and Performances are at:

Curtain Call Front Street Theatre

11112 Front Street
 
Mokena IL 60448


Winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play.

All characters should be between 25 years old and 45 years old and/or can play these ages.

We ask for a prepared monologue and have cold readings for the auditions.


Characters 


Lenora (Lenny) McGrath:  

Eldest sister of the McGrath family.  She has all the responsibilities in caring for her grandparents and recently Old Grandaddy.  Lenny is thoughtful and responsible but frustrated and lonely.  Her relationship with her sisters is not stable.  She is jealous of Meg for getting extra care from Old Granddaddy and Meg is always around men and Lenny is lonely, so it makes her dislike Meg.  She is a secretive person and has been rejected by men.  Even though she pushes away her sisters, they encourage her to renew that relationship.  She still tries to protect them and has a fierce sense of family and pushes out their cousin when she is being awful about them.


Margaret (Meg) McGrath

She is the middle sister.  Meg was the one who found her mother’s body after she committed suicide at the age of 11.  This traumatic experience changed Meg.  She is constantly checking her strength by viewing photos of an offensive and unhealthy nature, like sick and handicapped children to block her feelings and suffering.  She smokes, drinks, and lives her life dangerously.  She is a failed singer and comes home from LA.  She also had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized.  Meg always wanted to be the center of attention.  Her sisters are jealous of her and got extra special treatment from their family.  Meg is irresponsible and lies to her Granddaddy about her successful singing career.


Rebecca (Babe) Botrelle

Youngest sister of the McGrath Family.  She is married to a wealthy lawyer.  She has also shot her husband in the stomach   She says it is because she doesn’t like him.  Later, it is revealed that she has a lover, and her husband has threatened her boyfriend, Willie, which is why she shoots Zachary (husband).  He has blackmail photos that Zackary threatens to release.  She tris to kill herself but fails and discovers what her mother’s situation was and understands it.


Chick Boyle

She is the McGrath sister’s cousin.  Older than the sisters, she is a blonde that has shiny red lips.  She is concerned about her reputation in the community and rather than worry about her cousin Babe’s situation, she worried about her reputation in the community.  She is critical of the family, especially Meg, because she is a “low-class tramp” and Babe because she doesn’t see the seriousness of her actions and how it affects her (Chick’s) reputation.  She likes Lenny and feels comfortable with her.


Barnette Lloyd

He is Babe’s lawyer to fight her case.  Graduate of Ole Miss Law School, he has opened his office in Hazelhurst and is a cleaver man.  He has a vendetta against Zackary because he ruined his father.  He is attracted to Babe.  Barnette has all the evidence against Zackary and doesn’t openly expose him to protect Babe.


Doc Porter

He is Meg’s old boyfriend.  Doc tells Lenny that his horse was killed.  He is called Doc even though he was seriously injured in a hurricane.    He loved Meg so much, he stayed longer in the storm because of Meg and people believe Meg persuaded him to stay, thus, the injury.  He is married and has a family but remains close with the McGrath family.  Meg and Doc restart their friendship when Meg returns.




The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach. Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future—but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.


Director: Nicki Blowers





CRIMES OF THE HEART is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection. (www.dramatists.com)