Cast in Los Angeles | Performed In Los Angeles
AEA Play | Performs: July 9- 26 Producer: Suzan Fairchild, Karin Frasier
Author: Tennessee Williams
Artistic Director: Brady Schwind
Managing Director: Karin Frasier
Director: Brady Schwind
Rehearsals Start: May 22- July 9 (approx)
Preview Dates: July 9
Performance Dates: July 10-26
| Casting Company: Neighborhood Playhouse
Casting Associate: Christen Jackson
Casting Coordinator: Wendy Walker
Audition Dates: May 2-3, Callback Dates: week of May 4
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| Phone: | | N/A | Email: | casting@neighborhoodplayhouse.net |
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| Submissions Due By: | |
| What to Prepare: | Auditions will consist of cold reads from the script. Actors reading for Maggie and Big Daddy will be cold reading monologues from the script. |
| Call Back Info: | As needed |
Project Notes: The Neighborhood Playhouse, in special agreement with The Tennessee Williams estate, presents a rare Los Angeles revivial of
William's searing Pulitzer Prize winning drama.
ROLES AVAILABLE
Margaret - Lead / FEMALE / 26 TO 35
Required Skills - Dialects: American Southern
Helpful Skills - A musicality to her speaking voice - capable of great vocal range and inflection.
Margaret “Maggie” Pollitt – late 20’s+. An attractive, sexy, vivacious and tenacious woman. Having grown up poor, she is determined to hold on to her privileged marriage. She and Brick were college sweethearts and married shortly thereafter. Brick’s subsequent withdrawal from her has left her desperately lonely, especially as she is anxious to bear him a child and potential heir to the Pollitt legacy. Her inner strength manifests itself in a wicked “catty” humor. Maggie has to capture the audience in a grip so tight that she can hold it until the first intermission without any lapse of attention. NOTE: Maggie spends considerable stage time in a state of partial undress, although no nudity is required
Brick - Lead / MALE / 26 TO 35
Required Skills - Dialects: American Southern
Brick Pollitt – late 20’s+. Maggie’s husband and the younger son of Big Daddy and Big Mama Pollitt. A former star athlete in college and professional football league, his career ended prematurely due to an on-field injury early in his career. Following the death of his best friend, Brick withdrew into himself and lapsed into a debilitating alcoholism. On the evening before the action of the play, Brick broke his ankle while drunkenly attempting to jump hurdles at the local track in the middle of the night; accordingly, he spends the action of the play in a leg cast and hobbling on a crutch. Brick is masculine, virile, athletic and handsome. A tone of politely feigned interest, masking indifference or worse, is characteristic of his speeches with Maggie. He has the additional charm of that cool air of detachment that people have who have given up the struggle. NOTE: Brick spends a portion of the first act in a state of partial undress, although no nudity is required.
Big Daddy - Lead / MALE / 55 TO 65
Required Skills - Dialects: American Southern
Searching for an actor large in presence - not necessarily large in girth
“Big Daddy” Pollitt - 55-65. Father to Brick and Gooper and husband to Big Mama. A large, brash and vulgar man who at the beginning of the play believes he has cheated death, only to find out that he is indeed dying of cancer. He is hollowed out by the reality of his coming death and, in coming to grips with the truth, seeks to help Brick find his way out of the darkness he has lived in since Skipper’s death. He sees in Brick a remarkable resemblance to himself in his youth and, accordingly, openly favors Brick over his elder son, Gooper, whom he considers a self-interested opportunist. He regularly makes jokes at his wife’s expense, and many of these jokes contain thinly veiled indications of a long-simmering resentment. Despite the feigned high spirits of the celebration of his birthday and the false report of his improving health, Big Daddy is in considerable physical pain throughout the action of the play.
Big Mama - Lead / FEMALE / 55 TO 65
Required Skills - Dialects: American Southern
Searching for an actress large in presence not necessarily large in girth
“Big Mama” Pollitt – 55-65. Wife to Big Daddy and mother to Brick and Gooper. A handsome, boisterous, affectionate and slightly vulgar Southern matriarch. She is very sincere, yet she constantly laughs at herself. Nobody laughs louder at Big Daddy’s jokes at her expense than Big Mama herself, though sometimes they’re pretty cruel and she has to pick up or fuss with something to cover the hurt that her loud laugh doesn’t quite cover. Throughout their decades-long marriage, Big Mama has remained fiercely loyal and devoted to Big Daddy. Like Big Daddy, she also tends to favor her younger son, Brick, seeing in him so many of the same qualities of the younger Big Daddy with whom she fell in love and made a life. Her family may have been a bit superior in social standing to Big Daddy’s, but not by much.
Mae - Lead / FEMALE / 30 TO 40
Required Skills - Dialects: American Southern
Mae “Sister Woman” Pollitt - 30’s-early 40’s. Wife to Gooper. An ambitious, meddlesome and unscrupulous "monster of fertility" who schemes with her husband Gooper to secure Big Daddy's estate. She is the mother of five children with a sixth on the way, a grotesque representation of what Maggie wants more than anything. Mae appears primarily responsible for the burlesques of familial love and devotion that she and the children stage before the grandparents. She was once the "cotton carnival queen," but her family is not as well-to-do as Gooper thinks they are. Mae is determined to ensure that she and Gooper inherit the Pollitt property, and creates a ferocious rivalry with Maggie over this issue. Mae is also a snob who is unhappy about her failure to get accepted by the smartest young married set in Memphis, a failure that she attributes to Big Mama's vulgar behavior. NOTE: The expectant Mae will be costumed with a pregnancy pad.
Gooper - Lead / MALE / 30 TO 40
Required Skills - Dialects: American Southern
Gooper “Brother Man” Pollitt – 30’s-early 40’s. Husband to Mae, brother to Brick and elder son of Big Daddy and Big Mama. A successful corporate lawyer, Gooper resents his parents’ apparent preference for his wayward younger brother and possibly resents Brick for securing a prettier and more socially graceful wife. At his own wife’s urging, he has masterminded a plan to secure the Pollitt family fortune for his own family, at Brick & Maggie’s expense, in the guise of assuming legal guardianship of the family’s assets before Big Daddy’s ultimate demise. Gooper clearly values authority and control and is quick to point out Brick’s inadequacies, including those not fully public to others in the room, and occasionally snaps at his wife when she makes bold statements that seemingly undermine his authority.
Reverend Tooker - Supporting / MALE / 45 TO 60
Reverend Tooker – 45-60. The local preacher. A tactless, opportunistic, and hypocritical guest at Big Daddy's birthday party. His conversation consists mostly of dropping hints about how other local families have given generous endowments to local churches, hoping to secure such a gift from the Pollitt estate upon Big Daddy’s demise. His practiced smile is "as sincere as a bird call blown on a hunter's whistle, the living embodiment of the pious, conventional lie."
Doctor Baugh - Supporting / MALE / 40 TO 70
Doctor Baugh - 40-70. Family physician to the Pollitts. He has been summoned to the party by Gooper and Mae to reveal the truth of Big Daddy’s condition to Big Mama in an effort to convince her to transfer guardianship of the estate to Gooper. He himself does not fully comprehend their intentions until their plan unravels before him.
Lacey - Cameo / MALE / 40 TO 70 / African American
Lacey - 40-70. The Pollitt's African American valet. A long time member of the household. Character has limited speaking lines but is a vital part of the spirit of Tennessee Williams's work.
Sookey - Cameo / FEMALE / 40 TO 70 / African American
Sookey - 40-70. The Pollitt's African American housekeeper. A long time member of the household. Character has limited speaking lines but is a vital part of the spirit of Tennessee Williams's work.
Dixie / Trixie / Sonny / Buster - Cameo / MALE OR FEMALE / 7 TO 12
The Children - Mae and Gooper's children, 5-12 years of age. They appear here as highly precocious children, raised by their mother to be excruciatingly ingratiating, who intermittently interrupt the action on-stage. The girls, Dixie & Trixie should be twins; the boys, Sonny & Buster, are single-born. Their birth order is not stated explicitly in the program, so may be cast in any age sequence. A fifth child, Polly, is presumably an infant and does not appear on stage
Story Line: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship of a wife and husband, Maggie "The Cat" and Brick Pollitt, and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi, ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of patriarch and tycoon "Big Daddy" Pollitt.
Maggie, through wit and beauty, has escaped a childhood of desperate poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds herself suffering in an unfulfilling marriage.
Brick, an aging football hero, has neglected his wife and further infuriates her by ignoring his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his near-continuous drinking date back to the recent suicide of his friend Skipper. Big Daddy is unaware that he has cancer and will not live to see another birthday; his doctors and his family have conspired to keep this information from him and his wife. His relatives are in attendance and attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, hoping to receive the definitive share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth.