Top Girls
By Caryl Churchill
Director- Liz Adams
Technical Director - Hilary Caplan
Musical Director - Georgia Young
Unpaid
Production dates:
Auditions Nov. 10-13, 2013
First rehearsal Nov. 18, 2013
Performances (2014)
January 23, 24, 29, 30, 31 - 7pm
Jan. 25 & Feb. 1 - 4 pm
At Davis Square Theater, Somerville
“It would be nice to think that Caryl Churchill's 1982 play, written during the rise of
Thatcherism, now looks dated. In fact, it seems terrifyingly topical in its portrait of an
individualistic society in which the few thrive at the expense of the many.”
– The Guardian, 4 July 2011
SEEKING 7 – 9 ACTORS WITH SOME DOUBLING
Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls
Audition information: Email a reservation request to [email protected]
and/or visit http://www.theatreatfirst.org/auditions.shtml
Auditions will be by appointment from 7 – 10 pm on Sunday, November 10 and
Monday, November 11, at UNITY CHURCH, 6 WILLIAM STREET, SOMERVILLE, with callbacks from 7 – 10 pm on Wednesday, November 13 at another location. Please sign up
for your preferred audition time ranges; we will respond with your confirmed audition
appointment time. We will see actors individually within 30-minute time slots, and will
ask actors to read scenes if necessary toward the end of each 30-minute period.
Preparation: Actors may choose to prepare sides from the play, or may prepare a 2minute monologue that showcases your ability. We will notify actors as soon as possible
whether or not we need you at call-backs; actors should expect to hear from us by
midnight of their audition day whether or not to plan to come in on Wednesday night.
Headshots and resumes are welcome, but not required, and may be emailed ahead of
time to the director at [email protected] or with a reservation request to
[email protected] .
Notification: All auditioners will hear from us regarding casting decisions no later than
midnight on Thursday, Nov. 14.
Please fill out an audition form and bring it with you, paying particular attention to
rehearsal conflicts. This show will rehearse over the winter holiday season, and
rehearsal time will be at a premium; some conflicts are probably inevitable, but if you
are unavailable during a significant amount of rehearsal time, this may not be the
production for you.
About the text: The characters in Top Girls overlap each others’ words, interjecting with
articulated thoughts that respond to what other characters say. The script is marked to
make the interjection points clear.
This is traditionally an all-female cast, but I am always and in this case in particular,
open to casting the best people for the roles, regardless of gender identification.
Roles:
MARLENE (does not double): 30’s – 50’s; old enough to have a nearly-adult teenaged
daughter. She has sacrificed everything and believes she’s made the right choices, and
that others have made the wrong ones.
ISABELLA BIRD (may double with JOYCE and either NELL or MRS. KIDD): 1831-1904;
lived in Edinburgh, travelled extensively between the ages of 40 and 70.
LADY NIJO (may double with WIN or MRS. KIDD): born 1258; Japanese, was an
Emperor’s courtesan and later a Buddhist nun who travelled on foot throughout Japan.
DULL GRET (may double with ANGIE): is the subject of the Bruegel painting Dulle Griet,
(completed 1564) http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/pieter-bruegel-the-elder/dullegriet-mad-meg-1564 in which a woman in an apron and armor leads a crowd of women
charging through hell and fighting the devils.
POPE JOAN (may double with LOUISE): disguised as a man, is thought to have been Pope
between 854-856.
PATIENT GRISELDA (may double with KIT and SHONA or NELL and JEANINE): is the
obedient wife whose story is told by Chaucer in “The Clerk’s Tale” of The Canterbury
Tales.
WAITRESS (may double with JEANINE and WIN or KIT and SHONA): waitress for opening
restaurant scene.
JOYCE: younger sister to MARLENE; stay at home mother, somewhat trapped, in conflict
with MARLENE.
WIN: office staff, plucky, friends with NELL, at ease with herself; more introspective
than NELL
NELL: office staff, also plucky, friends with WIN, takes no B.S., more abrasive than WIN
ANGIE: raised as JOYCE’s daughter; she is actually MARLENE’s daughter. Unsure of
herself, dull-witted.
LOUISE: job applicant; highly competent, realizing her quiet competence has made her
invisible
MRS. KIDD: comes to the office to argue on her husband’s behalf, beaten-down by life
SHONA: young job applicant, unqualified, attempts to bamboozle her way through her
job interview
JEANINE: young job applicant, competent; in her scene she begins to discover that she
will have to make impossible choices.
KIT: ANGIE’s best (and only) friend; younger than ANGIE, sharp-witted, precocious.