Audition Lines for Bridge to Terabithia
(Lines for girls and women on the first three pages; lines for boys and men start on page three. Pick at
least two different parts to read for. Do not memorize the lines, but read them aloud enough that you can
feel comfortable with them. Be sure to read the “Tips for Try Outs” for an idea about each character and
some hints on how to make your audition outstanding. )
Leslie
(to Jesse) We need a place just for us.
Leslie
(talking about the Bible to Jesse)
Like a castle, a castle stronghold with turrets and
towers and parapets! And it would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole
world about it. It might be a whole secret country. Look! We can build it across this gully. And
it could have a magic entrance like Narnia. The only way you can get in is by swinging across on
this enchanted rope!
It’s crazy, isn’t it? You have to believe the Bible, and you
hate it. I don’t have to believe it, and I think it’s beautiful.
Leslie (Retelling the story of Hamlet to Jesse) There was once a young and handsome prince of
Denmark named Hamlet. He’d been away to a boarding school, but he got word that his father
had died, so he came home. One night, just after he’d come home, while he was up on the
castle wall, thinking about his father, and how much he missed him, and all that, he saw this
ghost coming toward him through the swirling mist, all in armor, and he carried a huge sword!
Leslie (making up a poem to play a trick on Janice Avery)
Dearest Janice Avery
Don’t tell any...nobody how we
(Me and you)
Beautiful Janice Avery
Have ourselves a secret now
Between us two...
(to Jesse, who is writing it down) I’m putting that in so she’s sure to tell somebody...
It will just be you and me
Laughing, talking happily
Oh, you’re the girl I always choose
To wear my name upon her shoes.
Love and kisses...
Oh, Jess, put a little row of x’s in there, too!
Love and kisses,
Willard Hughes.
May Belle (to her family) I hope the people who are moving into the Perkins place have a girl my
size. I need somebody to play with. We could be best friends for ever ‘n ever. And she’ll be in
first grade and she’ll like to play paper dolls and watch T.V. and she’ll know all the songs I know!
May Belle (to Jesse) Momma’s going to be mad you go off without asking. Momma gets up and
finds you gone, she’s gonna skin you for sure, Jesse. (Pause) What’ll you give me not to tell?
May Belle Jesse, Janice Avery stole my Ding Dongs! You gotta kill her, Jesse. Kill ‘er, kill ‘er!
You gotta beat her up into a million pieces!
May Belle (to Jesse) You’re always tryin’ to treat me like a baby. I’m gonna sit right here in this
road and I ain’t moving till you let me play with you!
May Belle (crying, to Jesse) Jesse, I can’t get across this big log. I’m too little. I can’t move. I’m
too scared!
Brenda (Wailing, speaking to her mother.) You can’t make me go to church. I ain’t got nothin’ to
wear and you know it! Momma, why can’t we charge somethin’? You know what some people
do? They charge somethin’ and wear it and then take it back and say it don’t fit! Stores don’t
give ‘em no trouble. And everyone’s going to have something new for Easter...Jo Anne
Timmons’s mother bought her a polyester silk blouse and a new skirt and high heels! I know I
can’t have all that, but couldn’t I maybe just have a little skirt?
Brenda (has just pinched Ellie, hard) You were dreamin’. WAKE UP!!!
Ellie (to Jesse) Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, I guess you already got a present for your girlfriend for
Christmas? Of course, nobody with any sense would call that stick a girl!
Ellie (pointing to the T.V.) Momma? Would you look at that outfit? Ain’t that the cutest thing
you ever saw? Oh, Momma. Boy, if I could just have me a outfit like that for the first day of
school!
Ellie (to Brenda) Now my Jimmy? As soon as he sees me in this new blouse, he’s gonna buy me
the whole Mall in Milford!
Janice Avery Hey, Miss Edmunds? Why don’t we have the new girl to pick a song for us to
sing? How ‘bout “I Got Plenty a Nothin’”!
Janice Avery (emotional, but trying to control it) My father...sometimes he drinks too much. Last
night, he got real violent. My Ma had to call the sheriff out. Oh, I hate him. I hate him.
Anyway, I told Wilma and Bobby Sue, and they just laughed at me. They just stood there and
laughed at me! And I just know they’re gonna tell everybody and I’m gonna be the laughing
stock of the whole school!
Miss Edmunds Come on in, Jess. No, it’s fine, I’m just getting ready for music class. How
was your summer? Did you get time to do any more drawings? Did you bring them? Great,
may I see them? You know how much I like your drawings. (Looks at several, positive comments). I
like them, Jess, all of them. But especially this one.
Miss Edmunds (on the phone) Jess? This is Miss Edmunds. Miserable weather, isn’t it? Say, I
was thinking of driving down to Washington today, maybe go to the Smithsonian or the
National Art Gallery. You ever been? No? Well, then, how would you like to keep me
company? ...You still there, Jess? Do you need to get permission?
Miss Myers All right, class, we’ll begin this morning with language arts. And I think you’re
really going to enjoy this assignment. At 8:00 tonight on PBS, there will be a special about the
search under the sea for the legendary lost city of Atlantis. I want you to watch it, and then
write a page telling what you’ve learned.
Mrs. Aarons Jesse Oliver Aarons Jr, if you can stop drawing long enough to milk the cow,
Miss Bessie and I both would appreciate it. We don’t take no holidays.
Mrs. Aarons (to Jesse) What? You want to bring that Burke girl to church with us? That new
girl? She...she don’t dress right. I just...I just don’t want no one poking up their nose at my
family.
Joyce Ann (excited) Mommy, can I get a Chatty Cathy doll for Christmas?
Joyce Ann (very sad) Santa ain’t gonna come to our house on accounta we ain’t got no
chimney.
Girl (to the teacher, talking about a homework assignment) Do we get extra credit for writing more?
(These next parts are for boys, though a girl could try out for Jesse. Scroll down
to see all the parts if you are looking at this online.)
Jesse (frustrated) Wait! I can’t draw this right with crayons!
(He throws the crayon away). See, I
want to make the ghost look like it’s really coming out of the fog. You can’t do that with
crayons. Maybe paints...yeah, with paints, you could put one thin layer on top of another so it
would look like the ghost was coming up from inside the paper. See?
Jesse (to Miss Edmunds) This Picasso painting is weird, Miss Edmunds. Makes me feel like
somebody hit me in the head with a bat and I’m seeing all wobbly.
Jesse May Belle, what are you doing here? You ain’t supposed to follow me. You listen here,
May Belle Aarons. I ever catch you following me again, your life ain’t worth nothin’. And if you
squeal to Momma, know what? I’m gonna tell Billy Jean Edwards you still wet the bed
sometimes!
Jesse
(to Leslie) The difference between you and me is everyone thinks you’re weird.
Me...I am
weird. I’m always drawing. My dad says I draw the way some people drink whiskey.
Jesse (to his older sister) I don’t believe you. You’re lying to me! It’s a lie! Leslie ain’t dead!
Jesse It’s gone. Terabithia is gone. There’s nothing here. Leslie, come back...don’t leave me
here by myself. I don’t know how to make the magic come. I’m scared!
Gary Fulcher Come on, you guys, we ain’t got all day. Somebody make the finish line. Same
course as last year...(pointing) down around the big tree, behind the school, and back here. And
no third graders this year. You guys couldn’t beat a snail. And no girls! Girls ain’t even
supposed to be down on this field. Anyway, we don’t race no girls.
Willard Hughes
(Very cool, approaching two cute middle school girls) Hi, girls, have you seen Janice
Avery? No? Well, when you do, will you give her this invitation? I’m having a little party
Saturday night at my place. Just seventh and eighth graders. Folks’ll be gone...hope you two
can make it!
Boy 2 (to the teacher) Does spelling count?
Boy 1 I can run if I want to. You ain’t the boss here, Gary Fulcher!
Mr. Aarons (to Jesse) Mighty late with the milking, aren’t you son? Jesse, I got up at five this
morning, drove all the way to Washington, worked hard all day and here it’s after six. I’m wore
out, boy, I can’t come home and do all your chores ‘cause you’re too busy scribbling pictures.
Mr. Aarons (working on a toy train Christmas morning with Jesse) Now, try again. See if the fool thing
will stay on the track this time. (Frustrated) Cheap junk! You don’t get nothing for your money
these days.
(Scroll down for Mr. Aaron’s last speech)
Mr. Aarons (trying to comfort Jesse) I’ll miss my dad till the day I die. Sometimes when things
happen and I don’t know what to do or what to say, I ask myself, what would my dad do right
now? I don’t get no answer, but it helps to ask somehow. That sound crazy? (Sitting by his son)
Jesse, here’s the thing. You love somebody, and you lose ‘em? You don’t just turn it off, like
cutting off a spigot. They’re always still inside you...all the things they gave you. You don’t
wanta ever get over that. Can’t no one take ‘em away from you, neither. You remember that.
That don’t make it any easier for you, it’s hell, like I say. (Stands) I’ll be waiting for you at the
house when you’re ready to pay your respects, okay son? Don’t sit too long on this damp
ground, you hear?