Auditions for Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS

Nancy Marine Studio Theatre Production
Director – Keith Paul
 
Monday, January 4, 2016 at 7:00pm (by appointment)
Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 7:00pm (by appointment)
 
All roles are open to audition. We are seeking a cast of two men, three women and two boys (age range 13-16) for this production. Auditioners are asked to prepare a short monologue (one to two minutes in length) of their choosing that fits with the style of the production.  Auditioners will also be asked to do cold readings from the script.
 
Rehearsals will be held on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings beginning January 10, 2016.  There will be one midweek rehearsal on Thursday, March 10, 2016.
 
The Warner Stage Company is a regional community theatre company and does not offer compensation or housing for performers.
 
CALLBACKS:        Wednesday, January 6, 2016; 8:30pm (as needed)
 
AUDITIONS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

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AVAILABLE ROLES:
ARTY - Jay's younger brother, he is 13 years old. More of an observer than the rest of his family, he often goes with the flow of things, but also can be a little childish.
 
EDDIE - Jay's middle-aged father. After the death of his wife, he is forced to send his two sons to live with their grandmother, while he repays his large financial debts. He is shown to be, much like his sisters, a nervous wreck around Grandma
 
BELLA - Jay's thirty-five-year-old aunt. She is sometimes a bit off-center and is mentally challenged, but despite this she is also loving and protective of her nephews. Much of the second half of the play focuses on her attempts at independence from her stern mother.
 
GRANDMA KURNITZ - Eddie and Bella's mother, a big woman, buxom, with a strong and erect body, 70 odd years of age.  Jay's grandmother. A very old and stern woman. Owing to her harsh childhood, she has always been very intolerant of what in others she calls "weaknesses". She is blunt, sometimes even in a funny way, and always knows what is going on with the people around her
 
LOUIE - Jay's flamboyant, jovial uncle, in his late 30s, who comes to live with the family when he is hiding from the local mob. He is considered by Grandma Kurnitz to be the "survivor" of the family. He has a strong, mercurial nature, and a certain underlying dark side, which the kids uncover in the second act of the play. He works as a "bag-man" for the mob.
 
AUNT GERT - Jay's aunt, and Grandma's daughter. She is a very interesting addition to the family. Her most noticeable issue is that when she breathes she has a tendency to suck in while still speaking, as a result of trauma instilled in her by Grandma from a young age.

PERFORMANCE DATES:    
Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 8:00pm
Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 2:00pm
Friday, March 11, 2016 at 8:00pm
Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 8:00pm
Sunday, March 13, 2015 at 2:00pm
 
ABOUT THE SHOW
WINNER - 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
WINNER - 1991 Tony Award, Best Play
 
By America's great comic playwright, this memory play is set in a Yonkers in 1942. Bella is 35-years-old, mentally challenged and living at home with her mother, stern Grandma Kurnitz. As the play opens, ne'r do-well son Eddie deposits his two young sons on the old lady's doorstep. He is financially strapped and taking to the road as a salesman. The boys are left to contend with Grandma, with Bella and her secret romance, and with Louie, her brother, a small-time hoodlum in a strange new world called Yonkers.
 
REVIEWS
"THE BEST PLAY SIMON EVER WROTE." - New York Post
 
"Broadway desperately needs a comedy, a drama, and a hit. With Lost in Yonkers, Mr. Simon has given us all three." - Wall Street Journal
 
"One of Simon's most impressive and funniest plays." - New York Daily News
 
"Laughter and tears have come together in a new emotional truth. There are moments in this play when you experience a new kind of laughter for Simon, a silent laughter that doesn't explode into a yuk but implodes straight into your heart." –Newsweek
 
PLOT
Brooklyn, 1942, Evelyn Kurnitz has just died following a lengthy illness. Her husband, Eddie Kurnitz, needs to take a job as a traveling salesman to pay off the medical bills incurred, and decides to ask his stern and straight talking mother, from whom he is slightly estranged, if his two early-teen sons, Jay and Arty (who their Grandma calls by their full given names, Yakob and Arthur), can live with her and their Aunt Bella Kurnitz in Yonkers. She agrees after a threat by Bella. Despite their Grandma owning and operating a candy store, Jay and Arty don't like their new living situation as they're afraid of their Grandma, and find it difficult to relate to their crazy Aunt Bella, whose slow mental state is manifested by perpetual excitability and a short attention span, which outwardly comes across as a childlike demeanor. Into their collective lives returns one of Eddie and Bella's other siblings, Louie Kurnitz, a henchman for some gangsters. He is hiding out from Hollywood Harry, who wants what Louie stole and is hiding in his small black bag. Jay and Arty's mission becomes how to make money fast so that they can help their father and move back in together, which may entail stealing the $15,000 their Grandma has hidden somewhere. Bella's mission is to find a way to tell the family that she wants to get married to Johnny, her equally slow movie theater usher boyfriend; the two could also use $5,000 of Grandma's hidden money to open their dream restaurant. And Louie's mission is to survive the next couple of days.