ARTSQUEST SEEKING ACTORS FOR READING OF LOIS’S WEDDING
Reading to be held at SteelStacks March 21
Bethlehem, PA –ArtsQuest is seeking actors for its production of a reading of the original play Lois’s Wedding, written by Pennsylvania native Bathsheba Monk and directed by award-winning actress and director Lynnie Godfrey. Auditions will be held on Feb. 13 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. in the Banko Family Gallery of the Banana Factory, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem. Audition slots must be reserved by contacting ArtsQuest Programming Director Ryan Hill at rhill@artsquest.org; each slot is 15 minutes long. The production will be held at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, March 21, 7 p.m.
Lois’s Wedding is an original script that transports the audience to Morgan, Pennsylvania, a small town (population 10,000) that has a lot of natural gas underneath it. The story follows seven townies as they prepare for the wedding of the town’s lawyer and the town’s beauty.
Interested actors are asked to send a resume, headshot and available audition times to Hill at rhill@artsquest.org. Auditions are cold readings from the script; 2-3 rehearsals will be held in the weeks leading up to the reading. Rehearsal dates/times TBA. Interested actors MUST be available for the entire day March 21.
The cast consists of seven principal actors and three supporting actors. ALL ROLES ARE PAID POSITIONS and all actors will receive a $100 stipend (This show is not a union-affiliated performance).
Available roles are:
Mark Lerner – Age, late 30s. He is Morgan, PA’s lawyer who is brokering all the deals for underground mineral rights between the residents and Vulcan Oil. Like every other man in Morgan, he is in love with Lois Wozniak, who has agreed to marry him because she needs money. He considers her part of the spoils of his power and insists she sign a pre-nup to show that he is in charge. He’s a preening popinjay.
Lois Wozniak – Late 20s. She is the legendary looker of Morgan. She was in love with a musician, Jonah, who wanted her to run away with him, but she wouldn’t leave her father Bruno who is wheelchair bound. Her attitudes are shaped by the fact that her mother deserted the family and sold the mineral rights underneath them to pay for her escape years before the mineral rights were valuable. Vulcan is taking over the Wozniak property for its main office and Lois has agreed to marry Mark Lerner to provide for her crippled father and hapless brother Georgey. She feels she has to make up for her mother’s desertion.
Georgey Wozniak – Lois’ brother, late 20s, a two-bit criminal who robs 7-11s and pizza deliveries. He also deals a little dope. All the big jobs of his father’s generation have gone overseas. He’s on the do-not-hire treadmill because he has a criminal record, so he always has to resort to off-the-books jobs. He is at loggerheads with his father, Bruno, whom he can’t please. In another time, like when the mines were functioning, Georgey would have been an upright man; but without those kinds of opportunities, a man as average as Georgey doesn’t have a chance.
The Mayor – 40s. He’s thriving as Mark Lerner’s right-hand man, providing the political dressing for the rape of the land under Morgan. The mayor is a close friend to anyone who slips him a check. He relishes the transition of Morgan into a boom town because a politician can’t make money in a poor town.
Jonah – Late 20s. Jonah is the kind of boy who is everyone’s first love: artistic, carefree, charming his friends into delaying adulthood as long as possible. He was Lois’ first love and came to her wedding thinking that he could steal the bride.
Guest #1 – Always plays by the rules so naturally thinks it’s fitting that his/her family got a big payout. He/she kisses up to authority.
Guest #2 – A gadfly, criticizing everyone.
Guest #3 – Snively. Now that he won this windfall, he wants to see how much he can game the system, always pushes for a little more.
Three Suitors – Men who have dated Lois. They have one song in the reading, so can double as the Guests.
Tickets for the March 21 reading of Lois’s Wedding are $10 and will go on sale the week of Feb. 15; they’ll be available at steelstacks.org and 610-332-3378.