Audition Information Show : Les Belles-soeurs Genre: Comedy Director: Michael Serres Producer: Graeme Powell Stage Manager: Ellie Patte SHOW SYNOPSIS: Les Belles-soeurs is a classic Canadian comedy written by Michel Tremblay. It stars 15 women of all ages, ranging from late teens to 70s. The play was originally written in joual the vernacular of the working class French in Quebec. Germaine Lauzon has just won one million trading stamps, but they all have to be pasted into booklets in order for her to redeem them. She invites her sisters, and sister-in-law and a few other women from the neighbourhood to a stamp-sticking party. She is so engrossed in her own good fortune that she fails to appreciate the envy and jealousy swirling around her. This is a story about family, duty and keeping up appearances, even when such facades are impossible to maintain. Michel Tremblay, writing this play at the tender age of 23, is already a keen observer of the tightrope we all walk between our desire for approval and love and our desire for the freedom to pursue our dreams. AUDITION LOCATION, DATES, AND TIMES: Auditions will be held at Oshawa Little Theatre, 62 Russett Avenue, Oshawa, ON. on the following dates: Wednesday, June 17 @ 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Thursday, June 18 @ 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Callbacks will be held on:
Wednesday, June 24 @ 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. All auditions are booked, timed auditions. You must register by booking your audition date and time online at www.oshawalittletheatre.com under the Auditions tab. Please remember to download the audition form to complete and bring with you to your audition. It is also recommended that you book your audition as early as possible. AUDITION REQUIREMENTS: Location: Oshawa Little Theatre, 62 Russett Ave., Please prepare a 1 minute monologue (comedic or dramatic). The monologue may be taken from the play, but this is not necessary. Copies of the play are available upon request. REHEARSAL DATES: 1. Rehearsals will take place on: Sundays 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm Mondays 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm Wednesdays 7:00 pm to 10.00 pm 2. Regular scheduled rehearsals will begin in November. A full rehearsal schedule will be ready in the summer. 3. There will be a meet and greet during the summer. Time and date to be announced. 4. Additional rehearsals may be scheduled during the 2 weeks prior to opening. PERFORMANCE DATES: February 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20th, 2016. Cast must be available for all performances and must be members of Oshawa Little Theatre in order to rehearse and perform. CASTING INFORMATION:
Germaine Lauzon: Housewife - 40s (second oldest of four sisters) Linda Lauzon Germaine s daughter - 20 Rose Ouimet late 30s to early 40s (third oldest sister) Gabrielle Jodoin late 40s, 50s (oldest sister) Germaine has just won 1 million trading stamps that now all have to be pasted into booklets in order to be redeemed. She invites her sisters, her sister-in-law, and their neighbours over for a stamp-pasting party, a golden opportunity to rip into each other, and then make up again. The stamps she has just one sets her apart from the others by attributing to her what the others don t have material goods. But also by imbuing her with with a sense of superiority peculiar to winners. Germaine s daughter. Works in retail and spends her free time between going to the movies with her boyfriend Robert, and hanging out at a local restaurant with her girlfriends. Constantly at odds with her mother, her impulsive personality makes her a rightful heir to the Guérin sisters. Rose is one of Germaine s three sisters. She s the comedian she makes everyone laugh, but she s also the one that says the things the others don t dare. But under all the jokes and frank talk, she hides a secret that even she can t speak of having married young and impulsively, she has spent the past 20 years quietly enduring the repeated sexual assaults of her brutish husband. Another sister, she seems more subdued, more reserved, more self-effacing than her sisters. But when she itemizes the same duties and obligations and mind-numbing repetition of her daily routine she has in common with the other women, she reconnects with their shared rage.
Pierrette Guérin 32 but can look older lived a hard life (youngest sister) The youngest of the sisters, she is the black sheep. She left home at 17, seduced by the older Johnny and his empty promises, she s been working in clubs for the past 15 years. Ostracized by her family, and abandoned by Johnny, she is hoping against hope that she can make up with her sisters, and come back home. Marie-Ange Brouillette - late 20s Lisette de Courval 40s Therese Dubuc mid 30s and her mother-inlaw Olivine 70s to early 80s Yvette Longpré 40s to 50s Angéline Sauvé and Rhéauna Bibeau - Late 50s 60s Jealous, angry, hard done by, overlooked, ignored. She s the first to arrive, and the first to start relieving Germaine of her winnings. Another of Germaine s neighbours, she thinks of herself as more sophisticated and morally above her more vulgar neighbours. Constantly going on about her trip to Europe, she is awkward and somewhat embarrassing in her condescension. To hear Therese describe her reality, even the other women think she s a saint. However, some of the techniques she employs in the care of her invalid mother-in-law are at best, troubling. Another of Germaine s neighbours, Yvette seems the very personification of happiness and contentment. And as such, seems to have become completely invisible. Two aging bachelorettes who live together. The relationship consists of the more dominating Rhéauna, and the docile Angeline. But this evening, Angeline divulges her tightly held secret.
Lise Paquette - around 20 Ginette Ménard - late teens Des-Neiges Verrette 30s to 40s Lise just found out she is pregnant. Naïve and desperate, she turns to Pierrette for counsel. Pierrette is unsympathetic, and Lise, though still young, seems doomed to live the unfulfilled life of the previous generation of women. Another friend of Lise and Linda, Ginette wants desperately to be liked by them, while they perpetually reject her. She has a difficult home life, and awkwardly draws unwanted attention to herself by being a little too nosey. Quick to laugh, sweet, fragile, she describes herself as a respectable woman, meaning still single, even as she relates her secret longing for Mr. Simard, the travelling brush salesman. All questions and inquiries should be directed to Graeme Powell 905-809-3656 sarah.graeme.powell@gmail.com