"Blithe Spirit" Audition Information

Hello Theatre Majors and Minors -- 

In this Post are:

--Logistical information and links to the Audition Sign-Up Sheet and the Audition Application.

--Character Descriptions for the characters in Blithe Spirit

--Audition Monologues to choose from for next Sunday's auditions

AUDITION LOGISTICS:

Sunday, April 28, 2024 beginning at 2pm in the BABS/Billie Ann Burrill Studio

Sign Up for a 5-minute slot here.

Complete this audition form here (and don't forget to press "send").

If you have any trouble accessing either form, please email me at casey.seymourkim@gmail.com.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS (The playing ages given below are approximate):

Charles Condomine – 38-45 A successful novelist and socialite, Charles is charming, witty, turns every situation to his advantage and doesn’t seem overly concerned by any turn of events. RP English accent, 1937 upper middle class. 

Ruth Condomine – 33-40 Ruth is practical, has a no-nonsense approach and is blunt to the point of rudeness. She is the impeccable English hostess. RP English accent, 1937 upper middle class. 

Elvira Condomine – 26-33 The ‘Blithe Spirit’ of the title, Elvira is delightful, passionate, carefree and fun. She is also morally questionable, manipulative and petulant. There is an ethereal quality to her and a 1920’s feel. RP English accent. 

Madame Arcati – 50+ Madame Arcati is wildly eccentric but astute, with a physicality belying her appearance. She is an effusive, robust countrywoman. 

Dr George Bradman – 28-65 A kindly doctor who can be seriously boring about his medical research. Dr Bradman is a joker who is skeptical about the occult.  

Mrs Violet Bradman – 25-60 Violet frequently puts her foot in it and is somewhat silly and excitable. She is a well-meaning person. 

Edith – 18+ Edith is an inexperienced and nervous maid who does everything in a flurry. She is naïve and simple. 

AUDITION MONOLOGUES (please choose 1 to present):

RUTH: You really are very sweet. And a little naive, too -- because you imagine that I mind about Elvira being more physically attractive than I am. You're not necessarily being old-fashioned in your view of female psychology -- just a bit didactic. Yes, it's didactic to attribute to one type the defects of another type. For instance, because you know perfectly well that Elvira would mind terribly if you found another woman more attractive physically than she was, it doesn't necessarily follow that I should. Elvira was a more physical person than I. I'm certain of that. It's all a question of degree. I know you love me; but not the wildest stretch of imagination could describe it as the first fine careless rapture. Nor would I want it to be -- Good God, no. We're neither of us adolescent, Charles; we've neither of us led exactly prim lives, have we? And we've both been married before. Careless rapture at this stage would be incongruous and embarrassing. 

RUTH: I've been making polite conversation all through dinner last night and breakfast and lunch today -- and it's been a nightmare and I'm not going to do it any more. I don't like Elvira any more than she likes me, and what's more, I'm certain that I never could have, dead or alive. If, since her untimely arrival here the other evening, she had shown the slightest sign of good manners, the slightest sign of breeding, I might have felt differently towards her, but all she has done is try to make mischief between us and have private jokes with you against me.  I am now going up to my room and I shall have my dinner on a tray. You and she can have the house to yourselves and joke and gossip with each other to your heart's content. The first thing in the morning I am going up to London to interview the Psychical Research Society, and if they fail me I shall go straight tot he Archbishop of Canterbury!

CHARLES: When I was a little boy an aunt of mine used to come and stay with us. She imagined that she was a medium and used to go off into the most elaborate trances after dinner. My mother was fascinated by it. She naturally disliked my aunt and loved making a fool of her. Oh, sometimes my aunt didn't do so badly. On one occasion when we were all sitting round in the pitch dark with my mother groping her way through Chaminade at the piano, my aunt suddenly gave a shrill scream and said that she saw a small black dog by my chair. Then someone switched on the lights and sure enough there it was. It was obviously a stray that had come in from the street. But I must say I took off my hat to Auntie for producing it, or rather for utilizing it. Even Mother was a bit shaken... That dog lived with us for years. 

ELVIRA. I sat there, on the other side, just longing for you day after day. I did really. All through your affair with that brassy-looking woman in the South of France I went on loving you and thinking truly of you. Then you married Ruth and even then I forgave you and tried to understand because all the time I believed deep inside that you really loved me best . . . that's why I put myself down for a return visit and had to fill in all those forms and wait about in drafty passages for hours. If only you'd died before you met Ruth, everything might have been all right. She's absolutely ruined you. I hadn't been in the house a day before I realized that. Your books aren't a quarter as good as they used to be, either. 

MADAME ARCATI: I first discovered that I had these extra-ordinary powers when I was quite tiny.  My mother was a medium before me, you know, and so I had every opportunity of starting on the ground floor, as you might say. I had my first trance when I was four years old and my first ectoplasmic mani- festation when I was five and a half. What an exciting day that was! I shall never forget it. Of course the manifestation itself was quite small and of very short duration, but, for a child of my tender years, it was most gratifying. My mother was so pleased. I cannot foretell the future -- certainly not. I disapprove of fortune tellers most strongly.

MRS. BRADMAN: That happens sometimes, you know. Everything seems to go wrong at once. Exactly as though there were some evil forces at work. I remember once when George and I went away for a fortnight's holiday, not long after we were married, we were dogged by bad luck from beginning to end. The weather was vile. George sprained his ankle-- and I caught a cold and had to stay in bed for two days and to crown everything the lamp fell over in the sitting room and set fire to the treatise George had written on hyperplasia of the abdominal glands. It was dreadful. He had to write it all over again, every single word.

DR. BRADMAN: Nothing to worry about, Mrs Condomine -- ­it's only a slight strain. He made a good deal of fuss when I examined it. Men are much worse patients than women, you know­, particularly highly ­strung men like your husband. As a matter of fact I wanted to talk to you about that: I'm afraid he's been overworking lately. He's in rather a nervous condition -- ­nothing serious, you understand­- but I know the symptoms. Of course the shock of his fall might have something to do with it, but I certainly should advise a complete rest for a couple of weeks. In cases like that a change of atmosphere can work wonders. There's nothing to be unduly alarmed about, but he demonstrates a certain inability to focus his eyes on the person he is talking to, ­a few rather marked irrelevancies in his conversation... He suddenly shouted, 'What are you doing in the bathroom?' and then a little later, while I was writing him a prescription, he suddenly said, 'For God's sake behave yourself!' Oh, I am not in the least perturbed about it really, ­but I do think a rest and a change would be a good idea.