Enchanted April Auditions

January 6 & 7

6:00-8:30 p.m.

Callbacks January 8

Theatre Depot

248 W. Depot Street

Greeneville, TN

 

The Greeneville Theatre Guild seeks actors to fill 5 female, 3 male, and 3-4 mixed-gender roles to serve as both cast and costumed crew for the first show of their 2025 season, Enchanted April. 

Performances will be March 21, 22, 28, & 29 at 7:00 p.m. and March 23 and 30 at 2:00 p.m. Performances will be held at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Greeneville. Actors should come prepared to list any and all conflicts that may arise during the rehearsal period, January 12- March 30. Rehearsals will typically be held on Mondays and Thursdays, from 6:00-8:30, with an occasional Sunday afternoon rehearsal.

Actors may arrive at the Depot any time from 6:00-8:30 on the evening they are auditioning. Auditioners will sign up for an audition slot and audition when their name is called. 

Auditions are closed, and will consist of monologues and cold readings from the script, as chosen by the director. Monologues will be available ahead of auditions on the Greeneville Theatre Guild website and available for auditioners to read before their audition; scenes will not be published ahead of time. It is not necessary for auditioners to memorize the monologues, though they are welcome to do so. Character descriptions are available below, and will be available in the audition waiting room. 

All auditioners will be asked to use a British accent during their audition.

 

Enchanted April Show Description

Enchanted April (the play) is based on the 1922 book The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. It follows four women who, dissatisfied with their dreary lives in post-WWI London, find each other and an Italian castle through a classified ad in a newspaper. Running from fractured relationships, the rain, and the past, they agree to share the castle for the month of April. In San Salvatore, they find friendship, joy, agency, and enchantment. If the magic of the Mediterranean can be worked on their husbands and friends, the enchantment will be complete.

 

Character Descriptions

Lotty Wilton: 25-30, a Hampstead housewife. She is candid, sincere and guileless, so much so that it both charms and annoys. Capable of great love, warmth, and openness, but unaware of her capacity for all, for now. 

Mellersh Wilton: 25-40, Lotty's husband. A handsome, distinguished and overbearing solicitor, who always knows what to say and how to say it. Used to commanding his wife in all things, he has long since discounted her as a lost cause and has found an acceptable state of tolerance. Meticulous in his appearance and ambitious in nature, Wilton moves through the world with ease because he is sure he understands it completely.

Rose Arnott: 30-40, a rigid and reserved woman, constrained by restrictions and duties. Lotty calls her a “disappointed Madonna.” She and her husband, whom she is unable to approach, have grown apart since a devastating tragedy at the end of the war. She longs for redemption, to reunite with her husband, whom she loves deeply, and to find some solace in the life that is before her.

Frederick Arnott: 40’s, Rose's husband. Frederick is a social, amiable man hovering on the precipice of middle-age. A jovial, confident demeanor masks deep despair about his relationship with his wife.  A successful author of scandalous romance novels, Frederick desperately wishes to repair his relationship with Rose, but has almost given up.

Caroline Bramble: 18-25, a ravishing, yet melancholy beauty seeking respite from the vapidity of London society. Caroline is the daughter of a prestigious, aristocratic family, a celebrity of sorts, but seeks a quiet place to think, alone. Blue blood through and through, but with a rebellious streak that shocks her family, Mrs. Graves, and herself.

Antony Wilding: 25-35, an artist with a touch of the Bohemian about him. Wilding owns San Salvatore, and longs to fill it with a big family. Charming, disarming, and confident, he is smitten with Rose at first sight.

Mrs. Graves: 60s-70s, forthright and solid woman ensconced in a world of dark dusty old things and who is on the verge of being a "dusty old thing" herself. She does not "suffer fools gladly" and is intolerant of impertinence, idiocy and youth, and pines for a place she can sit and remember “better times and better men.”

Constanza: 50s-60s, an Italian housekeeper. Raised Wilding from a boy, and has many of her own children, as well. She and Mrs. Graves get off on the wrong foot, but Costanza has a disarming, playful streak about her that wins hearts.

Italian Gardeners/House Staff: 3-4 members of the San Salvatore staff, residents of the town of Mezzago, consisting of gardeners, stable workers, and cooks/housemaids. All love their master, Antony Wilding, fiercely, and are a bit befuddled by the “English ladies.”

 

Monologues

Note: These monologues are adapted both from the play and from the book, The Enchanted April (Von Arnim, 1922). Actors should use an English accent, and should feel free to move about the space. Printed copies will be available for actors to use both in the waiting room and in auditions. It is not necessary to memorize the monologues, though actors are welcome to do so.

 

Lotty

It sounds so wonderful, doesn’t it? Can you just imagine? Italy and sunshine and wisteria. And when I saw you…you of all people…well, I couldn’t help but think…well, I mean, all this rain…and oh, the Mediterranean… imagine… and this not even being my city day… well, I… I… (Suddenly painfully uncomfortable.) Oh, I am sorry. Here we’ve only just met and I must apologize already. My husband says that my mind is like a hummingbird. One seldom sees it land. I feel I know you. And yet, we’ve never met. My husband and I see you in church in Hampstead. You are our “disappointed Madonna.” I see you each Sunday, marshalling in the children from Sunday School, always so right on time for services, and with the school children so very well-behaved. And I once commented to my husband that you looked somewhat like a disappointed Madonna. I am Lotty. Charlotte. Mrs. Wilton. I don’t expect that conveys much to you, “Wilton.” Sometimes it doesn’t seem to convey anything to me, either. Such a small, sad name. I don’t like names.

 

Lotty

“To those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine…” Not long after that evening, the wisteria at San Salvatore gave way, and, though a loss, the castle now dressed itself in triumphant white. There were white stocks and white pinks and white roses, syringa and jessamine, and above all, the crowning glory of Mr. Wilding’s acacia. A season had passed and would pass again. And what I see now is that, enchantment aside, what had really been handed down that month was…a lesson in gardening. And on our final day, as we reached the bottom of the hill and passed through the castle’s gates, a great warm wind blew through and against our backs, as if to blow away our befores forever, now that our afters had begun. And with the wind came all the scents of San Salvatore…the gardens and the sea, cinnamon and macaroni. And dancing among them, white blossoms! Breaking free! Falling…like rain!

 

Rose

How could I invite him? It has gone on so long, our estrangement, such years. I would hardly know what words to use…and besides…he would not come. Why should he come? He doesn’t care about being with me, what could we talk about? He let me slip away, he gave me up years ago. He accepts my religion indifferently, as settled fact. I bore him! I bore him! I bore him…Well, what is to be done about it? I can’t give up believing in good and not liking evil, and it must be evil to live entirely on the proceeds of adulteries, however dead and distinguished. Mustn’t it? Besides, if I do, if I sacrifice my whole past, my bringing up, my last ten years’ work…would I bore him less? I am sure once you thoroughly bore somebody, it is next to impossible to unbore him. Once a bore, always a bore, to the person originally bored. 

 

Caroline

That’s just it, I’m afraid. I know too many people. Mother insists on my knowing everyone, or at least on everyone she knows knowing me. She fancies herself a ‘patroness of the arts,’ which for her simply means the chance to give parties. An opportunistic group, artists. They never miss a party. Always grabbing and making eyes. Now she’s collecting writers, the sorriest lot yet. Trying to create what’s lacking in their own lives. Do you know any writers? …Honestly, I’m in need of an escape right now. From all of it. And part of what intrigued me about your advertisement is that it would be quite a novelty, really, to be among lady friends. I haven’t many. 

 

Mrs. Graves

If we are to spend the whole of a month together, I consider it preferable that certain ground rules be spelled out sooner rather than later. I do not approve of modern language, behavior, or thinking. I find informal idioms of speech unacceptable, and will not tolerate them. I take breakfast promptly at seven in the morning, luncheon at noon, tea at half past four, and dinner at quarter to eight. I like nuts. I am not interested in idle conversation. My only desire is to sit quietly and remember. And although I have a great fondness for the Italian seaside, I have no fondness whatsoever for those native customs so many find charming. I would expect such behavior to remain outside of our retreat. Now to which of you does the castle belong?

 

Wilding

Oh, yes, the wisteria is everywhere, as advertised. You can see some of the view in these photographs here. Now, I took these myself, I’m afraid. You’d hardly mistake them for professionals. It’s a small castle, but of course it has most of the “modern improvements,” as an estate agent would say. Its name is San Salvatore. It has a main house, kitchen, bath house…(looking closely) and I suppose also a good view of my left thumb. Hmm. Well, had that not been there, it would be a view of the sea and of the lower garden. The castle has both upper and lower gardens, with a lovely terrace between. And you’ll find the place has lots of sunshine, whatever else it hasn’t got. Troubles. Worries. The plumbing is a bit antique, but Costanza can help you with that. And to think you’ll be among it all in only two days. 

 

Mellersh

Charlotte! It’s unlike you to be late and make us have to hurry so. A wife’s impunctuality always reflects poorly on the husband, I believe, if not in one way, then in another. At the least, it conveys a lack of concern on her part, and at the most, a lack of control on his. It will look very bad if we are late, Charlotte. A family solicitor must show his family, now, mustn’t he? And really, it’s not so important that you enjoy yourself, but that you simply are there. If you’re asked for your opinion, you need merely say ‘marvelous,’ or something of that nature, and leave it at that. That’s all they want to hear anyhow.

 

Frederick

Madame DuBarry has all the appearance of being my most successful book yet, even more so than Pompadour. The Bacon-Cateses never invited me for Madame Pompadour. Sin must have taken a step up in respectability if even the Bacon-Cateses have asked for the pleasure of meeting ‘Mr. Florian Ayers.” …Even you must admit that as a pen name, it is most imaginative. Try not to dislike it too much, darling. When God comes to browse through my literary catalog, He’ll damn ‘Florian Ayers’ straight to Hell, but you and I shall be spared. (Rose does not respond.) There was a time when you laughed at my humor, Rose. You could light up a room when you laughed…Anyway, your church should be thanking Madame DuBarry. Those boots you bought the schoolchildren this winter? Stout with sin.

 

Costanza

(Costanza speaks exclusively in Italian. Auditioners will use an Italian accent to pronounce the following phrases. The director will pronounce them and the auditioner will repeat them, in character.)

Signora?

Cosa ho fatto adesso?

Grazie, Donna Carolina.

Buona mattina, Signore!

“Cracker,” Signora? Ah, si, si, “thee cracker.”

Tonio! Oh, Tonio! Bambino mio!

Sei il figlio di papa!