Auditions

At a senior living community in Upstate New York, a small group of residents refuse to go “gentle into that good night.  This band of former city dwellers from Brooklyn and The Bronx devise a plot to prove that “old” is not a New York state of mind.

 The award-winning “A Jukebox for the Algonquin” spins a seriously comic tale of sex, drugs, and rocking chairs.

Cast: 3-4 Women, 4 Men

Mrs. McDarren: Female, 40’s to 50’s, daughter-in-law of potential resident, her husband is the deputy mayor of Schenectady, pretentious (dual role/same actor also plays Peg)

Annie: Female, 60+, White, social conscious of Placid Pines and the long-term residents who frequent the Algonquin Room.

Josefina (ho-seh-fee-na): Female, 40’s to 50’s, of Hispanic descent, Placid Pines Administrator.

Dennis: Male, 60+, (any ethnicity’), uses a wheelchair, best friend of Johnny, loves mid-century literature, sharp dresser.

Johnny: Male, 60+, African American, Yankees fan, loves old jukeboxes and music before 1980, uses a cane, best friend of Dennis.

Chuck: Male, 40’s-50’s, (any ethnicity*) New maintenance worker, has a well-educated past with a hidden story.

Peg: Female, mid to late 50’s, (dual role/same actor also plays Mrs. McDarren – (any ethnicity*) New resident from independent living, recently divorced, looking to start over, drawn into the Algonquin Room group.

Tyler: Male, early 20’s, (any ethnicity*) Maintenance worker, fan of Keaton, Chaplin, Harpo Marx and Bob Marley.

*Any ethnicity does not by default indicate whiteness, but rather that a character can be of any race or ethnicity.

Per the Playwright notes in the script – “ACCENTS/DIALECT –  While some of the residents of Placid Pines are from New York, unless organic to the actor, please DO NOT implement New York dialects/accents.”

TIME: Summer, 2003.   PLACE: The Algonquin Room, a community recreation room at the Placid Pines Senior Care Center in the Adirondack region of upstate New York.