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College Theater will hold open auditions for its spring production of The Rivals 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23 and Wednesday, Jan. 24 Tuesday, Nov. 8, in the Williams Center for the Arts Black Box Theater.
Casting will consist of at least four women and seven men. The play will be performed Feb. 28 -March 3 in the Williams Center.
Written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and first performed in 1775, The Rivals is classic romantic comedy set in the city of Bath, England. The handsome and dashing Captain Jack Absolute must disguise himself as a romantic ne’er-do-well to get the attention of Lydia Languish, who suffers from reading too many sentimental novels. A trigger-happy Irishman, a filthy rich father, and the hilarious Mrs. Malaprop are on hand to keep things lively.
Students do not need a monologue prepared for the auditions, but scripts are available for three-hour perusal at the Williams Center office, room 132. Questions should be addressed to guest director, Bob Mundhenk, at textrac01@aol.com or (610) 252-2697.
Roles:
Lydia Languish is a young woman, who, having read entirely too many romance novels, believes that the course of true love never should run smooth, so she decides to elope with Ensign Beverley—and without the blessing of her aunt, Mrs. Malaprop—even though doing so will deprive her of her fortune.
Mrs. Malaprop, in her 50s, who never met a word she didn’t misuse, tries to steer her niece toward a more suitable suitor than Beverley, Captain Jack Absolute, and tries to attract a suitor herself by sending love letters to Sir Lucius O’Trigger under the pseudonym Delia.
Captain Jack Absolute, who, to win the heart of Lydia Languish, has pretended to be the completely fictitious (and poor) Ensign Beverley. The romantic pretense fails when Mrs. Malaprop and his father, Sir Anthony Absolute, decide to arrange a meeting between Jack and Lydia.
Julia Melville is Lydia’s friend and Sir Anthony’s ward and entirely too sensible a young woman for this play.
Faulkland, Jack’s friend and Julia’s lover, is so unable to believe in his good luck in being loved by Julia that he finds many ways to talk himself out of it.
Bob Acres is a country bumpkin who had hoped for Lydia’s hand but finds a rival for it in Ensign Beverley, whom he challenges to a duel while asking his friend Captain Jack to be his second.
Sir Lucius O’Trigger is an impecunious Irish land-owner to whom Mrs. Malaprop has been sending love letters as Delia (though he thinks Delia is Lydia), and whose hot temper causes him to be affronted by an undisclosed comment by Captain Jack, whom he challenges to a duel at precisely the time and place of Bob Acres’s duel with Ensign Beverley.
Sir Anthony Absolute, whose desire to be obeyed tends to collide with his relish at reliving his wild youth through the exploits of his son, tends to grows apoplectic with his son at regular intervals.
Lydia, Fag, and David are three servants who tend to be more sensible and cannier than their employers.