Auditions This Week!

Audition Notice for Brighton Beach Memoirs:

Valley Center Stage is holding auditions for the April 2020 production of Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon. All parts are available. Brighton Beach Memoirs is Part One of Simon’s humorous and poignant autobiographical trilogy. Simon brings to life the hardships that defined his depression-era youth through narrator, Eugene Jerome, who is a Jewish-American teenager in the throes of puberty, preoccupied with sex and obsessed with the Yankees. He lives with his immediate and extended Jewish family in a crowded, lower middle-class Brooklyn walk-up. According to the father, “if you didn’t have a problem, you wouldn’t be living here,” aptly describing the troubled Jerome household suffering illness, unemployment, poverty, deep resentments and the foreboding signs of World War II. Eugene makes witty and unforgettable observations as he learns about girls, family, relationships, and a world on the verge of war.

Directed by VCS’ former Artistic Director, Jim Snyder, who loves to bring bittersweet stories to life through live theater. Recent directing credits include The Seafarer, Irma Vep, Superior Donuts, Steel Magnolias and Over the River and Through the Woods. Jim recently returned to the stage as Oberon in last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Audition Information:

Auditions will be held on Tuesday February 4th from 6:00-8:00 pm and on Saturday February 8th 3:30-5:00 pm at the Sallal Grange. The Grange is located at 12912 Stilson Ave SE, North Bend, WA 98045.

Audition Requirements:

Please bring a headshot and resume. We are not requesting monologues for this audition but will be having people read sides from the script.

Other details:

Rehearsals will be held at VCS in North Bend on weekday evenings and weekends during the day, as needed and by scene work - beginning Saturday February 15, 2020. The show will open on April 3 and close on April 18. Go to our website for showtimes and more information.

Character Breakdown:

Eugene Morris Jerome: (male, looks mid-teens) A typical 15-year-old-boy who has recently discovered girls in a BIG way. He is obsessed with the female anatomy, which he’s never seen, and his other love of baseball. He wants to be a baseball player, but if that does not work out, he’ll settle for being a writer. He keeps a detailed journal of his family’s eccentricities. Eugene is concerned for his family, especially his overworked father, but complains about their demands on him. The play revolves around his memoirs, which are those of the young Neil Simon.

Stanley Jerome: (male, looks to be in his late teens or 20’s) He is the older brother of Eugene. Due to financial reasons he must work a factory job, which he hates. He tries to temper Eugene’s passions while attempting to please his parents, but he struggles with feelings of being trapped.

Jack Jerome: (male, looks to be in his 40’s or 50’s) Father of the Jerome family who feels the pressure of supporting an extended family by working two jobs. In addition, all family members turn to him for advice and answers. He is patient, but very weary.

Kate Jerome: (female, looks to be in her 40’s or 50’s) She is the very strong mother who attempts to hold the family together and solve the hurts and problems of all of them. She is opinionated and very verbal, but also very loving.

Aunt Blanche: (female, looks to be in her 40’s or 50’s) She is Kate’s younger sister, recently widowed, very indecisive, and dependent. She wants to have a life for herself and her daughters, but she doesn't know how or where to begin. She feels buried with her husband.

Nora: (female, looks to be in mid-teens) She is Blanche’s daughter and cousin to the Jerome boys. Nora is a very beautiful and ambitious 16 year old girl with dreams of Broadway. She is often resentful of her younger sister who is pampered due to heart flutters. In addition, she is angry at her father for dying and leaving her with a weak mother.

Laurie: (female, looks to be in early teens) She is the youngest daughter of Blanche and cousin to the Jerome boys. Laurie is a studious, yet quietly mischievous, 13-year-old who is all ears around the adult situations. She appears innocent, but she really has a grasp on what the others around her are “up to.”

Monetary compensation:

Valley Center Stage is a 501(c)(3). This stage production is non-union, non-paying, for a not-for-profit theater in North Bend, WA.