Playhouse Holds 'Angels in America' Tryouts

Since "Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches" premiered in 1990 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, it has been hailed as something an "emotional, poetic, political play," according to Executive Producer Chris Furlong of the Chatham Community Players. The play, Parts I and II, received numerous awards after both were staged in completion in 1992 and premiered on Broadway in 1993.

The play has been adapted into an HBO film, an opera and into chorale music. Now it comes to the Chatham stage. Open auditions for the Tony Kushner play will be held at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the Chatham Playhouse.

"Angels in America" "is set in the 1980s against a backdrop of greed, conservatism, sexual politics, religious identity and the discovery of AIDS," Furlong said. The play follows the lives of people whose relationships are failing as the AIDS crisis of the 1980s is on the rise.

"Harrowing, uproarious, and magical, Angels in America is a fiercely theatrical modern morality play and a landmark of the American stage," Furlong said.

Bob Pridham will direct the play and asks that those who audition be familiar with the script. Eight actors are needed to fill the 13 major roles. Auditions will start with cold readings from sides in small groups. Sides are available now on the Chatham Players’ website.

"Angels in America" will be performed between Oct. 11 and 26 of this year, with rehearsals to begin in mid-August. All roles are open, and none are precast.

Characters in the play include:

• ROY COHN - Approx. mid to late 50’s  Vast personality, overwhelming energy. Crass, vulgar, wickedly bright, sharp as an ax and just as lethal. High-speed, high-efficiency talker, he wields humor at anyone’s expense, and is nobody’s fool. Funny, loud, dangerous, deadly. And about to meet his maker. He will not go without a fight.  
• JOE PITT - Approx late 20s to 30’s, corn-fed or fresh-faced or choir boy or Eagle Scout or All American boy-next-door or what have you. Boldly naïve and impossibly winning and quietly desperate for something he doesn’t understand and can’t quite name. Chief clerk, Federal Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.  
• HARPER PITT - Approx late 20s, Joe’s wife, lost, wandering, an agoraphobic with a mild valium addiction and otherworldly visions.  
• LOUIS ARONSON - Approx. late 20s-early 30s smart, quick, steady, but about to be tested in ways he cannot anticipate, and will struggle mightily.  
• PRIOR WALTER - Approx. late 20s-early 30s, Lou’s partner, loving, camps it up with the best of them, a bit outrageous, just diagnosed and dying, terrified but spoiling for a fight.  
• HANNAH PORTER PITT - Approx. mid 50’s to 60, Joe’s mother, no fuss, no nonsense, honest, direct, plain-spoken, tough as nails.  
• BELIZE - Approx late 20s-early 30s, registered nurse and former drag queen, blazingly candid and dead-on funny, wit cracks like a whip  
• THE ANGEL - Radiant. Magnificent. Supreme. The Continental Principality of America.