Civic opens auditions for 'The Piano Lesson'

FORT WAYNE—It is 1936 and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down home, but he has to come up with the money right quick. He wants to sell an old piano that has been in his family for generations, but he shares ownership with his sister and it sits in her living room. She has already rejected several offers because the antique piano is covered with incredible carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery. Boy Willie tries to persuade his stubborn sister that the past is past, but she is more formidable than he anticipated.

That’s the story behind The Piano Lesson, haunting drama for which August Wilson won his second Pulitzer Prize.

The Fort Wayne Civic Theatre is scheduled to hold auditions for a local production of Wilson’s acclaimed play from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Aug. 2 (with call backs, if necessary, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Aug. 3) in the West Rehearsal Hall of the Arts United Center, 303 E. Main St.

Please arrive early to check in and fill out the audition forms.

Guest director John Tolley, former 1st Presbyterian Theatre artistic director, is seeking the following characters for an all African American cast:

Avery—was one of Boy Willy’s acquaintances down South, a preacher trying to raise funds to build a church, he courts Berniece.

Berniece Charles—Boy Willie’s sister, she married Crawley and had a daughter, Maretha. Widowed for three years, she works as a domestic to support her small family. She is very ambivalent about Avery’s interest in her and she refuses to allow Boy Willie to sell the piano.

Boy Willie Charles—Berniece’s brother, Doaker’s nephew, he dreams of raising enough cash to buy land by selling a load of watermelons and the family piano, which he part owns with Berniece. He was involved in an illegal racket and fell into trouble with the local police.

Doaker Charles—Berniece and Boy Willy’s uncle, he is a dignified, wiser older man who used to earn his living building and working the railroads and now works as a railroad cook.

Maretha Charlesı—Berniece’s 11-year-old daughter. Berniece and Boy Willy clash about how she should be raised.

Wining Boy Charles—Doaker’s brother and thus Boy Willie and Berniece’s uncle, he is a failed musician and gambler, by turns charming and affectionate, at others, selfish and irresponsible. As his name implies, he is something of a “wino”—a heavy drinker—and also something of a “whiner”— a bluesman.

Grace—Her appearance onstage is brief. She and Boy Willie have a brief encounter in the living room before Berniece, outraged, orders them to stop or leave the house.

Lymon—is Boy Willy’s friend from “down South,” he is in trouble with the local sheriff back home and has traveled North with Boy Willy to escape prosecution and to sell their truckload of watermelons. His inexperience and naivete provides much humor in Act Two, scene one, when Wining Boy cons him into parting with six hardearned dollars for a cheap suit, shirt, and pair of shoes.

Rehearsals are scheduled for 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Fridays, Aug. 10 to Sept. 4. Tech rehearsal is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sept. 5, with cast call at 1 p.m. and dinner break from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The tech/mounting rehearsals are scheduled for 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., each night from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10 at Arts United Center

Final dress rehearsal is scheduled for 8 p.m., Sept. 11 with call at 7 p.m.

Performances are scheduled for:

• 8 p.m., Sept. 12, Sept. 18 and Sept. 19.
• 2 p.m., Sept. 13 and Sept. 20.
• 7:30 p.m., Sept. 17, IN THE WINGS performance.

Please call Phillip Colglazier, executive director, to sign up to audition (260) 422-8641 ext. 225. Scripts may be signed out with a refundable $10 deposit.

If you would like to serve on the backstage crew for this production, please contact Ben Roney at (260) 422-8641 ext. 227.

The Civic Theatre production of The Piano Lesson is sponsored by Lincoln Financial Group and Sweetwater Sound.

This is part of the July 29, 2009 online edition of Frost Illustrated.

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