DEWDNEY PLAYERS GROUP THEATRE AUDITION NOTICE
THE WOMAN IN BLACK
(Stephen Mallatratt’s stage adaptation of the novel by Susan Hill)
DIRECTED BY: CLAIRE HOYER
DATES: July 13 at 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.; July 15 at 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Aldersyde Community Hall - 102 Dennis St, Aldersyde, AB - Google Pacific Avenue Tattoo - we are across the street!
Go to: https://calendly.com/dewdneyplayers/woman-in-black-auditions to sign up for an audition time.
SEEKING: 2 male presenting actors with strong dramatic performances (all backgrounds welcome)
REHEARSALS: Sundays and two weekday evenings starting on Sunday, July 27, 2025
TECH WEEK: October 10 (Load-In), October 14 – October 16
PERFORMANCE DATES: October 17 and 18, October 23 – 25, and October 30 – November 1 (Matinees and evening performances on October 25 and November 1)
ROLES:
ACTOR: (the real Arthur Kipps, retired solicitor with a traumatic past) 40+ – hoping that in telling his story about the haunting he endured, it will offer some cathartic release after all these years of keeping it to himself. He also plays 5 other characters throughout the play.
KIPPS: (the hired professional actor who helps stage the story), 20s-30s – young, charismatic actor hired to help bring the story to life by portraying a young Arthur Kipps as a confident solicitor sent to settle the affairs at the isolated Eel Marsh House of the recently deceased Mrs. Drablow.
PREPARATION:
Be prepared to audition by telling/dramatizing a ghost story from the following selection (attached). You do not need to memorize the piece but you are more than welcome to! A cold read from the play of will also be required to test emotional range and character changes.
Excerpt from 'The Fall of the House of Usher':
"Yes!" he said. "I heard it! Many minutes, many hours, many days have I heard it - but I did not dare to speak! We have put her living in the vault! Did I not say that my senses were too strong? I heard her first movements many days ago - yet I did not dare to speak! And now, that story - but the sounds were hers! Oh, where shall I run?! She is coming - coming to ask why I put her there too soon. I hear her footsteps on the stairs. I hear the heavy beating of her heart." Here he jumped up and cried as if he were giving up his soul: "I TELL YOU, SHE NOW STANDS AT THE DOOR!!"
The great door to which he was pointing now slowly opened. It was the work of the rushing wind, perhaps - but no - outside that door a shape did stand, the tall figure, in its grave-clothes, of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white dress, and the signs of her terrible efforts to escape were upon every part of her thin form. For a moment she remained trembling at the door; then, with a low cry, she fell heavily in upon her brother; in her pain, as she died at last, she carried him down with her, down to the floor. He too was dead, killed by his own fear.
I rushed from the room; I rushed from the house. I ran. The storm was around me in all its strength as I crossed the bridge. Suddenly a wild light moved along the ground at my feet, and I turned to see where it could have come from, for only the great house and its darkness were behind me. The light was that of the full moon, of a blood-red moon, which was now shining through that break in the front wall, that crack which I thought I had seen when I first saw the palace. Then only a little crack, it now widened as I watched. A strong wind came rushing over me - the whole face of the moon appeared. I saw the great walls falling apart. There was a long and stormy shouting sound - and the deep black lake closed darkly over all that remained of the HOUSE OF USHER.