Posted by the Executive Producer
This notice was posted on auditionsfree.com
location: Austin and San Marcos and San Antonio, Texas
Category: Theater
Audition Notice – Death of a Salesman
Casting: 8 men and 5 women.
The Wimberley Players are auditioning for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, directed by Aaron Johnson, on December 12th and 14th from 7:00pm – 10:00pm, with callbacks on December 16th, also from 2:00pm – 6:00pm. Actors are encouraged but not required to prepare a dramatic monologue of up to two minutes in length from an American drama from the last sixty years. Sides from the script will also be available for cold readings. Callbacks will consist entirely of cold readings. To make an appointment for an audition and/or to check out a copy of the script, please contact executive producer Adam Witko (adam@adamwitko.com).
What:
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller directed by Aaron Johnson.
Where:
Wimberley Players: 450 Old Kyle Rd. Wimberley, TX: (www.wimberleyplayers.org/directions.html).
When:
Auditions: December 12th and 14th from 7:00pm – 10:00pm.
Callbacks: December 16th from 2:00pm – 6:00pm.
Performances: February 8th – March 3rd; Fridays and Saturdays @ 7:30pm, Sundays @ 2:30pm.
Contact:
Adam Witko, Executive Producer: (adam@adamwitko.com).
Aaron Johnson, Director: (aj1263@txstate.edu).
Brief Synopsis of the Play
Willy Loman, an aging traveling salesman, returns early from a business trip after nearly crashing his car. Willy’s wife, Linda, encourages him to ask his boss for a local office job at the New York headquarters. Willy’s son, Biff, has just returned home from working as a farmhand in the West. Willy thinks Biff could easily be rich and successful, but that he is wasting his talents and needs to get on track. Biff learns that Willy has been having flashbacks and talking to imagined people as if they were real. He decides to stay close to home and help his dad. The next day Willy meets with his boss, but rather than receiving a transfer to the New York office, Willy is fired. In the meantime, we learn that Biff’s plans have gone awry, and that the man he was counting on for a business loan wouldn’t even see him. Biff struggles to explain what happened to his father. Willy tries to pretend it isn’t true and starts “daydreaming” again. His two sons ditch him at a restaurant, but when they return home, they find their mother waiting for them, fuming mad. A massive argument erupts with Biff finally admitting he is a failure and can’t live up to his father’s expectations. Willy, finally coming to terms with being a failure, commits suicide so that his family can collect the life insurance money.
Character Descriptions
WILLY LOMAN – An aging traveling salesman. Willy believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream, but he never achieves it. Nor do his sons fulfill his inflated hopes for them. Unable to face his failures, or the pressures of reality, his mental health begins to unravel.
BIFF LOMAN – Willy’s eldest son. He led a charmed life in high school as a football star with scholarship prospects and fawning female admirers. Since then, his kleptomania has gotten him fired from every job that he has held. He has recently returned from “out west”, where he has escaped Willy’s expectations to work with his hands.
LINDA LOMAN – Willy’s loyal, loving wife. Occasionally, she seems taken in by Willy’s hopes for future glory and success, She has nurtured the family through all of Willy’s fragility, and her emotional strength and perseverance support Willy until his collapse.
HAPPY LOMAN – Willy’s younger son. Happy has lived in Biff’s shadow all of his life, but he compensates by nurturing his relentless sex drive and professional ambition. Although he works as an assistant buyer in a department store, Happy presents himself as supremely important.
CHARLEY – Willy’s next-door neighbor. Charley owns a successful business and his son, Bernard, is an influential lawyer. Willy is jealous of Charley’s success. Charley pities Willy and “loans” him money to pay his bills.
BERNARD – Bernard is Charley’s son. Although Willy used to mock Bernard for studying hard, Bernard always loved Willy’s sons dearly and regarded Biff as a hero. Bernard’s success as a lawyer is difficult for Willy to accept because his own sons have not measured up.
BEN – Willy’s wealthy older brother who only appears in his “daydreams.” Willy regards Ben as a symbol of the success that he so desperately craves for himself and his sons.
THE WOMAN – Willy’s mistress from years before when Happy and Biff were still in school. When Biff catches Willy in his hotel room with The Woman, he loses faith in his father, and his dream of going to college dies.
HOWARD WAGNER – Willy’s boss. Howard inherited the company from his father, whom Willy regarded as “a prince.” Though much younger than Willy, Howard treats Willy with condescension and eventually fires him, despite Willy’s wounded assertions that he named Howard at his birth.
STANLEY – A waiter at Frank’s Chop House. Stanley and Happy banter about and ogle Miss Forsythe together before Biff and Willy arrive at the restaurant.
MISS FORSYTHE and LETTA – Two young women whom Happy and Biff meet at Frank’s Chop House. They are of questionable moral character, judging from Happy’s repeated comments about the fact that they are “on call.”
JENNY – Charley’s secretary.
Job type: Non Paid
Casting Location: Austin and San Marcos and San Antonio, Texas
Contact email: adam@adamwitko.com
