Posted by the Producer
This notice was posted on auditionsfree.com
location: Philadelphia, PA. 19131
Category: Theater
Attention Professional Theater Community
EPAC
Expressions Performing Arts Company
Presents
Casting Call
African American Female Actors to play roles ages 26, 50 and 62 years of age
For A New Play
MISS MINNIE MAE’S
GOIN HOME PARTY
By Edmonia Hite-Thomas
Friday, September 28, 2012
Saturday September 29, 2012
12:00 Matinee and 7:30 PM Evening Performance
Synopsis
MISS MINNIE MAE’S GOIN HOME PARTY is the poignant story of Minnie Mae Walker, an African American antiques dealer. After her untimely death, her friends go about the business of planning her funeral, and in the process discover Minnie Mae has been keeping secrets. Set in the 1960s, the story takes place in Minnie Mae’s Antiques and Collectables Shop located on Point Breeze Avenue in South Philadelphia. Served with generous portions of mystery, intrigue and suspense, MISS MINNIE MAE’S GOIN HOME PARTY is unexpectedly amusing and thoroughly entertaining. The unforgettable cast of characters, Brucie, Duke, Reddick, Flossie, and Tiny with their smart and witty dialogue will have audiences laughing long after they’ve left the theater. In the end, MISS MINNIE MAE’S GOIN HOME PARTY gently reminds us of our mortality and perhaps our secret desire that one day our family and friends will celebrate our lives by hosting a fabulous Goin Home Party!
Edmonia Hite-Thomas
Edmonia Hite-Thomas’ original stage play, MISS MINNIE MAE’S GOIN HOME PARTY, will be making its Philadelphia debut in 2012. Her other full-length play WHISTLE WALK was presented in a theater workshop in 1995 and 1997, and in 2005 a stage reading was performed by Expressions Performing Arts Company(EPAC). WHISTLE WALK is currently entered in several new playwright competitions, and is being considered for Broadway production. In addition, Edmonia Hite-Thomas has written several original plays for youth and THE CROCKER SACK QUILT and BROTHER MALCOLM IS SPEAKING TONIGHT have been performed in Philadelphia Public Schools by The African American Drama Guild as part of Schools-to-Schools Performing Arts Initiative. Other theatrical productions include adaptations of African American children’s stories including THE PEOPLE COULD FLY (1992), and BEAUTIFUL BLACKBIRD (2004). Several of her poems and raps have been published including A CALL TO PRAYER: A Tribute TO THE MILLION MAN MARCH; WE GATHER TOGETHER: A TRIBUTE TO THE MILLION WOMAN MARCH, and BEHOLD THE DREAMER: A TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Edmonia Hite-Thomas holds a Master’s Degree in African American Studies from Temple University and resides in Philadelphia, PA.
For more information Contact:
Edmonia Hite-Thomas or Rose DiFranco Grelis
267-251-5406 or 215-871-0218
Edmonia724@verizon.net
CHARACTERS
REDDICK (BETTY ANNE REDDICK): A 49 year-old female school teacher and daughter of a deceased prominent minister.
BRUCIE (ELLA MAE BRUCE): A 65 year-old female dim-witted widow.
FLOSSIE (FLORENCE DILLARD): A 50 year-old glamour girl employed by Strawbridge Department Store.
TINY (TYNELIA RUFFIN): A 35 year-old female nurse with an eight year old son and a mother with Alzheimer.
MISS MINNIE MAY WALKER: (Ghost) A 52 year-old female and owners of Minnie Mae’s Antiques and Collectables Shop.
DUKE (HENRIETTA JOHNSON): A 27 year-old female lawyer living in New York and Minnie Mae’s adopted daughter.
THAT BOY (LAMAR RUFFIN): The name given to Tiny’s 8-year-old son by the club members. (Referenced only)
FIELDS (FIELDS DILLARD): A 65 year-old retired postal worker and Flossie’s husband of two year. (Referenced only)
STEEL LEG (WILLIE DAVIS): A 60-year-old male with a steel rod in his left leg and Minnie Mae’s part-time helper. (Referenced only)
SOLDIER’S GHOST (LONNIE SLOANE): A 25 year-old deceased male soldier formerly engaged to Minnie Mae.
MISS MINNIE MAE’S GOIN HOME PARTY
CASTING CALL SCENE – ALL CHARACTERS
Act Scene Scene Title Page(s) Call-Back
2 1 You Never Know the Length of a Snake 21-25
FLOSSIE
Reds, pass me that Tribune.
(REDDICK hands FLOSSIE the Tribune. FLOSSIE ponders the article for a minute.)
FLOSSIE
“Let a man think that you are a fool and he will act the fool!” That sounds familiar, Reds. Where have I heard it before?
(FLOSSIE ponders the article some more.)
(BRUCIE slowly interjects.)
BRUCIE
Minnie Mae used to say that from time to time. I remember a while back that Deacon Alfonso Schroder used to conveniently stop by here at lunchtime. We fed him since we always cooked plenty of food. That is until one morning when Minnie Mae ran into him at Triangle’s Drug Store.
TINY
What happened?
BRUCIE
Minnie Mae had gone over there to pick up some odds and ends and Band-Aids because Steal Leg was always gettin cuts on his hand…he wouldn’t wear his work gloves when he was moving furniture like he was support to. When Minnie Mae ran into that Deacon Schroder, she said he waited until the clerk came over to ring up her order and then right there in front of that white man, Deacon Schroder asked Minnie Mae “what’s for lunch?” Now we all know how private Minnie Mae is… was. Anyway, needless to say Minnie Mae put Deacon Schroder in his place, and quick. Minnie Mae said she told him that she was a business woman, and she was running an antique business, not a restaurant. Furthermore, Minnie Mae told Deacon Schroder, she would appreciate it if he stopped coming to her place of business unless he intended to buy some antiques.
Tiny
(Astonished)
I guess she told him…
(TINY glances up to heaven as she speaks.)
Good for you Minnie Mae!
BRUCIE
(Indignant)
I remember when Minnie Mae got back here to the shop she was hot; said she should never have started offering Deacon Schroder lunch in the first place. Now that’s one time I can remember hearing Minnie Mae say “Let a man think that you are a fool and he will act the fool!”
REDDICK
Brucie, you know, now that you mention it, I do vaguely remember Minnie Mae saying those exact words when she told me about what had happened with Deacon Schroder.
(DUKE reenters stage left carrying a large box and talking as she walks towards the sofa.)
DUKE
(Excited)
This is the box I was talking about. You know the one that I found this morning on the top shelf in Auntie Minnie Mae’s bedroom closet.
(DUKE sets the box on the sofa then sits down. Tiny sits down to REDDICK’s left. DUKE points out the writing on the lid to REDDICK as she speaks.)
DUKE
(Excited)
Auntie Reds, look at what it says on the lid.
(REDDICK leans over and reads the writing on the lid.)
REDDICK
The Mystic Advisor: Property of The Philadelphia Tribune.
(The group looks at each other curiously. REDDICK becomes anxious. As DUKE speaks she removes the lid from the box and passes out letters for the others to examine.)
DUKE
These are all letters that people wrote to The Mystic Advisor, and some of them have letters from her attached to them. Those are probably the letters that got published in the Tribune.
BRUCIE
(Curious)
What was Minnie Mae doin with these here letters? Reddick, do you think Minnie Mae knew the Mystic Advisor?
(FLOSSIE flips through letters as she speaks.)
FLOSSIE
I don’t know what all of this means, but if we go by those newspaper articles and what you all just said, I think our Minnie Mae was the Mystic Advisor!
REDDICK
(Snaps)
Minnie Mae couldn’t have been The Mystic Advisor. I’ve known her most of my life, she would have told me!
(BRUCIE examines a letter with a letter attached to it.)
BRUCIE
This is Minnie Mae’s handwriting alright! I’d recognize it anywhere!
(The group examines the letters taking them out of the envelopes and speaking among themselves. Conversation is not audible to the audience.)
(Mist rolls in as MMG enter stage left.)
MMG
(Solemn)
Our lives are made up of layers: dreams and secrets, and sorrows and regret. Over time, like it or not, eventually the layers we’ve so carefully wrapped ourselves get peeled away. Then some of the things we’ve spent so much time and energy trying to hide are exposed, and the world gets to see us for who we are and what we are (Pause) This isn’t the way I would have wanted Duke and Reddick and the others to find out about The Mystic Advisor.
I took some journalism courses when I attended Cheyney. About ten years ago on a whim, I decided to pitch the idea of an advice column for Colored people to the editor of the Tribune. (Cont’d)
He thought it was a great idea, but there was a catch! The editor believed people might not write to The Mystic Advisor if they knew her real identity. So I kept my secret. The money I earned helped out a lot and I wouldn’t have written the column if I thought I was hurting anyone. People wrote in about everything: their husbands; their wives; their neighbors; how they were being mistreated on their jobs, and they wrote to tell me about their indiscretions too. I guess they were hoping I would condone such behavior, which I did not! The editor tried to figure out how I came up with all of my so-called mystic advice? One time he came right out and asked me if I was consulting with a psychiatrist or getting spiritual guidance from my minister. When you stop to think about it, there wasn’t anything mystical at all about the advice I was giving folks. Tiny’s letter was one that I responded to because it has a universal theme.
At one or another, most of us get into relationships that are bad for us. If I had told Tiny as a friend what I thought of that Slick, I might have wound up pushing her closer to him. But The Mystic Advisor is a neutral third party, and as it turns out, Tiny did take her advice after all.
(MMG becomes melancholy.)
Now I admit it, I’m a romantic at heart. I love the idea of being in love with someone. But love has to be more than just the thoughts and feelings one person has for another. What we should strive in our lives is true love, and true love is born out of self-love.
Job type: Other
Casting Location: Philadelphia, PA. 19131
Contact email: Edmonia724@verizon.net