2018-19 Season Auditions
The Boys Next Door
By Tom Griffin
Newnan Theatre Company is pleased to announce auditions for The Boys Next Door by Tom Griffin. Auditions will be on Monday, January 14, and Tuesday, January 15, from 7 - 9 pm at Newnan Theatre Company, 24 First Ave, Newnan, GA. The show will open on March 7th and will run through March 17th. The show will be directed by Richard McMichen.
The place is a communal residence in the Boston area, where four mentally handicapped men live under the supervision of an earnest, but increasingly “burned out” young social worker named Jack. Norman, who works in a doughnut shop and is unable to resist the lure of the sweet pastries, takes great pride in the huge bundle of keys that dangles from his waist; Lucien P. Smith has the mind of a five-year-old but imagines that he is able to read and comprehend the weighty books he lugs about; Arnold, the ringleader of the group, is a hyperactive, compulsive chatterer, who suffers from deep-seated insecurities and a persecution complex; while Barry, a brilliant schizophrenic who is devastated by the unfeeling rejection of his brutal father, fantasizes that he is a golf pro. Mingled with scenes from the daily lives of these four, where “little things” sometimes become momentous (and often very funny), are moments of great poignancy when, with touching effectiveness, we are reminded that the handicapped, like the rest of us, want only to love and laugh and find some meaning and purpose in the brief time that they, like their more fortunate brothers, are allotted on this earth.
Richard “Doc” McMichen will be directing The Boys Next Door. Doctor McMichen retired after teaching high school English and theatre for forty years. He has directed hundreds of one-acts, full lengths, and musicals throughout his career. His shows have been featured at several Georgia Thespian Conferences, and he has directed several summer theatre productions for the STAR and ENCORE programs in Coweta County, where he was the theatre teacher at East Coweta High School. Honors include Teacher of the Year and the 2017 Richard Brooks Visionary Award of Distinction Hall of Fame.
Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script and improvisational scenes.
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Available roles are:
Arnold Wiggins – a man living with a mild mental disability. He tends to be very obsessive compulsive and works as a janitor in a movie theatre. He is often abused by his coworkers and is afraid to fight back.
Norman Bulansky – a middle-aged man with mental disabilities who works in a doughnut shop. Eating doughnuts at his job has caused him to be overweight. His girlfriend, Sheila, lives in another group home. Bulansky is very proud of his large ring of keys.
Lucien P. Smith – a large African-American man who faces extremely debilitating mental disabilities. Despite the fact he cannot read, Smith insists on checking out armloads of books from the library.
Barry Klemper – a 28-year old man with schizophrenia who believes he is a golf pro. He gets highly agitated by small things. Barry was an abused child and has had a very traumatic childhood.
Jack Palmer – the social worker for the four handicapped men. He has found himself increasingly “burnt out” by his job and is considering finding a new line of work.
Shelia – Norman’s girlfriend. She is obsessed with Norman’s enormous ring of keys, and is no “skinny Minnie herself.”
Mr. Klemper – Barry’s father. During the course of the play, he decides to visit Barry while in Boston, leading to a very bad outcome.
There are also some minor male and female roles available.
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Newnan Theatre Company does not charge production fees of any kind to any performer to take part in our productions.
All roles are non-equity/non-paying.
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If you have questions about these auditions or any production please email NTC’s Artistic Director, Tony Daniel, at artistic-director@newnantheatre.org.