Original Creative Team

AUDITIONS:

Saturday, October 9, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Sunday, October 10, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

810 Caroline Street, Downtown Fredericksburg

Virtual Submissions Accepted.  Please send to: [email protected] no later than October 9.

CHARACTERS (6m, 1f)   African-American Actors Only Please

• MEMPHIS: Memphis Lee is a self-made seasoned man whose values of hard work, diligence, persistence and honesty have been consistently challenged by the circumstances of his life. His greatest asset is his impeccable logic. He owns a restaurant that the city intends to demolish. He is determined to negotiate a fair price out of the demolition. He is confident in playing the White man’s game as long as he knows the rules. With little patience for those who preach the “black is beautiful” mantra—he claims it sounds as if those black people are trying to convince themselves.
• STERLING: A young man of thirty, he appears at times to be unbalanced, but it is a combination of his unorthodox logic and straightforward manner that makes him appear so. Only recently released from the penitentiary after serving some time for robbing a bank, Sterling is new to the scene of Two Trains Running. He is in search of work, and when he finds Memphis Lee’s restaurant and the group that hangs there it gives him the chance to seek advice from a colorful group of characters.
• WOLF: He is a Numbers Runner—someone who carries the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters or “Numbers Bank.” He enjoys the notoriety and popularity that comes with this work. While he manages to keep money in his pocket and a decent pair of shoes on his feet, his inability to find secure female companionship is the single failure that marks his life.
• HOLLOWAY: A retired house-painter, who, in his retirement, has become a self-made philosopher of sorts. He is a man who all his life has voiced his outrage at injustice with little effect. His belief in the supernatural has enabled him to accept his inability to effect change and continue to pursue life with zest and vigor. He is equally enraged by white men who exploit black men, and any black men who try to fight back. If anyone happens to come to him with a problem, he will send them on over to the oldest woman in town—an Aunt Ester—to sort it out.
• WEST: A widower in his early sixties, he is the owner of the wealthiest business on the block. West runs the funeral parlor across the street from the restaurant. His wife’s death has allowed his love of money to overshadow the other possibilities of life. It is his practical view of death that has earned him the title of perhaps the sharpest social observer in the play.
• RISA: As the only woman in the play has a particular character choice that she’s made — and this is revealed pretty early on in the play — she has cut into her legs.  A woman who wants to be taken on her own terms. She recognized that the way most men in the world treat most women is as objects. As something to be conquered. As a sexual conquest. She instinctively knew she was more than that and demanded to be seen as such.
• HAMBONE: Hambone represents the ultimate commitment to justice as promised by the U.S. Constitution and also the human, innate moral sense of justice if we actually choose to listen and practice that. Interestingly, Hambone is limited to one phrase. A great wrong has been dealt him nine years prior to when the play began. And his pursuit of righting that wrong has quite literally driven him out of his mind - or has he?  Hambone is a compelling reminder to all of us, of our duty as citizens within a community and our duty as Americans.