Audition information for Look Homeward Angel

Performances: April 27^th , 28^th, May 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 11^th and 12^th

Auditions:  February 26^th and 27^th

Geoff Coward, the director, is looking for actors to fill the following roles. Although specific ages are stated,

actors are sought who can play that age. For more details please contact Geoffrey Coward  geoff.robbie@gmail.com

The Gant Family

W.O. Gant

Oliver Gant is 60 and a large impressive looking man.  At heart he is a romantic wanderer and minstrel but has degraded his life

with libertinism and drink. In him still, though, there is a monstrous fumbling for life.

Eliza Gant

Eugene's mother, Eliza, is a stubborn woman who manages her family through many difficult years. She is of Scotch  descent

and is  in her 50s. She is mercurial with dauntless energy, greed and love.  An extremely hard worker, able to organize the

family's finances much better than her husband, Eliza is also characterized by her stinginess and property hoarding. She almost always pretends not to have very much money, and this is a constant source of regret and annoyance for her family.

At the same time, this determination helps her drive herself and the family through years of conflict.

Will Pentland

Brother to Eliza Gant (50s). Will is paunchy, successful, secure, a real estate broker.

Ben Gant

Ben is Eugene's closest brother, who dies of pneumonia at the end of the second act of the play.  He is 30 years old, independent and not very close with anyone in the family except Eugene and Marie (Fatty) Pert, one of the Dixieland borders. Ben is delicate

and sensitive. His success at the newspaper office makes him money, with which he is generous, and he always disparages Eliza,

his mother, for being cheap. The family is devastated that Eliza's hesitation in spending the money for medical attention may have been responsible for Ben's death.

Eugene Gant

Eugene is the protagonist of the play, an autobiographical version of Thomas Wolfe himself. He is 17 and is portrayed as the self-conscious hero of the play.  He is torn between love and respect for his mother and the need to get leave home and get an education.  He recognizes himself in his father. W.O.(Oliver) Gant as an unfulfilled “lost adventurer”.

Luke Gant

Luke is 27 and is the son that managed “to get away”.  He is attractive, slight, and posses a great sense of humor and love of

life. Luke is adored  by everybody.  Although he is the one that managed to get away early he still carries the marks of a

distressing childhood.

Helen Gant Barton

Helen is the sister of Ben, Luke and Eugene.  She h is gaunt, raw-boned, in her middle twenties, often nervous, intense, irritable

and abusive, tough basically generous, the hysteria of excitement constantly lurking in her.  It is a spiritual and physical

necessity in for her to exhaust herself in her  service to others, though her grievances, especially in her service to her mother,

are many.

Hugh Grant

Hugh is Helen's husband, an eloquent salesman ten years older than she. Although he takes her to Sydney, where Gant lived

during his first marriage, Hugh eventually moves back to Altamont, where Helen can once again take care of Gant. Hugh complains that Gant takes advantage of his closest daughter, but eventually he is silent in response to Helen's strong will.

The Borders

Mrs Marie “Fatty” Pert

Mrs Pert is a generous, somewhat boozy women who loves to knit.  She has a tender regard for Ben and he for her.  Age: 43

Jake Clatt

Jake Clatt is 30 and an insensitive bore.

Mrs. Clatt

Mrs. Clatt, mother to Jake, has a coarse smile and dyed hair. She is deaf and carries a cane.

Florry Mangle

Florry is 29, wistful  and humorless. She has set her “sights” on Jake Clatt.

Mrs. Snowden

Mrs. Snowden is 50, quiet, unobtrusive and lonely.

Mr. Farrel

Mr. Marrel is 60 and a retired dance teacher.  He is the newest resident at the Dixieland boarding house.

Miss Brown

Miss Brown is 36, prim on the surface, but with the marks of an amateur prostitute.

Miss Laura James

Laura arrives at the Boarding House during the first scene of the play. She is 23, attractive and has arrived on the morning train from

Richmond, VA.  She becomes Eugene’s love interest during the course of the play.

Townsfolk

Dr. Maguire

Dr. Maguire is the Gant family doctor. He needs to be middle aged.  He is somewhat unkempt but a kind man.

Tarkinton

Tarkington is W.O. Gant’s drinking buddy (crony).  Almost a street person; disreputably dressed and always drunk.

Madame Elizabeth

Elizabeth is 38 and the Madame of the town’s whorehouse.  She is immaculately dressed and very stylish. 

She carries herself very well.