AUDITIONS

THIS SHOW HAS NOW BEEN CAST
PLEASE CHECK BACK ON THIS PAGE FOR AUDITION DETAILS
FOR OUR AUTUMN SHOW
​
***Please note this is an unpaid community theatre production***
We will be holding auditions for our Spring 2025 show: Uncle Vanya
on
Sunday, 1st December 2024 at 6 pm &
Monday, 2nd December 2024 at 7.15 pm.
Venue: Bath Rec Pavilion - this is the green wooden building, just off William Street/Pulteney Mews.
what3words link: https://w3w.co/score.remark.pretty
You will not be able to park at the Rec without a permit. Please allow time to park as on-street parking is often limited.
​
​
Show Week:
​
Sunday 27 April - Sunday 4 May 2025 at The Rondo Theatre
Rehearsal days and times TBC - usually twice a week.
Synopsis:
​
Uncle Vanya is a play located in the vast Russian hinterland (possibly Ukraine) in the very late 19 th Century. It is set in the country estate belonging to Professor Serebryakov who acquired the estate from his first wife Anna. The professor following a very unexceptional academic career in Moscow has retired and now having nowhere to live has returned to the estate with his young wife Yelana. He returns with unwelcome news and the presence of both himself and his Yelena presence causes mayhem for the residents of the estate. The estate has been managed by his Anna’s brother, Vanya and his daughter Sonya for many years providing for the professor a steady income. Vanya hugely resents his brother-in-law feeling that he has wasted his life providing for the professor. The estate is also home to Vanya’s mother and his old nurse, Nana. Telegin, an impoverished landowner also lives and works on the estate. Dr Astrov, an overworked exhausted country doctor, is a regular visitor to the estate. Astrov is developing plans for the environmental sustainability of the estate. Uncle Vanya is set at a time of great social upheaval in Russia, and the Europe in general. It is a play of ‘what might have been’. The status quo of the estate is shattered by the professor’s arrival revealing a world of desperate longing, unrequited love and bitter frustrations.
To register for an audition slot, or if you have any questions, email Andy, the director at bathdrama.skylight@gmail.com.
The Cast:
​
Aleksandr SEREBRYAKOV
(playing age 50+)
Serebryakov is a recently retired professor from Moscow. He is, essentially, a failed academic now plagued with largely imagined illnesses. He retains an overbearing arrogance and sense of entitlement. His arrival, with his young wife has thrown the estate into a degree of turmoil. He owns the estate which he inherited from his first wife. The estate has provided him with an income. He is proposing selling the estate with the intention that the proceeds will provide him with a future place to live having lost his accommodation in Moscow.
​
Elena Andreevna, YELENA
(playing age around 30)
Yelena is Serebryakov’s much younger wife. She is notably idle.
​
Sofya Aleksandrovna, SONYA
(playing age around 30)
Sonya is Serebryakov’s daughter by his first wife. She has lived on the estate with her uncle, Vanya, helping him run the estate. There is a sense of joylessness about Sonya. She is dedicated to the running of the estate. She is enthralled by Astrov but cannot find a way of letting him know.
​
Mariya Vointskya, MARIYA
(playing age 60+)
Mariya is Vanya’s mother and Sonya’s grandmother and Serebryakov’s mother-in-law. She lives on the estate. She remains enthralled by the professor.
Ivan Voinitsky, VANYA
(playing age 40s)
Vanya is Serebryakov’s brother-in-law through Serebryakov’s marriage to Vanya’s sister Anna. He manages the estate on behalf of Serebryakov. He is Sonya’s uncle. His life has been characterised by the bitterness, and hatred, he feels for his brother-in-law. He feels that his life has been wasted. He is enthralled by Yelana.
​
Mikhail ASTROV
(playing age 40s)
Astrov is a country doctor described as once handsome, but now tired by his life and work. His work is hard and endless and seems to have no purpose. He is committed to the preservation of the estate; he sees the damage that humans are making on the environment – an early environmentalist. He is not aware, apparently, of Sonya’s fascination in him; he, himself, becomes smitten by Yelana.
Ilya Ilych TELEGIN
(playing age 40s)
Telegin, ‘Waffles’ is an impoverished landowner who works on the estate. His wife left him after their wedding night many years ago. He has a melancholic presence due to this rejection. He plays the guitar (*musician would be very helpful for this role)
Marina Timofeevna, NANA
(playing age 60 +)
Nana is the old nurse that lives with the family. She has remained on the estate providing comfort for the others.
Note: The playing age range of the cast varies from Nana and Mariya being the eldest (60s +), Serebryakov being of retirement age (50 +), but only a bit older than Vanya, Astrov and Telegin (who are around 40s).
Yelena is around 30 and is of similar age to Sonya.
​