Theatre Casting Call for "Calendar Girls"

(female presenting): You want Chris at your party. She will talk to people she doesn’t know, find things to say to fill silences and generate laughter. Without Chris in her life, Annie would be better behaved, her life less fun.

(female presenting). Annie will join in mischief but is at heart more conformist and less confrontational than Chris. She has enough edge to be interesting, and enough salt not to be too sweet. Together, these two are greater than the sum of their parts. They would be lesser humans had they not met each other. Each is spiritual mustard to the other’s meat.

(female presenting): Cora’s past is the most eclectic, her horizons broadened by having gone to college. She came back to them pregnant and tail-between-legs, but Cora has too much native resilience to be downtrodden. She is the joker in the pack, but never plays the fool. Her wit is deadpan. Cora needs to start the show singing “Jerusalem” and sing the portions of other songs required. Piano skills a plus but not necessarily required.

(female presenting). Get on the right side of Jessie as a teacher and she’ll be the teacher you remember for life. Get on the wrong side and you will regret every waking hour. A lover of life, Jessie doesn’t bother with cosmetics – her elixir of life is bravery.

(female presenting). The fact that Celia is in the WI is the greatest justification of its existence. A woman more at home in a department store than a church hall, she may be younger than Chris or the same age, but she always feels like she’s drifted in from another world. Which she has.

(female presenting). Ruth’s journey is from the false self-confidence of the emotionally abused to the genuine self confidence of the woman happy in her own skin. Ruth is eager to please but not a rag doll, and despite being Marie’s right-hand woman she is desperate to be the cartilage in the spine of the WI and keep everyone happy.

(female presenting). Marie has gradually built the current “Marie” around herself over the years as a defense mechanism. She went to her Oz (Cheshire) and found Oz didn’t want her. She came back scorched. The WI is a trophy to her, which justifies her entire existence.

(female presenting). Brenda is a guest speaker Marie has invited along to the local branch of the Women’s Institute. She is very dull and has a history of giving exceptionally boring speeches – the previous year she talked about the history of the tea towel and this year her topic is broccoli.

(male presenting). Annie’s husband. John is a human sunflower. Not a saint. Not a hero. Just the kind of man you’d want in your car when crossing America. When he dies it feels like someone somewhere turned off a light.

(male presenting). Chris’s husband. You have to be a certain kind of guy to stick with Chris and Rod loves it. He can give back what he gets, and has a deadpan humor which has always made Chris laugh.

(male presenting):Hesitant without being nerdy, Lawrence is a shy young man with enough wit to make a joke and enough spirit to turn up at the WI hall in the first place. When he arranges the shots he is close to female nudity but sees only the photo.

(female presenting): Chairman of the Royal Yorkshire Golf Club. Lady Cravenshire really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing, but the WI girls seem from another world. The world of her estate workers.

(female presenting). Young Beautician. Elaine really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing. But Jessie and the other women of the WI seem from another world. The world of her gran.

(male presenting): Liam would like to be directing other things than photoshoots for washing powders. He’s not so unprofessional as to let it show, but we can sense a slight weariness at having to deal with these women.