Actors Needed for "17 Minutes" Play Audition

Andy is a sheriff deputy who suffered a panic attack during a school shooting and did nothing for 17 minutes while the students he knew and swore to protect were killed. Throughout the show, Andy goes through a cycle of denial, anger, grief, and depression. He struggles to come to terms with his own complicity in the shooting while trying to find meaning in the wake of the tragedy.

Virgil is a detective who is tasked with looking into the shooting. He is swamped by the harrowing day and tries to knock out a quick and easy interview so he can move on to other things. Under the assumption Andy did everything he could to help during the shooting, Morris is friendly and laissez-faire, but the more he realizes that Andy did nothing to stop the shooter, Morris gets more intense with his questions and becomes increasingly upset.

Samantha is Andy’s wife. She is heartbroken to see Andy so depressed and out of sorts, so she tries to console him in any way she can. She is the rock, without her Andy has nothing to stand on. Samantha tries to get Andy to open up and see the light at the end of the tunnel but grows more frustrated the further Andy spirals.

Mary is the sheriff deputy who confronted the school shooter. Like Andy, she was stationed at the school and knew the victims of the crime, including the shooter himself. She is a long-time friend and coworker to Andy, who remains loyal and supportive to him even after the shooting. A combination of witty humor alongside grief and trauma, Mary is wary of her status as a hero, because the truth of the tragedy is not as black and white as the media portrays.

Dan is the father of the school shooter and purchased the guns his son used to commit the shooting. Dan is scornful, bitter, and despondent. Everyone all over town hates him and blames him for his role in the tragedy -- even he hates himself. Though Andy’s presence upsets him because he is a reminder of Dan’s failings as a parent, Andy is the only person Dan can commiserate with because they are equally at fault; as Dan says, the two of them “are defined by what they didn’t do.”

Cecilia is the grieving mother of Anthony, one of the victims that Andy had a personal relationship with. She is mad at the world and tries to scrounge up any semblance of meaning in the aftermath of the tragedy. While she resents Andy for doing nothing, she is also aware that it is not entirely his fault, and that the death of her son was a culmination of many different things beyond her control.