Casting Call for "Calendar Girls" Stage Play

Large Role (On stage 14/14 scenes) 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. Part of this is because Chris is at home in crowds, holding court, being the center of attention. Without Chris in her life, Annie would be better behaved, her life less fun. The two of them are like naughty schoolgirls. Ideal car – who cares, as long as it’s a cabriolet. Ideal holiday – Algarve.

Large Role (On stage 14/14 scenes) Annie will join in mischief but is at the heart more conformist and less confrontational than Chris. After Chris has put a waiter’s back up in the restaurant, Annie will go in and pour calm. The mischievousness Chris elicits saves Annie from being a saint. She has enough edge to be interesting, and enough salt not to be too sweet. Ideal car – who cares, as long as it’s reliable. Ideal holiday – walking in English countryside.

Large Role (On stage 14/14 scenes) Cora’s past is the most eclectic, her horizons broadened by having gone to college. This caused a tectonic shift with her more parochial parents. 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 really plays the fool.

Large Role (On stage 14/14 scenes) 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. Jessie goes on roller coasters. Her husband has been with her a long time and is rarely surprised by her actions. Jessie bothers about grammar and will correct stallholders regarding their abuse of the apostrophe “s”.

Large Role (On stage 13/14 scenes) 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 slightly younger than Chris or the same age, but she always feels like she’s drifted in from another world. Which she has. She is particularly enamored of Jessie, and despite the fact Jessie has very little time for most Celias of this world, there is a rebelliousness in Celia to which Jessie responds.

Large Role (On stage 14/14 scenes) 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. She has a spine herself – if she was too wet, no one would want her around.

Medium/Large Role (On stage 6/14 scenes) 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. There is a lingering part of Marie that would love to be on that calendar. Ideal car – something German and well-valeted.

But any age suitable. Smaller / cameo role (On stage 2/14 scenes) Lady Cravenshire really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing, but the WI girls seem from another world, the world of her estate workers. Dress: when she makes an entrance, she must make an entrance. She wears largely white or cream to outplay the others, with a bigger hat than Marie.

Smaller / cameo role (On stage 1/14 scenes) Elaine really doesn’t mean to be so patronizing. But Jessie seems from another world. The world of her Gran.

Smaller / cameo role (On stage 1/14 scenes) Brenda is a woman committed to tedious subjects. In the previous year she spoke to the group on “The History of the Tea Towel”. This year it is “The Fascinating World of Broccoli”. She soldiers on seriously while her audience dissolves sniggering. Brenda is a bore.

Annie’s husband. Medium Role (On stage 3/14 scenes) 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 a light off.

Chris’s husband. Medium Role (On stage 4/14 scenes) You have to be a certain kind of guy to stick with Chris and Rod loves it. He can give back when he gets, and has a deadpan humor which has always made Chris laugh. He drinks a lot but never so much as to have a problem. He would work every hour to make his shop a success. And John was his mate, even though the relationship was originally channeled through their wives.

Medium Role (On stage 2/14 scenes) Hesitant without being nerdy, Lawrence is a shy 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.

Smaller / cameo role (On stage 1/14 scenes) Liam would like to be directing other things than photo shoots 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. There’s a resigned patience to his actions and each smile he makes we feel is professional. For Liam, this photoshoot is a job, and not the job he wanted.