SLT Audition
Auditions: These Shining Lives
By Melanie Marnich
Audition one
Date: 23 Mar 2025
Time: 10:00 - 12:30
Location: SLT - SE27 9NS
Audition two
Date: 24 Mar 2025
Time: 20:00 - 22:00
Location: SLT - SE27 9NS
The play tells the real story (although fictionalised, many of the characters are based on actual people) of the ‘Radium Girls’ who worked in watch and clock factories across the USA, actually ingesting radium while painting the fine numbers on ‘glow in the dark’ watch and clock dials.
The women adversely affected by it were badly treated, sacked and lied to by their employers. But they fought back and eventually won against the big companies with expensive lawyers. These cases were completely responsible for the fact that large companies are now responsible for the health and safety of their employees.
The play isn’t all doom and gloom. It celebrates female friendships and examines the issues of married women with children working full-time and earning perhaps more than their husbands (a new idea in the 1920s!). But it does indeed exercise the acting ‘chops’.
The play is set in the USA during the 1920s to 1930s but PLEASE don’t worry about accents for the audition. The director is North American and is a speech & vocal coach.
Director: Lily Ann Green
Performances: 1 - 5 Jul 2025
First Rehearsal: 6 Apr 2025
Characters:
Catherine Donohue: (F) On stage the majority of the time with some long speeches and intense scenes.
Tom Donohue: (M) Catherine’s husband. Slightly older, a veteran of the First World War. Manual worker. Very much in love with his wife. Has some very intense, emotional scenes.
Frances: (F) Probably older than the others. Strait-laced but has a big heart.
Charlotte: (F) A live wire and a bit of a ‘good time girl’/flapper. Sassy, strong and charismatic.
Pearl: (F) Likes a joke. A flirt, although married. Any age.
Mr Reed: (M) Possibly slightly older. Foreman of the workshop. Will also play the lawyer, Leonard Grossman.
Doctor Rowntree, Company Doctor, Dr Dalitsch, Judge etc.: (M) Should be interested in and excited by playing multiple roles, often with hardly leaving the stage.
