2015 Season Audition Packet

for The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Sunday, Jan. 4 - 10 AM to 12:00 PM

Sunday, Jan 4 - 1:00 to 4PM

Sunday, Jan 4 - 5:00 to 9:00 PM

Monday, January 5th 7:00 to 9:30 PM

Tuesday, Jan 6 - 7:00 to 9:30 PM

Wednesday, Jan 7 - 7 to 9:30 PM

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On behalf of the Genesius Board of Directors and Production Staff,

We would like to thank you for taking interest in being a part of our 2015 Season. We have worked very hard to create a season that sticks true to our mission statement, of providing our community with a variety of shows that will educate all. In this packet you will find a description of each show, a list of characters, and the audition materials that need to be prepared for your audition time.

Once we have had our initial auditions, directors of each show have the option to hold callbacks to determine their best cast. Each director or stage manager will be in touch if additional callbacks are needed.

We ask that you aim to be on time, as we will have a busy schedule each day that we want to stick to as close as possible. If you have questions, please feel free to email Audition Coordinator, Zach Frantz, at genesiusboxoffice@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Zachary FrantzManaging Director of Genesius Theatre

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The Great American Trailer Park Musical Description

The Great American Trailer Park Musical written by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso Directed by John D. Glover with Music Direction by Allison Hendrix

The Great American Trailer Park Musical is a country-rock and blues musical, about agoraphobia, adultery, 80s nostalgia, spray cheese, road kill, hysterical pregnancy, a broken electric chair, kleptomania, strippers, flan and disco. The musical comedy centers on a regular guy and his agoraphobic wife, whose marriage is threatened by a hot young stripper who just shows up one day in Armadillo Acres. The trailer park also plays home to a trio of women, each dysfunctional in her own right.

In present-day North Florida, in a town called Starke, in a trailer park called "Armadillo Acres" (though there are few armadillos and even fewer acres), Betty, Lin and Pickles sun themselves with complete indifference to ozone depletion. Ever hospitable, they set aside their large sun reflectors to welcome the audience, the "fourth wall" clearly not their style. Established now as our bottle-blonde narrators, "The Girls" also introduce Jeannie Garstecki, agoraphobic and unable to step outside her trailer, much to the exasperation of her toll-collector husband Norbert. Just another day; nothin' new, except for Pippi, a stripper-on-the-lam who teeters in on five-inch heels.

Once Armadillo Acres' newest tenant settles in, The Girls take us back to 1983, when Jeannie first met Norbert. From courtship to shotgun wedding to a really bad perm that distracted them long enough for their baby to get kidnapped - thus triggering Jeannie's 20-year stint indoors.

Twenty years later, with a milestone anniversary just one month away, Norbert is fed up with his wife's condition and heads out for a beer. He winds up at "The Litter Box Show Palace," the local strip club set up by The Girls, who now play "Men" cloaked in flannel and mullets. Not shy about being the new girl in town, Pippi slickly works the room because, after a string of dead-end cities and no-good men, The Buck Stops Here. But Pippi makes more than tips that night - she makes a friend in Norbert Garstecki who, just like she, is tired of collecting dollar bill after dollar bill (he in his toll booth; she in her thong). Sparks fly and it doesn't take a genius to see those sparks will ignite a hot affair behind Jeannie's back, who is now determined to get out of her trailer in time for her anniversary.

Three weeks later - with one week to go - she's made it to the bottom of her steps. Though delighted by this progress, Norbert has unexpectedly developed feelings for Pippi. In separate corners, he and Jeannie contemplate where they've been and where they're headed; Jeannie, fuelled by optimism; Norbert consumed by guilt.

It turns out that Pippi has stirred up trouble elsewhere back in Oklahoma City, she had done a moonlight flit, middle-of-the night-no-phone-no-forwarding-address style from her magic-marker-sniffing ex-boyfriend Duke, who is hot on the prowl to find her. He pays a visit to Pippi's friend Tina who works at the mall in a place called "Stand by Your Flan." Life imitates art with Pickles playing the dim-witted, but well-meaning cashier. Confused and unable to calm Duke with a cup of custard, she lets on that Pippi's in Starke with a new boyfriend. Duke waves a gun maniacally and he's off to find his woman.

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The Great American Trailer Park Musical Cast List

ROLE POSSIBLY OPEN - Jeannie Garstecki - 35-45 years old. (Belt and Mezzo) Jeannie has lived in a trailer at Armadillo Acres for 20 years with her husband and high-school sweetheart, Norbert. A faded beauty, she was 17 when she married, 18 when her son was born and 23 when he got kidnapped. That, coupled with a really bad perm, has turned her into an agoraphobic. She hasn’t left her trailer in all these years, and the man she loves is drifting further and further away and she’s determined to get him back...that is if she could manage to get out of the trailer to do it... ROLE OPEN - Norbert Garstecki - 35-45 years old. (High Baritone) Jeannie’s husband Norbert collects tolls for a living and tries to be as good a husband as one can be to an agoraphobic. A former high-school football star, any good looks he may have had when younger, are now marred by fatigue and the stress of his difficult marriage. He is a simple man who desperately wishes his wife could get out of the trailer, but he’s not equipped with the emotional or intellectual tools to help her do it. He has never loved or slept with another woman other than Jeannie. That is until he meets... *ROLE POSSIBLY OPEN - Pippi - 28-35 years old. (Big Belt) Up to this point, Pippi’s life has been about surviving. She is a professional stripper who has gotten by on her looks and talents for dancing and petty theft. She means no harm and is ready to stop making bad choices and start making changes, but first she has to get lost in a hick-town trailer park in North Florida so she won’t be found by her last bad choice... ROLE OPEN - Duke -24-28 years old. (Rock Tenor) Duke is Pippi’s obsessive, possessive and excessive Magic-Marker sniffing boyfriend; ex-boyfriend according to Pippi. Not so, according to Duke. Not the brightest guy south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Duke leaves a trail of disaster in his wake wherever he goes. His road trip to Starke is no exception and his arrival at the trailer park is full of surprises- even for a group of people who have had their share of excitement... ROLE PRECAST - Betty - 38-50 something. (Rough Belt) Betty attended high school with Norbert and Jeannie Garstecki and has lived at Armadillo Acres for just as long. She now runs the leasing office and makes it her business to know everything about everybody who passes through the trailer park. Though a self-proclaimed bad-ass, Betty is really a mother hen to the denizens of the trailer park. Of all “The Girls,” Betty is the most grounded, earthy and dry. ROLE PRECAST - Linoleum (aka Lin), 30s. (Belt) So named because her mother gave birth to her on the kitchen floor, Linoleum has a husband on death row at the Florida State Prison. His fate is the electric chair that doesn’t work properly unless most of the town’s electricity is turned off. So Lin watches everyone's lights and appliances very closely in the hopes that she can keep the chair on the fritz. Sometimes self-absorbed and sometimes just a smart-ass, she hints at a wild, rock-and-roll past and is the fieriest of “The Girls.” *ROLE POSSIBLY OPEN - Donna (aka Pickles)- 17 or so years old. (Belt) A newlywed, Donna is called “Pickles” because she is perpetually hysterically pregnant- that is, she is so convinced she should be pregnant she’s exhibiting symptoms. Her husband is a lot fancier than she is, as he is from the big city of Jacksonville. His parents haven’t been very supportive of his marital choice, so Pickles is desperate to give her husband a family of his own - even if she has to fake it. The dimmest of ”The Girls,” Pickles is airy, sweet and blissfully ignorant.

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Vocal Auditions

For any of the open male roles, Candidates will sing "Owner of my Heart", Measures 34 through 42. The piece is located on page 6 of the audition packet.

For any of the open female roles, Candidates will sing "This Side of the Tracks", Measures 150 through 166. This piece is located on page 7 of the audition packet.

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Sides

Below you will find sides for different characters within the show. Please prepare any sides for the characters in which you are interested in auditioning for. It is at the director’s discretion which sides you will read.

Duke kidnaps Jeannie… DUKE – Excuse me, Pippi is sleeping with a married man? That tart! Which one of these trailers does she live in? Tell me. Tell me right now. It ain’t gonna be that hard to find Pippi. ‘Cause I know where she lives. Help yourself while I tell you the plan. First, I will get a little R and R at a local motel. Once refreshed, I come back here, wait for Pippi and your sumbitch husband, shoot ‘em right between the eyes, set her place on fire, roll the bodies in a ditch… piss on ‘em… and you and me ride off into the sunset. Am I good or what? Come on baby doll, relax, Frankie says, “relax”. Hey let’s you and me get some beer and ammo. Don’t jerk me around. I am tired o’ women jerkin’ me around! You’re are comin’ with me. (she sprays cooking spray in his face) Cookin’ spray! Aauughh! Shit! You know what, fuck y’all. I’m gonna shoot up this whole trailer park and everybody in it and it’s all your fault!

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Tina

Pippi, it’s Tina! Omygod, you're gonna die, you're just gonna die! Cletus Fingerhut, who's friends with Tyrone Chernovertz, who's friends with Duke came to the flan stand. He's all like, “Duke called Tyrone from Starke, Florida!” And I was all like “What?” He was all like, “Duke found Pippi!” And I was like, “What?” And he was all like, “Duke found Pippi!” And I was all like, “What?” And he was all like, “Tina, whats your problem? You never pay attention” And I was all like “Im on my period, Cletus, whats your prob…”

Duke found you! He's in Starke. He's gonna set fire to that trailer park and all the folks inside it!

So when I was all like “Pippi, you're gonna die! You're just gonna die!” I meant it, Pippia. You're gonna die.

Pickles

My real name is Donna, but everybody calls me Pickles ‘cause Im pregnant. Alright I aint pregnant for real. Doctors call ‘em “hysterical pregnancies.” That means even though they aint real or nothin’. you do get syptoms. For example, I eat lots of food and then I get fat. Im seventeen and my husband is a fancy guy from Jacksonville. I love Jacksonville, thats no joke, big city…. He likes foreign beers and cheese that smells like urine.

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