OPEN AUDITIONS
AUGUST 13 AT 7:00 PM
At Acting Ensemble on the Avenue
602 E. Mishawaka Avenue in Mishawaka
For the September 2, 2025 StageWorks Staged Reading of:
“WIT” by Margaret Edson.
Directed by Judy Spigle
Auditions consist of cold readings of side chosen by the director. Staged readings require no memorization and are performed with script in hand. There will be a few rehearsals (dates TBD) over the period of approximately 2 weeks.
If you need an alternate audition time, please contact Judy at judy.spigle@gmail.com
New and inexperienced actors are encouraged to attend.
The Story: In her extraordinary first play, Margaret Edson has created a work that is as intellectually challenging as it is emotionally immediate.
The action of the play takes place during the final hours of Dr. Vivian Bearing, a university professor of English, dying of ovarian cancer. Vivian has spent years studying and teaching the brilliant and difficult metaphysical sonnets of John Donne. She has lived her life alone, is unmarried and without children, her parents are deceased, and she has no emergency contact.
Over the course of the play, Vivian reflects on her life through the intricacies of the English language, especially the use of wit in the metaphysical poetry of John Donne. She comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and the audience.
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.
“[A] brutally human and beautifully layered new play…you feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted.” —The New York Times.
“A dazzling and humane new play that you will remember till your dying day.” —New York Magazine.
Characters
- Vivian Bearing, PhD – 50 years old, a professor of seventeenth-century poetry at the university, diagnosed with stage IV, metastatic ovarian cancer. Note: This role has already been cast.
- Harvey Kelekian, MD – 50 years old, chief of medical oncology at the University Hospital
- Jason Posner, MD – 28 years old, a clinical fellow at the Medical Oncology branch; former student of Dr. Bearing, current student of Dr. Kelekian.
- Susie Monahan, BSN, RN – 28 years old, Dr. Bearing’s primary nurse
- Dr E M Ashford, PhD – 80 years old, female professor emerita of English literature; Vivian’s former college professor
- Mr. Bearing, Vivian’s father
- Assorted lab technicians and students (most likely played by 2 actors)
