Auditions and Rehearsals

Main characters (from wiki)

1. Prior Walter – A gay man with AIDS. Throughout the play, he experiences various heavenly visions. When the play begins, he is dating Louis Ironson. His best friend is Belize.
2. Louis Ironson – Prior's boyfriend. Unable to deal with Prior's disease, he ultimately abandons him. He meets Joe Pitt and later begins a relationship with him.
3. Harper Pitt – An agoraphobic Mormon housewife with incessant Valium-induced hallucinations. After a revelation from Prior (whom she meets when his heavenly vision and her hallucination cross paths), she discovers that her husband, Joe, is gay and struggles with it, considering it a betrayal of her marriage.
4. Joe Pitt – Harper's husband and a deeply closeted gay Mormon, clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and friend of Roy Cohn. Joe eventually abandons his wife for a relationship with Louis. Throughout the play, he struggles with his sexual identity.
5. Roy Cohn – A closeted gay lawyer, based on real life Roy Cohn. Just as in history, it is eventually revealed that he has contracted HIV and the disease has progressed to AIDS, which he insists is liver cancer to preserve his reputation.
6. Hannah Pitt – Joe's mother. She moves to New York after her son drunkenly comes out to her on the phone. She arrives to find that Joe has abandoned his wife.
7. Belize – A nurse and former drag queen, he is Prior's ex-boyfriend and best friend. He later becomes Roy Cohn's nurse.
8. The Angel/Voice – A messenger from Heaven who visits Prior and tells him he is a prophet.

Minor characters (from wiki)

1. Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz – An elderly orthodox Rabbi. He performs the funeral service for Louis' grandmother in Act one of Millennium Approaches and gives him advice on his situation with Prior.
2. Mr. Lies – One of Harper's imaginary friends. A smooth talking agent for the International Order of Travel Agents.
3. Emily – Prior's hospital nurse, a no-nonsense Italian-American.
4. Henry – Roy Cohn's doctor, who diagnoses him with AIDS.
5. Martin Heller – A publicity agent to the Reagan Administration's Justice Department and Roy's toady.
6. Ethel Rosenberg – The ghost of a woman executed for being a Communist spy. She haunts Roy, whom she blames for her conviction and execution, as he dies.
7. Prior 1 and Prior 2 – The ghosts of two of Prior Walter's ancestors. Prior 1 is a gloomy Yorkshire farmer from the 13th century, Prior 2 is a cheerful 17th-century British aristocrat. They appear to Prior to herald the Angel's arrival.
8. The Man in the Park – A gay man Louis encounters while cruising for sex in Central Park.
9. Sister Ella Chapter – Hannah's realtor friend who helps her sell her house.
10. A Homeless Woman – A crazed homeless woman Hannah encounters when she arrives in Brooklyn.
11. The Eskimo – An imaginary friend in Harper's Antarctic hallucination.

Research

To prepare, you should read the play over the summer! You could watch and read some or all of the following if you are really interested in being in the production. If cast, some of this will be required viewing anyway.  

This list is not mandatory before the auditions!  However some actors/people really enjoy this research aspect of creating a character and diving into the world. It can make you understand the character and the scenes better for the auditions.  Enjoy!

AIDS in the ‘80s in Dramas

• Film: Philadelphia 1993 Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Dir. Jonathan Demme
• Film: Longtime Companion 1989 Stephen Caffrey, Patrick Cassidy, Dir. Norman René
• Film: And the Band Played On 1993 Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Dir. Roger Spottiswoode (Moorpark Library)
• Documentary: How to Survive a Plague 2012, Dir. David France
• Documentary: United in Anger: A History of ACT UP 2012 Dir. Jim Hubbard (Moorpark Library)
• Film: The Normal Heart 2014 Mark Ruffalo, Jonathan Groff, Dir. Ryan Murphy
• Follow The AIDS Memorial on Instagram or Facebook

Roy Cohn

• Book: (not the film) Citizens Cohn 1988 by Nicholas Von Hoffman Publisher Doubleday (Moorpark Library)
• Film: The Apprentice 2024 Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Dir. Ali Abassi

Mormonism

• Book: The Mormon People 2012 by Dr. Matthew Bowman Publisher Random House (Moorpark Library)
• Book Under the Banner of Heaven 2004 by Jon Krakauer Publisher Vintage (Moorpark Library)

Ethel Rosenberg

• Documentary: Bully, Coward, Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn 2019 Dir. Ivy Meeropol (Moorpark Library) Speaks about Ethel Rosenberg
• Documentary: The Rosenbergs: First Civilians Executed for Espionage 2021 (Moorpark Library) (3min)

Addiction

• Film: I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can 1982 Barbara Gordon David Rabe, Dir. Jake Hofsis (valium – Harper’s drug of choice)

Drag

• Documentary: Paris Is Burning 1990 Dir. Jennie Livingston streaming on MAX
• Book: Lettin It All Hang Out 1995 by RuPaul Publisher Hyperion

Tony Kushner and the World of Angels in America

• Play: Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika 1993 by Tony Kushner Theatre Communication Group
• Play: G. David in Hell 1998 by Tony Kushner Theatre Communication Group
• Online Interview: Angels in America: The Complete Oral History 2016 Isaac Butler and Dan Kois Slate Publication

Sides Coming Soon