By Neil Simon
Presented by special arrangement with Concord Theatricals
Director: Lisa Velardi
From September 8 to September 24, 2023

Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon

Directed by: Lisa Velardi

Audition Dates: at The Williamsburg Players
Sunday, July 16 @ 7 pm
Monday, July 17 @ 7 pm
Callbacks (if necessary) Tuesday, July 18 @ 7 pm

For auditions, please be prepared for cold readings from the script. No monologues are required.

Show Dates:
September 8, 9, 14,15,16, 21, 22, 23 @ 8 pm
September 9, 16, 17, 23, 24 @ 2 pm

Synopsis:
Part one of Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy draws a portrait of the writer as a young teen in 1937 living with his family in the crowded, lower middle-class Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach. Eugene Jerome, standing in for the author, is the narrator and focus of the play. Obsessed with baseball and girls, Eugene must cope with the mundanity of family life in Brooklyn: his formidable Jewish mother Kate, his overworked father Jack, and his worldly older brother Stanley. Cram the apartment with his widowed Aunt Blanche, her two young (but rapidly maturing) daughters (Nora and Laurie) and you have a recipe for hilarity. This bittersweet memoir evocatively captures the life of a struggling Jewish household where, as Jack states, "If you didn't have a problem, you wouldn't be living here."

Character Breakdown:
Eugene Morris Jerome - 14 (range: 13-18)
Eugene is the youngest child of Kate and Jack Jerome. He has a vivid imagination and serves as the narrator in the play, often breaking the 4th wall to address the audience directly. Eugene is going through adolescence and finding life difficult by the onset of puberty.

Kate Jerome - 40 (range: 35-50)
Kate is the archetypical Jewish mother. She is vibrant, capable and the glue that holds the family together.

Jack Jerome - 40 (range: 35-50)
Jack is an honorable, hardworking man who feels the huge responsibility of taking care of his family…both financially and emotionally.

Stanley Jerome - 18 (range: 16- early 20s)
The eldest Jerome son, Stanley works to help support the family, but is experiencing difficulties at the workplace. He and Eugene have a traditional sibling relationship, in that they bicker and are rivals, but are loyal to each other.

Blanche Morton - 38 (range: 35-50)
Blanche is Kate’s younger sister who moved into the Jerome household with her two daughters after her husband died. She feels tremendous stress raising her girls alone, and the guilt of being a burden to her sister’s family during difficult financial times.

Nora Morton - 16 (range: 15-early 20s)
Nora is Blanche’s oldest daughter and the object of Eugene’s pubescent lust.

Laurie Morton - 13 (range: 12-15)
The youngest of the household, Laurie is the source of continual annoyance to Eugene because she uses her medical issues to sit out her chores, leaving Eugene to pick up the slack.