Performance Details
Firth J Chew Studio Theatre
April 16 – May 2, 2027
Thu – Sat: 7:30PM | Sun: 2:00PM

About The Show
Wiletta Mayer, an African American actress of a certain age, has spent her career playing stereotypes, trapped on a merry-go-round of mammies, maids, and other menials. The curtain rises on the first day of rehearsal for Chaos in Belleville, a Broadway-bound play that tackles the harsh truths of racism in America. But when those truths spill out of the play and into the rehearsal hall, will Wiletta’s insistence on her dignity cost her the work she desperately needs?

Nominee: Four 2022 Tony Award, including Best Revival of a Play
Nominee: Two 2022 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Play

By Alice Childress

Directed by Juan A. Mas
Produced by Michael Bethely

Auditions
Sun. September 27: 6:00PM
Mon. September 28: 6:00PM

Callbacks
Sat. October 3: 6:00PM

Audition Location
Spokane Civic Theatre, Main Stage Lobby
1020 N. Howard St.
Spokane, WA 99201

Notes

• Content Note: Set in the 1950s, this play tackles themes of racism and sexism and includes the use of profanity and racially offensive terms.
• Click here to peruse the script.
• Click here to learn more about the show via the New York Public Library archives.
• We strongly encourage performers of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, gender expressions, sexual orientations, body types, and abilities to audition.
• Age range and gender of characters is to appear on stage as.
• Please prepare a modern monologue that runs two to two and a half minutes. Click here for some monologue suggestions (this list isn’t exhaustive, feel free to choose your own).
• For the role of WILETTA, please prepare an a cappella song that runs one to two minutes.
• Please be prepared for cold readings from the script at Callbacks (instruction, support and time with material will be provided).
• 1-3 rehearsals per month are planned until March, when production ramps up.

Roles

Wiletta Mayer 

• Gender: Female
• Age: Late 50s – early 60s
• Ethnicity: Black/African American
• Needs:  Must be able to sing a cappella
• A seasoned actress with decades of experience playing stereotypical Black roles. Intelligent, charismatic, funny, nurturing, and deeply perceptive. Wiletta has learned to survive in a racist industry by “playing the game,” but as rehearsals progress she reaches a breaking point and refuses to compromise her dignity or artistic truth.

Sheldon Forrester

• Gender: Male
• Age: Early 70s
• Ethnicity: Black/African American
• A veteran character actor finding himself in financial woes.  He sees this play as a very much needed economic relief. He has endured years of stereotypical casting and has learned to navigate prejudice with grace rather than confrontation. He knows the exact cost of defiance and fears that the younger generation’s actions or words will affect the future of the play. He tries to mediate the situation whenever he can.

Millie Davis

• Gender: Female
• Age: Early to mid 30s
• Ethnicity: Black/African American
• Stylish, witty, practical, and ambitious. A successful working actress who understands the industry’s limitations and is nipping at Wiletta’s heels for roles.  She shares many of Wiletta’s frustrations but believes survival often requires silence and compromise in the New York Theater, especially Broadway.  Even with that understanding, Millie struggles internally because she also embodies many of the ideas later identified with Black feminist thought.

John Nevins

• Gender: Male
• Age: Mid to late 20s
• Ethnicity: Black/African American
  A talented, educated young actor making his professional theater debut who is idealistic and influenced by the Method school of acting. Naïve to the realities of the New York Theatre business, he gradually witnesses the compromises and concessions that the white producers are demanding of the black actors for the play to have a Broadway premiere.

*** Important note: all the black characters need to be able to speak in Standard American English with speech patterns unique to the character and their background. When acting in the play-within-the-play, they must be able to shift into the scripted Southern Black vernacular required by the fictional play “Chaos in Belleville.”

Al Manners 

• Gender: Male
• Age: 40s – 50s
• Ethnicity: White
• A commercial director from LA looking to make a name for himself through this Broadway production. Charming, confident, and convinced of his own liberalism, yet blind to his own prejudices and biases. He definitely believes the end justifies the means, especially in making sure that this show is successful.

Bill O’Wray

• Gender: Male
• Age: Late 50s – early 60s
• Ethnicity: White
• Needs: Must be able to do a  gentle, educated white Southern accent in the fictional play within the play
• A veteran character actor. Pleasant, anxious, and eager to avoid conflict. He recognizes problems around him but rarely challenges authority, representing the many people who quietly enable injustice through inaction.

Judy Sears

• Gender: Female
• Age: Early 20s
• Ethnicity: White
• Needs: Must be able to do a gentle, educated white Southern accent in the fictional play within the play
• She comes from conservative rural Bridgeport, New York, but as a recent Yale graduate and newcomer to professional theater, she is enthusiastic and well-meaning but inexperienced. Her innocence is shattered as she gradually becomes aware of racial inequities she has never before considered because of the demands of the fictional play Chaos in Belleville and what is being asked of her fellow black actors.

Eddie Fenton

• Gender: Male
• Age: Late 20s – early 30s
• Ethnicity:  White
• The stage manager. Efficient, professional, and caught between management and performers in the hierarchy of theatrical production. He tries to navigate through the rehearsal period by not engaging with the artistic or racial conflicts unfolding around him. He wants to focus on just doing the best job he can.

Henry

• Gender: Male
• Age: Mid 70s
• Ethnicity: White
• The elderly theater doorman with Irish vaudeville roots. Warm, compassionate, and genuinely respectful, but suffers from constant condescending and dismissive remarks from Hollywood director Alan Manners. He understands the theater’s hierarchy, but the treatment does awaken something in him—a connection to pride, dignity, and echoes of the rebellious spirit of his Irish heritage

Performance Details
Margot and Robert Ogden Main Stage
November 27 – December 13*, 2026
Wed – Fri 7:30PM, Sat** & Sun 2:00PM
**Nov 28 performance at 7:30PM
*Possible extension through December 20, 2026

About The Show
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella reimagines the timeless fairy tale with the charm, elegance, and originality that made the legendary songwriting duo icons of American musical theater.

When she meets a dragon-slaying young prince who is just assuming control of his government, Ella helps spark transformation and empower the disenfranchised in their kingdom. With the help of her fairy godmother, a pumpkin and a little magic and humor, Ella, Prince Topher and their generous friends will inspire and delight the whole family.

This contemporary take on the classic tale features Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most beloved songs, including “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible/It’s Possible” and “Ten Minutes Ago.”

Originally presented on television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews, Cinderella was twice remade for television, first in 1965 for Lesley Ann Warren and again in 1997, featuring Brandy and Whitney Houston. The original Broadway production opened in 2013 at the Broadway Theatre.

Nominee: Nine 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Book of a Musical and Best Revival of a Musical
Winner: Three 2013 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Orchestrations and 2014 Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical

Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
New Book by Douglas Carter Beane
Original Book by Oscar Hammerstein II

Directed by Jake Schaefer
Music Directed by Presley DuPuis
Choreographed by Bonni Dichone
Additional Direction Cynthia Kirkman Romoff

Rated PG

Auditions
September 26 — Children’s Ensemble (Ages 8-14; 10:00AM-12:00PM or 12:30-2:30PM)
September 27 and 28 — Ensemble and Principals (6:30-8:00PM or 8:00-9:30PM)

Callbacks
September 29 and 30 at 6:30PM

Location
Audition/Callbacks location details will be emailed prior to Auditions.

Notes

• Click here to learn more about the show.
• The script is available to read at the Box Office during normal hours (Tue-Fri, 12:5:30PM); please email Production@SpokaneCivicTheatre.com to make alternate arrangements.
• We strongly encourage performers of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, gender expressions, sexual orientations, body types, and abilities to audition.
• Some roles require onstage intimacy (romantic staging, kissing), which will be led by the Consent-Forward Director.
• CHILDREN’S ENSEMBLE (Ages 8-14) AUDITIONS will consist of a dance call and group singing (no individual singing required).
• ENSEMBLE AND PRINCIPALS (Ages 15+) AUDITIONS will consist of a dance call and private singing auditions (one performer at a time); cold readings from the script if time permits. Callbacks will include singing material from the show, both solo and in groups, cold readings from the script, and dance as needed.
• ENSEMBLE AND PRINCIPALS (Ages 15+), please prepare one minute or less of a Golden Age* musical theatre song that shows off both your vocal range and your personality. Please bring prepared sheet music (a pianist will be provided) or an instrumental track on a device with a 3.5mm audio jack/aux.

*Golden Age generally refers to musicals created between the early 1940s and mid 1960s where songs, dance, and character are integrated to tell the story. Recommended Golden Age creators include Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Lowe, Frank Loesser, Bock & Harnick, Mary Rodgers, and Meredith Willson. For an extensive list of Golden Age musicals and audition songs, these may be helpful links. 

TheatreTrip.com Golden Age Audition Songs
TheatreTrip.com List of Golden Age Musicals
Broadway World Musicals of the 1940s Playlist
Broadway World Musicals of the 1950s Playlist
Broadway World Musicals of the 1960s Playlist 

• Performers who are more movement-focused and don’t have a prepared song are welcome to sing “Happy Birthday” with the pianist.
• No prepared reading or monologue required; please be prepared for cold readings from the script at auditions and callbacks (instruction, support and time with material will be provided).
• Please dress to dance at auditions and callbacks.
• Auditions will run approximately 2 hours per slot. Callbacks may be up to 3 hours.
• Please be prepared to share any conflicts with the rehearsal schedule at Auditions.
• Since Cinderella and Trouble in Mind are auditioning the same weekend, if you’d like to audition for both but can’t make both times work, please email Production@SpokaneCivicTheatre.com to arrange an alternate or virtual audition slot.

Pre-Audition Workshop
If you want help selecting or preparing your audition selection, click here to learn about our upcoming workshop: Auditioning for Golden Age Musical Theater, offered September 12 at 11AM and September 20 at 5PM.

Roles
The age and gender listed for each character describes how they should appear on stage.

ELLA (Cinderella)
Female, Soprano, 16+
Though no one notices her beneath her rags and quiet demeanor, she is opinionated, charismatic, passionate, and funny. Idealistic and hopeful, she courageously challenges the prince to change the policies of his kingdom, and helps him discover who he truly is. Always her late father’s daughter, she is determined to see the good in everyone despite her hardships and suffering.

TOPHER (The Prince)
Male, Baritone/Baritenor, 16+
A prince who is searching for his purpose in life and displays heroic bravado, but who is deeply naïve and not quick on the draw. His kindhearted nature causes him to be endearingly goofy at times. A light comedic touch is essential, as well as a rich musical theatre voice.

MARIE (Fairy Godmother)
Female, Soprano, 30s-60s
A friend to Ella and the town’s resident crazy lady and beggar woman, Marie is actually a fairy godmother in disguise. Wise, warm, otherworldly, and charming. Marie rewards Ella for her kindness by making her dreams a possibility. Soaring traditional musical theatre soprano voice.

MADAME
Female, Mezzo-soprano/Alto, 40s+
Ella’s selfish stepmother. The epitome of vanity and fashion. A ravenous social climber who values wealth, status and material possessions above all else. Unapologetically dismissive and sometimes cruel, Madame schemes her way up the social ladder. 

JEAN-MICHEL
Male, Baritone, 20s-30s
A feisty, passionate villager determined to make a change for the starving class. Impetuous. A firebrand, but lacks authority and isn’t taken seriously as a revolutionary. He has a crush on Gabrielle, though her courtship is forbidden because they are from different social classes.

GABRIELLE
Female, Soprano, 16+
Ella’s stepsister and daughter of Madame. Encouraged by her mother and sister to value material wealth and social status, she unenthusiastically joins them in their abrasive behavior. Quietly passionate, empathetic, and witty, she is drawn to Ella and Jean-Michel. Ironically aware that she doesn’t fit in. 

CHARLOTTE
Female, Mezzo-soprano, 16+
Ella’s stepsister and daughter of Madame. Brash, self centered, materialistic, snooty, loud, sassy, and bratty, she has a ridiculously high, but unfounded opinion of herself. She never passes up an opportunity to be the center of attention.

SEBASTIAN
Any Gender, Any age
The kingdom’s Lord Chancellor who shields the prince from what is occurring in his kingdom and revels in maintaining their own power. Disregarding villagers in need, they are primarily concerned with helping the wealthy and preserving their own power. Fantastic comic timing essential. Minimal singing; traditional musical theater character voice.

LORD PINKLETON
Male, Tenor, 30s – 50s
The Lord Chancellor’s second-in-command. Announces royal balls, banquets and even the weather to the villagers. Excellent comic timing is essential.

ENSEMBLE
All Genders, All Voices Types, 15+
Seeking strong singers, dancers and actors with great comedic timing and skill to play a range of ensemble roles including knights, villagers, Ball guests, animals, et al.

CHILDREN’S ENSEMBLE
Ages 8-14
Seeking strong singers and/or dancers to play a range of ensemble roles including villagers, Ball guests and animals.