Audtions: A Christmas Carol…More or Less

“Sarah and Charlie, a married couple, run a small theatre that’s presenting A Christmas Carol-until Charlie shows up backstage to say the cast and crew are snowed out. Charlie is planning to split up with Sarah tonight, but he’s snowed in. Sarah, furious capitalized on Charlie’s remarkable memory and back mails him into doing the play with her as a duo, relying on scripts when they need to. He plays Scrooge; she plays everyone else. As the performance proceeds, Charlie gets drawn back into his relationship with Sarah. They actually manage to perform much of the play, with their personal story invading the Dickens tales, informing it with dual levels of meaning.”

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

SARAH CUNNINGHAM (30s–40s)

SARAH is the house manager of the theater, an actress, and the undisputed backbone of the venue. Married to Charles, Sarah operates under a single, sacred rule: the show must go on.

When an unforeseen disaster leaves the theater without a cast and crew, Sarah steps into the breach without a second of hesitation. Fueled by sheer willpower, and a desperate refusal to let down an audience, she takes on the impossible: playing every single character in A Christmas Carol—with the sole exception of Scrooge.

Physical, lightning-fast, and endlessly adaptive, she sprints between set pieces, switches props, and transforms her voice and posture on a dime to portray Bob Cratchit, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, Tiny Tim, and everyone in between. She is a deeply loving artist fighting to keep the magic of the theater alive. She is hyper-competent, utterly frantic, and impossible not to root for.

CHARLES CUNNINGHAM (30s–40s)

CHARLES is an actor, writer, and reluctant theatrical romantic. Married to Sarah, he is a man whose heart is perpetually divided between the dusty, beloved stage beneath his feet and the sun-drenched possibilities of California, where he wishes to pursue his career as a writer. He possesses a dramatic flair, and he commands the stage with genuine talent and plays Scrooge, the miser with an earnest intensity that constantly threatens to veer into total absurdity amidst the surrounding madness.

PIANO PLAYERr: Small role, Does not need to play a piano, Adult any age over 30 years, Male or Female, Sharp, deeply involved with the theatre and not interested in helping out with this performance.

Please prepare a short comedic monologue to perform, and cold reads from the script.