Auditions

Our audition form is now online! Please click the link below to complete your form in advance, so you can focus on “giving it your all” without the anxiety of filling out paperwork.

Playhouse at McConnellstown Audition Form

Wanted: Big Voices and Bold Actors for Playhouse Summer Musical

Auditions for “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” will be held July 2 at 7 pm at The Playhouse at its building located at 11680 Raystown Road in McConnellstown. Performance dates are August 21, 22, 28, and 29 at 7:30 pm with Sunday matinees on August 23 and 30 at 2:00 pm.

Please come prepared with all potential conflicts between July 2 and August 30. We also ask that you please bring piano sheet music with16 bars from your favorite musical (no tracks, please). Cold script readings will also be arranged. This show will be directed by Oscar Pollock and Abby Lambert. Inquiries should be directed to mail@littletheater.com.

“The Great American Trailer Park Musical” is a country-rock and blues musical about agoraphobia, adultery, ’80s nostalgia, spray cheese, road kill, hysterical pregnancy, a broken electric chair, kleptomania, strippers, flan, and disco! With music and lyrics by David Niehls and book by Betsy Kelso, this show centers around regular guy Norbert and his agoraphobic wife, Jeannie, whose marriage is threatened by Armadillo Acres’ newcomer, the hot young stripper Pippi. The trailer park also plays home to a Greek-chorus-like trio of women Betty, Linoleum, and Pickles; each dysfunctional in her own right. Please note that show contains adult themes and humor; it may not be suitable for anyone under 18 years old.

Casting for this production requires seven thespians of any gender, race, and ethnicity, ages 16 and older. The roles include the following:

Jeannie Garstecki – 30s-50s (Belt and Mezzo): Jeannie has lived in a trailer at Armadillo Acres for 20 years with her husband and high school sweetheart, Norbert. A faded beauty, she was 17 when she married, 18 when her son was born and 23 when he got kidnapped. That, coupled with a really bad perm, has turned her into an agoraphobic. She hasn’t left her trailer in all these years, and the man she loves is drifting further and further away and she’s determined to get him back…that is if she could manage to get out of the trailer to do it.

Norbert Garstecki – 30s-50s (High Baritone): Jeannie’s husband, Norbert, collects tolls for a living and tries to be as good a husband as one can be to an agoraphobic. A former high-school football star, any good looks he may have had when younger, are now marred by fatigue and the stress of his difficult marriage. He is a simple man who desperately wishes his wife could get out of the trailer, but he’s not equipped with the emotional or intellectual tools to help her do it. He has never loved or slept with another woman other than Jeannie. That is until he meets Pippi…

Pippi – 20s-30s (Big Belt): Pippi is a professional stripper who has gotten by on her looks and talents for dancing and petty theft. She means no harm and is ready to stop making bad choices and start making changes. She leaves her boyfriend and moves to the small town of Armadillo Acres to start over.

Duke – 20s-30s (Rock Tenor): Duke is Pippi’s obsessive, possessive and excessive Magic-Marker sniffing boyfriend; ex-boyfriend according to Pippi. Not so, according to Duke. Not the brightest guy south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Duke leaves a trail of disaster in his wake wherever he goes. His road trip to Starke is no exception and his arrival at the trailer park is full of surprises- even for a group of people who have had their share of excitement.

Betty – 30s+ (Rough Belt): Betty attended high school with Norbert and Jeannie Garstecki and has lived at Armadillo Acres for just as long. She now runs the leasing office and makes it her business to know everything about everybody who passes through the trailer park. Though a self proclaimed powerhouse, Betty is really a mother hen to the denizens of the trailer park. Of all “The Girls,” Betty is the most grounded, earthy and dry.

Linoleum (aka Lin) – 30s+ (Belt): So named because her mother gave birth to her on the kitchen floor, Linoleum has a husband on death row at the Florida State Prison. His fate is the electric chair that doesn’t work properly unless most of the town’s electricity is turned off. So Lin watches everyone’s lights and appliances very closely in the hopes that she can keep the chair on the fritz. Sometimes self-absorbed and sometimes just a smarty-pants, she hints at a wild, rock-and-roll past and is the fiercest of “The Girls.”

Donna (aka Pickles) – 18-20s (Belt): A newlywed, Donna is called “Pickles” because she is perpetually hysterically pregnant – that is, she is so convinced she should be pregnant she’s exhibiting symptoms. Her husband is a lot fancier than she is, as he is from the big city of Jacksonville. His parents haven’t been very supportive of his marital choice, so Pickles is desperate to give her husband a family of his own – even if she has to fake it. The dimmest of ”The Girls,” Pickles is airy, sweet and blissfully ignorant.

All casting decisions are at the discretion of the Creative Team. Interested thespians can peruse a copy of the script in advance by emailing mail@littletheater.com. We encourage all thespians regardless of age, race, gender, and ability to audition for this production. In addition to actors and actresses, we are also looking for assistance with stage crew, technical production, concessions, front of house, set construction, marketing, and parking. 

While experience is helpful, The Playhouse at McConnellstown does not require previous experience. We do ask that you have the desire, commitment, and the drive to help us produce the high-quality shows that our audiences have come to expect. Please come join us for a wonderful theatrical experience. We look forward to seeing you at auditions!