Auditions

Audition Process

Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. Click the links below to familiarize yourself with some sides:

• Artemis and Athena

• Cassandra, Talthybius, Hecuba

• Andromache, Talthybius, Iris, Phoebe

• Helen and Menelaus

Available roles:

• Artemis - Greek Goddess

• Athena -  Greek Goddess

• Cassandra - 16+ Harlan Woman

• Andromache - 20s+ Harlan Woman

• Helen - 20s+ Harlan Woman

• Talthybius - 20s+ Deputy Sheriff

• Menelaus - 30s+ Coal Company Official

• Daphne - 50s+  Harlan Woman

• Cora - 20s+ Harlan Woman

• Iris - 40s+  Harlan Woman

• Phoebe - 40s+ Harlan Woman

• Penelope - 16+ Harlan Woman

• Leda - 60s+ Harlan Woman

Please note, the role of Hecuba has been cast.

This show includes community singing - i.e. church congregation/protest call and response. There are roles and opportunities for actors who do not sing and those who’d like to be featured singing. 

If you’d like to be considered as a featured singer, please prepare the chorus of a protest song or hymn to sing acapella. Here’s some examples, but feel free to choose something different, if you like:

• This Land is Your Land

• A Change is Gonna Come

• We Shall Overcome

• Down to the River to Pray 
  

Rehearsals

The majority of rehearsals will be held weekday evenings between 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Final rehearsal schedules will be made based on the performer and creative team availability.

Performances

The show will run for 6 performances between September 4 and 14.

We will also perform at the pre-show for Kentucky Shakespeare on July 31 (based on actor availability and scene selection).

About the Show

This unique adaptation places the action of Euripides’ famed female survivors of The Trojan Women in the hills of Harlan, Kentucky, during the “little coal wars” of the 1930s. Instead of a war between the Trojans and Greeks, the play depicts a group of women protesting a (fictitious) mining disaster that claimed the lives of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons. While the plot and characters loosely follow that of the original play, this adaptation arises from Kentucky history. Set against the backdrop of Harlan, Kentucky, at a time when miners and union organizers fought the coal bosses for nearly a decade, it echoes their struggle for the right to have a union in a county where all but three incorporated towns were owned by the local coal companies. The play explores themes of poverty, murders of union organizers by mine guards (historical), and oppression of the remaining female family members of miners whose lives were taken or lost. The Harlan Women depicts the strength and resolve of the women of Eastern Kentucky, and their role in fighting for justice for their families and in the end, themselves, a universal theme whether depicted in ancient Greece or early 20th century Harlan, Kentucky.

• Conceived by James Thompson, written by James Thompson and Michelle Lori

• Directed by Alyssa Hendricks

• Music Direction by Griffin Cobb 

For questions about the show or auditions, please contact the director, Alyssa Hendricks, at alyraehe@gmail.com.