Hedda Gabler
Audition Notes

We will be using a new adaptation with a modern setting – the precise period is not specified. The play's themes are timeless and universal: it creates its own world. Our script is concise, colloquial and direct, leaving much for the actors to convey via its subtext. There are no long speeches.

Hedda Tesman, nee Gabler Playing age 30-40. Proud, clever, headstrong, wilful, haughty, sarcastic, ambivalent, devious, manipulative, frustrated, bored, inclined to rage which she can barely suppress. A magnetic presence - the focus of the play - whose sense of self and pursuit of an aesthetic ideal separates her from the other characters, and from us. On stage almost throughout.

Jørgen Tesman Around the same age as Hedda, her husband. An academic, expected to become a professor, steady rather than brilliant, naïve, literal, absorbed in his rather arcane work, oblivious to Hedda's passions. Open-hearted, optimistic, devoted to his family. He surprised them and many others by winning Hedda's hand but remains baffled by her. Clearly an important part, on stage a lot.

Judge Brack Could be 50-70. A confirmed bachelor – in fact a ladies' man, a philanderer. Philosophical, detached, ironic, sardonic. Attractive to Hedda – he understands her best. NOT fatherly. A substantial part.

Eilert Løvborg Male, similar age to Hedda. Like Tesman, an academic, but unlike him, impassioned, spirited, brilliant, impulsive. In love with Hedda and disgraced due to his wild self-indulgence and alcoholism after she rejected him. Also a substantial part.

Aunt Juliana Late 50s - 60s/70s. Everything that Hedda is not: kind, considerate, devoted to her family, self-possessed, calm, conventional. Appears twice, for a few pages each time.

Thea Elvsted 2 years younger than Hedda, and bullied by her at school. Inclined to live her life by sacrificing herself for others: besotted with Løvborg and his work. Somehow, the self-effacing Thea has a power to influence men for the better which Hedda finds both infuriating and incomprehensible. Again, a substantial part.

Berthe 50s/60s, perhaps 70s. Long with the Tesman family: until recently Aunt Juliana's, now the Tesmans' maid. Not the brightest, but by no means silly or stupid. Eager to please, a little anxious. Several brief entrances, a few lines.

A reading of the play is set for 7.30 on Wed 9 Oct at the Studio Theatre. This will NOT be an audition. Auditions will be held at 7.30 on Wed 23 Oct, again in the Studio Theatre. If this is impossible please contact the director, Graham Smith by email: graham.smith30030@gmail.com

Rehearsals will be two evenings a week throughout Jan, Feb, Mar 2025. Seven performances are scheduled for the week 24-29 Mar 2025.

NEWS AND EVENTS...
CURRENT NEWSLETTER
EVENTS

All events take place at 7.30 pm in the
Sherborne Studio Theatre
unless otherwise indicated


Play Reading
Hedda Gabler

Wed 9th October

Auditions
Hedda Gabler

Wed 23rd October

Film Quiz
with fish and chip supper

Hosted by Gilly Savage
Fri 25th Oct, 7.30 pm

Sherborne Literary Society
Poetry Evening

Fri 22nd Nov, 7.30 pm

APS 90th Anniversary Celebration and Christmas Party
29th November
Loads of Lolly
A rehearsed play reading of a 'radio' adaptation of Tons of Money, the first
ever play performed by APS in 1934, and revived in 2009 for the 75th anniversary.
Written and directed by
Martin Williams
Tickets (£4) will be available in due course
(APS members will be given priority)

December Production
The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
directed by John Crabtree
Mon 2nd - Sat 7th Dec, 7.30 pm
Sat 7th Dec, 2.30 pm

Play Reading
The Thirty Nine Steps

Tue 10th December

March Production
Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen
directed by Graham Smith
Mon 24th - Sat 29th March, 7.30 pm
Sat 29th March, 2.30 pm

June Production
The Thirty-Nine Steps
by Patrick Barlow
directed by Jane McKenna
Mon 24th - Sat 29th March, 7.30 pm
Sat 29th March, 2.30 pm

August Production
A Servant of Two Masters
by Carlo Goldoni
directed by Martin Williams
Mon 25th - Sat 30th August, 7.30 pm
Sat 30th August, 2.30 pm

PAST NEWSLETTERS
ROSE BOWL AWARDS 2024

We are pleased to announce that the set for A Wife For All Reasons, directed by Adrian Harding,
has been nominated for the Rose Bowl Walter Hawkins Award for Creativity and Design.

 
NODA SOUTH WEST AWARDS (2023)

Twelfth Night, directed by John Crabtree,
was awarded NODA's Most Innovative Production.

 

Twelfth Night was also nominated for the Hazelmere Award for Visual Excellence.
In addition The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, directed by Bev Taylor-Wade, was nominated for the Best Comedy Production award,
and Art, directed by Graham Smith, was nominated for the Best Drama Production award.

Theatres Protection Fund Small Grants Programme
Supported by The Linbury Trust

We are delighted to report the completion of a project to transform the approach to the Sherborne Studio Theatre. The work was made possible due to an award from the Theatres Trust Small Grants Programme supported by The Linbury Trust.

The trust has provided funds to enable the exterior of our popular little theatre on Marston Road to be aesthetically enhanced whilst enabling access over the previous gravel surface to be significantly improved, especially for those with reduced mobility. We have removed broken flagstones and resurfaced an uneven gravel entrance area that had become prone to weeds despite our best efforts to manage them. The area has now become a gentle sloping ramp, free of loose material and obstructions. The 'good' flagstones have been relocated under two new benches which give audience members somewhere to rest as they queue for entry, or when they take their interval refreshments on a hot summer's evening. The area has been decorated with complementary planting of sensory aromatic herbs and evergreens. Handrails have been fitted to the inside of the main doors, to provide support to those who need it as they enter the theatre.

In all, the entrance to the theatre is more attractive, more enticing, safer and generally easier to navigate for everyone, but with a special emphasis on helping our less mobile patrons. We look forward to welcoming our loyal audience members and newcomers at the earliest opportunity.

For further information, please contact Adrian Harding at anharding@btinternet.com/span>