Auditions!

• Welfarewell by Cat Delaney
• Produced by Catskill Community Players
• Directed by Nancy Bondurant-Couch

Auditions will be held:

The Institute for Spiritual Development (ISD)
297 River St. Service Road, Suite 3, Oneonta, NY.  (Next to the Hampton Inn, above Helios Care)

You are invited to any one of the following dates for auditions.

• Saturday, January 10: 10:00 AM – 11 AM
• Sunday, January 11: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

No previous experience required—everyone welcome!

Be prepared to read from the script!

All roles open—bring your energy, enthusiasm, and love for live theater!

Rehearsals

Rehearsals will be held in Oneonta at 297 River St. Service Road beginning in late January.

Rehearsals will move to the Wieting Theater in Worcester on March 9.

Performance Dates & Location

• Show Dates: April 17, 18, & 19, 2026
• Venue: Wieting Theatre, 197 Main St., Worcester, NY

Roles & Descriptions

• ESMERELDA QUIPP – Female 80’s.  A former actress, pensioner.  Esmerelda has a refined “stage” English accent.
• H.B. (HONEY BUNCH) HACKETT – 35, police officer
• VAL – 30, a film actress, posing as a hooker (real name is Rosanna Palermo)
• PENELOPE FARTHINGALE – 45, a hard working hooker past her best-before date and lacking a pension plan.
• DOTTIE RAMSBOTTOM – 50, a compulsive shoplifter
• ALFRED DAVID – 30, lawyer; a weary public defender.
• JENNIFER DOER – 25, a naïve social worker / do-gooder
• GLADYS SYMMINGTON-BUKOVITCH – 55, a rich woman who shot her husband, but he failed to die
• JUDGE JULIUS – 55, a crusty, caring female
• MILDRED MCGONIGLE – 60-ish, a bank customer
• LANDLORD – 40, a beer-bellied bully
• Three BANK TELLERS
• A BANK CUSTOMER
• A CHEF
• MADGE HODGE – 50-ish, the cafeteria lady
• PRODUCER – 40’s a male theater producer
• DIRECTOR – 30-40, a female theater director
• MRS. MACPHERSON – 70-ish, an amateur actor
• MISS DONNINGTON – 70-ish, an amateur actor

Play Overview

Esmerelda Quipp is 80, still of sound mind, but her body is beginning to "come unglued", as she puts it. Having spent her working life as an actress, age pushing her gradually out of the business, she now faces the fact that her meagre government pension is insufficient to support her, even with her minimal needs. When she is arrested for attempting to bury her dead cat in her landlord's yard, she finds that there is some sense of community, not to mention free room and board, within the prison system. She devises a plan to get herself sent back to jail; she robs a bank. But a well-meaning public defender gets the charges against her dropped. Esmerelda Quipp is undeterred! Using money she gets from returning stolen wine bottles to a recycling depot, she buys a toy gun at the local dollar store, and commits armed robbery. Knowing that she will be convicted because she will plead guilty, she assumes that she can spend the rest of her days living free, hanging out with other women, and being fed decently in a women's prison. But the system that has failed her also wants to forgive her because of her age and general health, and the public defender wants to use an insanity plea to get her off. How will Esmerelda convince the legal system she should be incarcerated, literally, for life?

Questions?  Contact Director Nancy Bondurant Couch for more details: nancybcouch@yahoo.com

We look forward to seeing you at auditions—come be part of the fun!
WELFAREWELL is presented by special arrangement with Concord Theatricals. (www.concordtheatricals.com)
The Catskill Community Players are a recipient of a Community Events Grant administered by the Otsego County Government.

CCP events are made possible with public funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a program of the NYS Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and administered by The Earlville Opera House. 

CCP are a recipient of a Community Events Grant administered by the Otsego County Government.

For more info on The Catskill Community Players, go to www.catskillplayers.org, or visit Catskill Players on Facebook.

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