AUDITIONS FOR
INTIMATE APPAREL
BY LYNN NOTTAGE
Winner of the 2004 N.Y. Drama Critics’ Circle and
the Outer Critics’ Circle Awards
DIRECTED BY ALBERT BOSTICK
When: 2:30-5:30 pm Sunday, July 13, 2025 – Readings from the script. Plan to arrive no later than 3:30 pm. If needed, callbacks will be at 7:00 pm Monday, July 14. If you have any questions, email
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Where: At the theatre, located at 1009 W. Reno. Parking is free on the street. Do not use the parking lot for The Horn Trader on the northeast corner of Western & Reno. You may park on ramps in front of garage doors on Reno.
What: Bring a recent photo and theatrical résumé. Be prepared to list any definite or possible conflicts on your audition form from July 21 through the run of the play September 12-28, 2025.
Please read the script before auditions! Hard copy perusal scripts are available to check out. Call CST at 405-232-6500 or email
YnVzaW5lc3MgfCBjYXJwZW50ZXJzcXVhcmUgISBjb20= to make arrangements to check out a script. Call or contact us in the office before dropping by.
Office Hours: Closed Mondays. Open Tuesdays through Fridays 1-6:00 pm. Please call CST at 405-232-6500 or text/call Rhonda Clark at 405-205-2446 before coming by.
Performance dates: September 12-28, 2025.
Specific dates are: Sep 12-13, 18-21 and 25-28. There will be a brush-up rehearsal and archive photos on Sep 17. Most rehearsals are scheduled Mon-Fri at 7 p.m. with Saturday or Sunday rehearsals scheduled only if needed to accommodate week-night conflicts. 1st tech is the afternoon/early evening of Sunday, September 7.
CAST OVERVIEW: 4 Women (3 African-American, 1 Caucasian); 2 Men (1 Caucasian, 1 Black). The 2 men have distinct accents.
ESTHER (appears 35, African-American) a very hard-working, accomplished seamstress who creates corsets and other undergarments for ladies; she cannot read or write. She’s very self-effacing, but hungry for love. She’s very attracted to Mr. Marks, but the color of their skin divides them. Esther is saving up money to run her own beauty parlor one day.
MRS. DICKSON (appears 50s, African-American) The owner of the rooming house in lower Manhattan where Esther has lived for 18 years; an opinionated, attractive lady who is often trying to fix Esther up with unmarried gentlemen. She tends to be a busybody.
MRS. VAN BUREN (appears 30s-early 40s, Caucasian) One of Esther’s clients who is a wealthy attractive lady from Fifth Avenue. Being stylish is important to her. She is childless and longs for her husband to pay attention to her again. She’s very kind to Esther and writes her first letter to George.
MR. MARKS (appears 30s, Orthodox Jew originally from Romania) Sells fabric and notions out of his cramped tenement flat. He is in an arranged engagement to a woman back in Romania that he has never met, but is very attracted to Esther.
MAYME (appears 30s; African-American) A prostitute who is one of Esther’s clients and a good friend to Esther; she drinks too much. She’s an accomplished pianist, but makes her living “on her back” and by playing in saloons. She tries to warn Esther about George, but gives in and writes a love letter to George for Esther. Mayme plays the piano and sings a little in the play!
GEORGE (appears 30s, a black man from Barbados who is working in Panama on the canal) A laborer who charms Esther with his letters and proposes sight unseen in one of those letters, but he is not what he seems. Once he arrives in America and marries Esther, his demeanor changes drastically.
SYNOPSIS:
In 1905 New York City, Esther, a Black seamstress, is in great demand for the intimate apparel she creates for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. Though leading a life that provides joy to so many, she remains lonely and longing for a husband and a future. Through a mutual acquaintance, she begins a correspondence with a lonesome Caribbean man named George and soon he persuades her that they should marry, sight unseen. When George arrives in the city, he is not the kind of man she longs for. Esther’s heart is drawn to the Orthodox Jewish salesman from whom she buys cloth, and his heart is with her. Esther is hit with the reality of the situation and she is forced to face a future that she is truly unprepared for. All in all, Nottage’s play is about people yearning for more out of life.
“…a deeply moving portrait of Esther, a middle-aged African-American woman…Nottage’s play has a delicacy and eloquence that seem absolutely right for the time she is depicting…New York has no richer play…” —New York Daily News.
“…thoughtful, affecting… The play offers poignant commentary on an era when the cut and color of one’s dress—and of course, skin—determined whom one could and could not marry, sleep with, even talk to in public.” —Variety.
Lynn Nottage, the playwright, was the first (and remains the only) woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times. Since 2004, "Intimate Apparel" has become one of the most produced plays in America. It has since been commissioned by the MET / Lincoln Center and was adapted into an opera. Nottage garnered two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Lyrics and Outstanding Book of a Musical.
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