Auditions

AUDITIONS!! AUDITIONS!!!

Nutley Little Theatre will present Mary Chase’s HARVEY in February 2026

Auditions are “hippity hopping” their way to you this November. There are parts for up to 6 men and 6 women.

Auditions will be:

Sunday, November 9, 2025 from 12 – 4 pm

Monday, November 10, 2025 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm Please arrive no later than 8:00 pm

Callbacks will be by invitation only on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm 

PLEASE NOTE

ALL AUDITIONS and CALLBACKS  will be held at The Grove Street Theatre at the DERON SCHOOL in Montclair. (130 Grove Street). Parking is in the front lot by the corner baseball field. Enter the main entrance and you will be directed to the auditorium.

ALL PERFORMANCES will be at NUTLEY LITTLE THEATRE.

* If you are planning to audition and take part in one of the Christmas/Holiday productions, PLEASE AUDITION for HARVEY if you feel so inclined as rehearsals for HARVEY and productions of December shows will not have major conflicts, so you can do both.

Below is the pre registration form

https://forms.gle/iyZXtmdx84YsBexQA

SYNOPSIS

A comedy which explores themes of eccentricity and societal norms  through the story of Elwood P. Dowd, a man who claims to have an invisible friend, a giant 6 foot tall rabbit named Harvey.  Elwood’s sister, Veta Louise Simmons, is determined to shield her family from embarrassment due to Elwood’s peculiar behavior, which includes introducing Harvey to strangers.  This quest leads Veta to seek help at Chumley’s Rest, a mental health sanatorium, where her attempts to commit Elwood backfire, revealing her own frayed nerves.  

Character Breakdown

ELWOOD P. DOWD – (male; age 35 – 65) Elwood P. Dowd is the central character of the play, a charming eccentric who is Veta’s older brother and owns the family home he lives in with Myrtle (his niece) and Veta.  He spends his days and nights in the taverns of his unnamed town, but is nothing close to being a drunk. Elwood’s best friend is Harvey, an invisible six and a half-foot-tall rabbit. Elwood is pleasant, loveable, well mannered, and has “old school gentlemen charm”, and most importantly, a friend to everyone.  The play leaves open several possibilities regarding exactly what Harvey is, whether he is a figment of Elwood’s imagination, as the psychiatrists would like to believe, or is he, as Elwood asserts, a supernatural being known as a pooka.

VETA LOUISE SIMMONS – (female; age 35 – 55)  Elwood’s younger sister, an important character in this play because she joins the play’s two opposing forces, logic and imagination.  She is a social climber, who is very concerned with appearances and wanting to find a suitable husband for her daughter (Myrtle Mae). She is very concerned about fitting into society and all the social proprieties that that involves. She has returned home after the death of her mother.  She loves her brother, Elwood, but finds his eccentric behavior frustrating. Veta considers herself a member of the “better society” of their small town and is a member of the Wednesday Forum, a social club for the ladies of the town.  She is, however, slightly embarrassed by her brother.  This is the dynamic that drives the action of the play.

MYRTLE MAE SIMMONS – (female; age 18 – 35) Myrtle is Veta’s daughter and Elwood’s niece.  She is extremely self-centered, frustrated, and worried that she’ll never find a husband because of Elwood’s behavior.  Being unmarried, is a source of concern to her mother. Her focus is to find a man to marry, but both Veta and Myrtle find this very difficult since the mission is made impossible with Elwood and Harvey constantly popping into their lives.

WILLIAM B. CHUMLEY – (male; age 50 – 80) Dr. Chumley is an esteemed but pompous psychiatristand the head of the sanitarium, “Chumley’s Rest” with years of experience, to which Veta has Elwood taken.  He is a well-respected, experienced, confident psychiatristand a difficult and exacting man, feared by his subordinates, unwilling to tolerate his mistakes, who will go to great lengths to protect the reputation of his sanitarium.

LYMAN SANDERSON – (male; age 25 – 45)  A young, talented, and highly qualified but vain doctorof psychiatry, who was handpicked by Dr. Chumley out of 12 qualified possible assistants, Dr. Sanderson is quite attractiveand has caught the eye of Ruth Kelly, R.N.  He is infatuated with Nurse Kelly as she is with him, but he struggles to hide it. His talent is only surpassed by his vanity.

RUTH KELLY, R.N. – (female; age 18 – 40) Young and pretty, she is head nurse at “Chumley’s Rest”.  She has a love/hate relationship with Dr. Lyman Sanderson. She is a sympathetic character, who is sweet, kind, and straight forward who looks for the best in people.

DUANE WILSON – (male; age 30’s – 50’s) The sanitarium strongarm who is large and muscular and a devoted orderly, who is responsible for handling the patients who will not cooperate voluntarily. He sets his sights on Myrtle Mae Simmons as soon as he sets his sights on her.  He admires Dr. Chumley, perhaps excessively.

JUDGE OMAR GAFFNEY – (male; 45 – 80) An old family friend of the Dowds and the family’s lawyer. He is fiercely protective of the family and surprisingly understanding of Elwood’s belief in Harvey. He is a representative of the people in town who are accustomed to seeing Elwood talking to Harvey and who do not think anything about it.

E.J. LOFGREN – (male or female; open age) E.J. is an ultimately wise cab driver whose monologue about sanitarium passengers is crucial to the climax of the play. He/She makes Veta realize that the treatment that is supposed to make Elwood stop seeing Harvey might drain him (Elwood) of his kind personality. *This role has a single scene near the very end and would have a limited rehearsal schedule. **Could also double as Dr. Lyman Sanderson.

MRS. ETHEL CHAUVENET – (female; 50 – 80) is an old friend of the family.  She is an elite and wealthy member of the town’s social circle that Veta desperately wants Myrtle Mae to break into. She also has a marriageable grandson about Myrtle’s age. Veta and Myrtle both flatter her and curry her favor.  *A smaller role (Act 1 only) and may double as BETTY CHUMLEY.

MRS. BETTY CHUMLEY – (female; age 50 – 80) Dr. Chumley’s kind, lovely and talkative wife; more concerned with socializing than with science: told that her husband has to examine a patient, she tells him, “Give a little quick diagnosis, Willie – we don’t want to be late to the party.  *A smaller role (Act 2 only) and may double as ETHEL CHAUVENET.

SIDES

Betty Chumley

Dr Chumley

Dr Sanderson

Duane Wilson

E.J. Lofgren (cab driver)

Elwood

Judge Omar Gaffney

Mrs. Chauvenet

Myrtle Mae

Nurse Kelly

Veta Simmons

For more information, email director Mead Winters at mhw1093@verizon.net