They will root and love and laugh and cry with the Jerome family. Sheila: Audiences will recognize themselves and their own families in this play. How well will audiences relate to this piece of theatre? Then we cast Umed Amin as older brother Stanley. She is a fabulous musical theatre star with huge acting chops and can pull off being 13. We cast Meghan Caine after I directed her at Sheridan College. Nora is being played by Kelsey Falconer and she is also entirely open and vulnerable as our star craving 16 year old. He is strong, funny, wild, inventive and is going to be a huge star. Our Eugene, Lawrence Libor, is fresh from living in Britain and leads the pack. We then cast the children from auditions pairing them together, going a bit older but knowing they could play younger. She is goofy and funny and then she breaks our hearts. Watching her rehearse is a lesson in our craft for me. Nicole spent seasons as a leading lady at the Shaw Festival and I knew I could not settle for anyone else. She breathes 1937 and her depth of emotion and yet dogged practicality is pitch perfect for this play.Ĭasting Blanche, Kate’s younger sister, was next and I was determined to get Nicole Underhay for this role. Sarah is ageless and also meant to play Eugene’s mother. Then I saw the inimitable Sarah Orenstein in HGJTC's recent production of My Name is Asher Lev, and the role of Kate, our mother, was done. I started with the adults casting the incomparable David Eisner as Jack, the long suffering, world weary father of our household. Casting young actors is tricky and finding just the right combination of people even trickier when they are all in the same family. Sheila: We spent days and days casting this play. Tell me a little about your talented cast? When I was asked to direct BBM, I jumped at it. Tracing Eugene's story, our hero of the play is what really made me want to direct this beautiful piece. Digging into their pasts and figuring out why they say those things to each other and yet keep going, keep living together, keep surviving against the backdrop of that great terrible and looming war. Untangling their story is what intrigued me. The Jerome family is flawed and nutty and they are hard, no ruthless with each other. I have never been part of such a dysfunctional family. It is so layered and complicated and yet entirely funny and moving. Sheila: BBM is one of those plays that keeps on giving. What is it about Brighton Beach Memoirs that attracts you as a director? SHEILA McCARTHY ON BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS
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