Casting call is at 3:30pm on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 1 and 2
at the Rogers High School Auditorium, 2300 S Dixieland Rd, Rogers, AR, 72758
Character Breakdown
Alex: Male, late 20’s/early 30‘s. Happy-go-lucky, yet perceptive and quick-witted. He possesses a youthful innocence, in spite of the shadow of corrupted adulthood looming over his head. The journey he undergoes is a type of psychological fulfillment; a subconscious compensation for the lack of conventional “success” in the latter part of his youth.
Emily: Female, mid/late 20’s. A beautiful hitchhiker. Homeless, jobless and also responsibility-less. Blunt and impulsive, but also light-hearted and easy going. She hides in a shell behind a masquerade of fained fearlessness and cleverness, when deep down she knows the bitter truth that she is just as scared, lost and clueless as everybody else.
Journeyman/Joe: Male, mid 40’s. Worked at a speakeasy in the 1920’s before his transaction with the devil, and doesn’t “age” normally thereafter, only grows increasingly weak and tired. Charming, confident and ironically resembling many qualities of Alex- as if an older brother or father figure. Joe’s confidence gets him in a bet with Satan, in which he carries a burden for the rest of his days trying to win. Joe wears down more and more as the story progresses, until the resolution where he finally is laid to rest.
Satan: Male, 60’s. Condescending and almost sarcastic at times. He dresses in a classy suit and is always watching Joe, in a manner that a mean child might watch ants crawl on a sidewalk before he burns them to death with a magnifying glass. Satan talks with much thought and deliberation, but as if talking to humans was a tedious chore. He always wields his trademark cigar.
Librarian: Female, elderly. Coy and humorless. Your classic stereotypical “shh!” a little kid for sneezing type character. Completely wrapped up in her own little world, specifically; her appearance. Scared of her own conscience and immediately surrenders her
Danny DuRelli: Male, 50’s. LOUD and PROUD. As friendly as he is flamboyant, Danny is a Brooklyn native who owns the most popular bookstore in Fayetteville, where his “diamonds”(rare literature) gather a wide range of customers. Danny is a good person deep down, but simply doesn’t realize the significance of the briefcase or the events that predate it. He is too consumed by his finances to care.
Homeless Man: Male, any age. Completely lost soul consumed by drugs, wandering around in the void that used to be his life.
Emily’s Parents: Male and Woman, 50’s. Warm and soft spoken, they break out in tears when they find out their little girl is safe and healthy.
Alex’s Boss: Any gender, any age. Dull, obnoxious and rude manager of Alex’s diner. Refers to Alex as “Lexy”, only because he/she knows that Alex hates it. What a jerk.
Jerk: Male, 20’s. If Alex’s Boss could be any ruder, it would be this guy.
The Briefcase: Male, old as time itself. The briefcase shapes to the opener’s desire and fleshes out the thing that its possessor wants most. The catch is that by fleshing out each individual’s desire- little to the individual’s knowledge- it is actually revealing the inner evil and selfishness of the user to Satan- so that Satan might take their soul. The point of the briefcase is not to pretend like you don’t have selfish motives and horribly misguided priorities. We all do. No matter where you’re from or how old you are. It would be egotistical to think otherwise.
The point of the briefcase is to not indulge in these desires to begin with. To not even acknowledge them. Rather than allowing our self-centeredness to be fed and nurtured and grow out of control to consume us, we must stop focusing on ourselves, and start focusing on our relationships with one another.
This is the lesson so many failed to learn through the briefcase.
This is the lesson that Alex and Emily see by the end of their journey.
Next time a strange man leaves a briefcase in your local restaurant. Don’t look inside.