Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis | Saint Louis, MO
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
The Link Auditorium
4504 Westminster Pl
12:00 PM – 6:00 PM (C) St. Louis, MO 63108
To schedule an audition appointment please email
carrie@twstl.org or call
314-517-5253.
Expected to attend: Director: Benny Sato-Ambush. Producer: Carrie Houk, CSA.
Independent Theatre Contract
Callbacks: February 13, 2026
$333 weekly minimum
1st Rehearsal: July 7, 2026
Performances: August 6–16, 2026
Please prepare sides for the character you are interested in. Sides will be distributed once you have set up your audition appointment.
An Equity Monitor will not be provided. The producer will run all aspects of this audition.
Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition. Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.
More information:
TWSTL.ORG
Appropriate is a family fight fest, full of the sound and fury of recriminating troubled souls haunted by the ghosts of one of America’s original sins — chattel slavery and the ensuing Jim Crow era. It unflinchingly contains muscular, confrontational adult material, cursing, references to lynchings, props containing simulations of body parts, ugly dysfunctional behavior, volatile battle royales, and highly charged emotions that may be unsettling and triggering to some actors, especially to the two minor actors playing children. Auditioning actors and parents of auditioning minors are advised to read Appropriate fully and carefully in advance to become fully informed of the demands the script places on actors. Role-specific requirements are detailed in the Character Breakdowns.
Actors accepting offers are expected to fully embrace the nature of this script, agreeing to fulfill the requirements of the roles. The Director will work sensitively with the cast in the work. Parents of auditioning minors: please prepare and work with your children to help them understand the context of the play’s story as it can be upsetting to them, and perhaps to you as well. They will need your support in going where the play demands. The Director will work with parents and actors of all ages in the cast throughout the process to help them emotionally handle the play’s requirements. Dramaturgical material supporting this production will provide useful context.
The Producer, Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival St. Louis, will provide access to professional on-call counseling support at no charge to actors should such support be requested.
Antoinette “Toni” Lafayette — age 52. Female-presenting, White. The eldest Lafayette sibling: the family matriarch and executor of her deceased father’s estate. Assertive, headstrong, fierce, tenacious, controlling…and funny. On edge, wound up, with rough edges. She curses and is laceratingly forthright, which can come off as cruel. A snark queen with a huge heart; she loves deeply but is in much pain and suffers, believing she’s led a wasted life worrying about and taking care of her family. A tormented, wounded soul with more underneath the surface than meets the eye.
Rhys Thurston — late teens. Male-presenting, White. Toni’s son. A wayward, mixed-up former pill dealer who got busted. He’s trying to find his way in life and hates his family. Might be a closet gay. Audition advisory: The actor playing Rhys simulates masturbation covered by his pants without revealing any nudity (p. 68).
Beauregard “Bo” Lafayette — age 50. Male-presenting, White. The seemingly stable, rational middle Lafayette sibling. He’s struggling financially and is secretly about to lose his job. Burdened by having bankrolled his father’s convalescence over the past two years. Worried about money and disbelieving of the horrid discoveries of the Lafayette family heritage. Audition advisory: The actor playing Bo sobs mightily at the play’s end (pgs. 93–94).
Rachael Kramer-Lafayette — age 47. Female-presenting, White. Bo’s wife and mother to Cassidy and Ainsley. Jewish; sensitive to any hint of antisemitism. A peacemaking mediator with bridge-building energy prone to wanting to help — until she snaps. A mama bear fiercely protective of her children with backbone.
Cassidy “Cassie” Kramer-Lafayette — age 13. Female-presenting, White. Bo and Rachael’s daughter. Likes science and is enormously inquisitive about all things. Determined, wanting to be grown and find her place in the family. Feels left out and overly sheltered: “No one ever tells me anything.” She’s figuring out her sexual feelings and is fixated on her cousin, Rhys.
Ainsley Kramer-Lafayette — age 8. Male-presenting, White. Frenetic and peripatetic, overflowing with boy energy, curiosity, and innocence. He makes a shocking and traumatic discovery.
Francois “Franz/Frank” Lafayette — age 41. Male-presenting, White. The youngest Lafayette brother of Toni and Bo, the estranged, disfavored “black sheep” of the family. A former drug addict, alcoholic, and sex offender trying to clean up his past hellish life. He’s volatile with a hair-trigger temper and can flare up in an instant. A teasing jokester who doesn’t sleep well; a scarred, vulnerable soul who has found an anchor in his fiancé, River. He may have once flirted with homosexuality. He wants to apologize, make amends, reclaim his family, and prove he has changed. His sudden appearance catalyzes the revelation of hidden secrets, resentments, and family traumas. Audition advisory: The actor playing Franz appears shirtless and soaking wet (bottom p. 79), and kisses his fiancé, River (p. 14).
River “Trisha” Rayner — age 23 (appears younger). Female-presenting, White. Franz’s fiancé. A sensitive, sage-smudging, Reiki-certified, new age type mentored by a shaman. A part-time vegan restaurant chef in Portland, Oregon. She’s a medium who feels things in the spirit world and believes in second chances, forgiveness, and that people can change. She acknowledges gray areas and is sometimes mistaken for being Native American by the way she dresses. She keeps Franz together and anchors him emotionally. Audition advisory: The actor playing River kisses her fiancé, Franz (p. 14).
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