THE LAST SMOKER IN AMERICA Equity Principal Auditions - Off Broadway Theatre TBA Auditions

PAM – AVAILABLE ROLE. Caucasian. A disillusioned, middle-aged, suburban mother and housewife, who teaches English Lit at a small college. All she wants out of life is to have a cigarette in peace and quiet, but that grows increasingly impossible due to her family, which is anything but quiet or peaceful, and the increasingly draconian anti-smoking laws. Rebellious by nature, she refuses to take those laws lying down. She wants and strives to do the right thing, but after discovering her husband’s affair with the next-door neighbor and having an increasingly difficult time dealing with her hyper-active son, opts to smoke her last remaining cigarette. That choice means she will either go to prison or must go on the lam.

ERNIE – AVAILABLE ROLE. Caucasian. A suburban father, recently let go from his job as an elementary school music teacher. Though he has quit smoking and tries to play by the rules, his dream is to be a rock star and he is constantly striving to write hit songs. His difficult teenage son is a constant source of irritation and the realities of marriage and adulthood have caused a mid-life crisis. He is growing increasingly distant from his wife. When she discovers his affair with the next-door neighbor and leaves, he becomes an anti-smoking zealot, losing all traces of the “rocker who knew how to party” he used to be.

JIMMY – CAST. Auditioning performers will be considered for understudy and/or possible future replacement. Caucasian. A bright but difficult teenager without many friends, he loves his video games more than anything in the world, except rap music. He listens to so much of the latter he’s convinced he’s black. A prime example of someone with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, he often forgets or refuses to take his medication. Though he and his father are constantly at loggerheads, he craves his dad’s attention and approval. Not finding it, he often turns to his mother, but ultimately is left to make the ‘grown up’ decisions on his own.

PHYLLIS – CAST. Auditioning performers will be considered for understudy and/or possible future replacement. African American. The eternally cheerful, Jesus-addicted, anti-smoking zealot who lives next door. Having given up smoking and affairs with married men, she is overbearing and vindictive. But she couches those tendencies in professions of universal love and charitable acts toward the sinners who still smoke. An African American who has always dreamed of being white, she is dismayed by Jimmy’s wanting to be black.