Auditions
We Had a World
by Joshua Harmon
Directed by Frank Foster
Auditions by appointment , Wednesday Nov. 18th, 6:30-10:30 pm
Rehearsals begin mid to end of January
Show Runs March 5-7 & 12-14, 2027
All Actors Paid
Synopsis:
A dying woman calls her grandson and asks him to write a play about their family. “But I want you to promise me something,” she says. “Make it as bitter and vitriolic as possible.” In this searing, funny and deeply personal play, playwright Joshua Harmon
recreates 30 years of family fights, monstrous behavior and enduring love.
We Had a World premiered off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club on February 25, 2025. The production featured Joanna Gleason , Andrew Barth Feldman, and Jeanine Serralles. It was followed by a run in Boston at the Wimberly Theatre before premiering in the UK at the Hampstead Theatre , where it ran from May to July 2026.
Director Frank Foster seeks two actors to play the roles of Ellen and Joshua.
Our Equity contract has been fulfilled, seeking two non-AEA actors for remaining two roles.
The role of Renee has been cast and will be played by Julie Fulcher-Davis (AEA)
A bit about Renee:
Renee is the mesmerizing, larger-than-life force around whom the play’s emotional universe rotates.
She is a complex blend of artistic inspiration, fierce devotion, and destructive vanity.
Renee is eccentric, elegant, and speaks with an affected, vaguely British lilt despite growing up in New York. She acts as Joshua’s cultural fairy godmother, rescuing him from his suburban childhood by taking him into Manhattan to see provocative art gallery shows, Broadway revivals, and mature movies. She is the sole reason Joshua becomes a playwright. Beneath her sparkling, bon vivant exterior lies a severe, lifelong battle with alcoholism. For 15 years, she manages to hide this from Joshua due to an ultimatum from her daughter, Ellen.
However, her habit of missing major life milestones and crashing family events due to her drinking leaves deep, lifelong scars on her children.
As she faces a terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Renee calls Joshua with a striking request: she gives him full permission to write a play about their family. In fact, she explicitly demands that he make it "as bitter and vitriolic as possible"--
instigating the very memory piece the audience is watching.
AVAILABLE ROLES
Ellen: Seeking female identifying actor ages 35-50ish, (plays 30’s to 60’s)
Ellen is a powerhouse role that anchors the play’s heavy emotional stakes, representing the grounded, painful reality of living with an addict.
Ellen is Joshua's mother and Renee's daughter. Unlike her mother’s theatrical, larger-than-life persona, Ellen is hardworking, feisty, often funny, and deeply realistic. She carries the invisible, heavy scars of growing up as the child of an alcoholic mother.
Throughout Joshua’s upbringing, Ellen acts as a shield. She constantly balances a desire to let Joshua love his grandmother with a fierce, desperate need to protect him from Renee’s unpredictable, alcohol-fueled downward spirals. As Renee's health declines and her demands increase, Ellen is the one forced to set hard boundaries. She often clashes with Joshua because she views his creative romanticism of Renee as a dismissal of the real trauma and neglect she endured during her own childhood.
Joshua: Seeking male identifying actor ages 23-33, (plays 5 to 30’s)
Josh serves as the central protagonist, narrator, and a thinly veiled stand-in for the playwright himself.
He is a sensitive, observant aspiring writer who is intensely shaped by the women in his life. His career in theater is directly inspired by his grandmother, who introduced him to art, Broadway shows, and literature at an early age.
He anchors the play's 30-year timeline (spanning 1988 to 2018), transitioning between his childhood memories, young adulthood, and his present as an adult writer. He is explicitly tasked by his dying grandmother to write a play that lays bare their family's toxic dynamics.
Joshua is torn between two profound loves: his deep, foundational adoration for his eccentric grandmother and his fierce desire to protect and understand his mother. He must navigate his grandmother's devastating alcoholism while
confronting the generational trauma it inflicted on his mother.
To request an appointment time, email
hattheatreauditions@gmail.com
Please include a headshot & resume, also bring a copy to the audition
Those auditioning will be asked to read from the script
Call backs by invitation , Sunday Nov. 22, 7:00-10:00
Auditions & Casting:
- Open and publicly advertised
- We are committed to diverse and inclusive casting and welcome all.
- Non - AEA and limited Equity guest artist contracts offered
- All actors, directors & designers compensated fairly for their talent and time
- Book-mark and check often for upcoming auditions.
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