Director Mike Boyna will hold early auditions for Wheaton Drama’s production of A Piece of My Heart on Nov. 8-11, 2017. Location and time(s) TBD. These early auditions are for the part of Mary Jo only.

A Piece of My Heart is a powerful true drama about three nurses, a Red Cross volunteer, a USO entertainer, and an Army intelligence officer who bare their souls and share their experiences before, during and after their service in Vietnam. Mary Jo (stage age: 20s-40s) is the USO entertainer, who plays guitar and sings sections of a group of songs featured in the production.

Because the music must be memorized for performance, casting Mary Jo early will allow additional time for the actor to learn the music and vocals before rehearsals begin in January. Those auditioning for Mary Jo should demonstrate their guitar and vocal abilities by preparing one verse and chorus from two different early ’70s songs of any genre.

Actors will also be provided one of Mary Jo’s monologues to present; memorization is not mandatory, but it would be helpful to both the actor and the director.

Regular auditions: Sun., Jan. 7, 2018; callbacks: Tuesday, Jan. 9. Mary Jo will be asked to attend callbacks to read her part with other actors. Readthrough will be Thursday, Jan. 11.

Rehearsals: 3-4x per week, except for weeks of Feb. 11 and Feb. 18 (no rehearsals; actors time to get off script and do background reading). Tech Week (mandatory attendance): Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, March 18, 19 & 21 (off day Tuesday, March 20)
Preview performance Thursday March 22.
Performances: March 23 – April 15. Thursday-Saturday performances at 8 p.m.; Sunday performances at 3 p.m. (No show on Easter Sunday, April 1.)

If you would like to make a November appointment to audition for Mary Jo, please contact Director Mike Boyna at: [email protected]. There is some flexibility in these early audition dates; please advise if you would like to audition but cannot make Nov 8-11. Copies of the script are available upon request.

NOTE: A separate audition announcement will be sent out for the January auditions.