Full Cast Breakdown
Casting
Cast Size: 8
Ensemble Show
No dance
Samuel Howard
A nursing home resident who needs medication to control agitation. Kind, friendly, casual, and can get along with pretty much anyone as long as he takes his meds. He was a barber before he retired.
Gender: Male
Age: Mid 70’s
Voice: Baritone
Also plays:
– Middle-aged Samuel, 40’s to 50’s
– Alfie, Carnival Salesman
– Harold Swiggum, married to Mary Lou, on the hill watching fireworks
– Emmanuel “Mannie” Berglund, 30’s, Althea’s husband
Althea Berglund
A nursing home resident who has trouble finding anything positive in life anymore. She’s out-spoken, rude, opinionated, yet very intelligent and Victorian in her appearance and manners.
Gender: Female
Age: Mid 70’s
Voice: Soprano II
Also plays:
– Becky, 4-year-old getting a haircut from Samuel
– Mrs. Sommers, Davey’s mother
– Sassy Patty Hanson, tough high school student at the carnival
– Younger Althea “Allie”, 30’s
Clarence Brown
A nursing home resident who is totally devoted to his dementia-ridden wife, Emily. He is quiet, observant, reserved, yet the sweetest man one could possibly know.
Gender: Male
Age: Late 70’s
Voice: Baritone/Tenor II
Also plays:
– Mr. Bill Carlson, organizer of the Barnum Fair
– Officer, at the Barnum Five and Dime
– Younger Clarence, mid-20’s
– Billy, 5-year-old, at the Elkhart Lake train station
Prudence Dallman
A wheelchair-bound nursing home resident who is a devoted Christian, yet not out-spoken about it. She is kind, proper, yet can be forceful when provoked. She used to be a baker.
Gender: Female
Age: Early 80’s
Voice: Alto
Also plays:
– Mrs. Piggly, Becky’s mother in Moose Lake
– Penelope, gum-chewing checkout clerk at the Five and Dime in Barnum
– Younger Prudence “Pru”, 16 years old
– Cindy Kramer, high school friend of Sassy Patty, at the carnival
– Ruthie Guggenheimer, organist in Elkhart Lake
Emily Brown
A bedridden, dementia patient on the skilled nursing floor. She is the wife to Clarence, and is unable to communicate, only speaking syllabic words of “mah mah mah” in rotation.
Gender: Female
Age: Late 70’s
Voice: Soprano II
Also plays:
– Younger Emily, mid-20’s
Elizabeth Backscheider
She is the Director of Social Services at Clearhaven Nursing Home. She is kind, loving to her residents, yet strong and forceful when it’s required of her. She’s an excellent counselor.
Gender: Female
Age: 30’s – early 60’s
Voice: Soprano 2
JC Brooks
He is the Music Therapist at Clearhaven Nursing Home. He may be young, urban, and totally opposite personality-wise of all the nursing home residents, but, he’s intelligent, highly skilled in his profession, and cares deeply for his residents.
Gender: Male
Age: Mid 20’s
Voice: Tenor 2
Also plays:
– Mr. Asherton Roberts, Children’s Home Director
– Davey, 10-year-old friend of Samuel
– Pops Olsen, 62-year-old fireworks operator
– Reverend Schultz, pastor in Elkhart Lake
Camilla Jackson
She is the Head Nurse on the first floor of Clearhaven Nursing Home. She’s a feisty, boisterous, humorous, and caring individual who will fall over backwards to help her residents.
Gender: Female
Age: Late 20’s – early 60’s
Voice: Alto
Also plays:
– Mrs. Johnson, owner of the Mabel’s Bakery, 60’s
– Mary Lou Swiggum, married to Harold, on the hill watching fireworks
– Elsie Stollen, Althea’s maid
