Casting Call

The Negro Ensemble Company is accepting submissions for

SUNDOWN NAMES AND NIGHT-GONE THINGS

by Leslie Lee

Directed by Woodie King, Jr

Equity showcase. Some pay. Please e-mail pictures and resumes to Lawrence Evans at LEvans912@aol.com. Auditions will be held by appointment only on Thursday, April 9 from 11:30am-3:30pm and Friday, April 10 from 10:30am- 2:30pm. Callbacks are Saturday, April 11 from 1:00pm-5:00pm. 1st rehearsal: April 21, 2009. The show runs May 14 through May 31, 2009. Thursday-Sunday. Some Wednesday performances during latter part ofthe run. Venue: TBA.

SYNOPSIS: At 20, armed with little skills but curiosity and the need to earn a living, Cairo Biggs flees rural Mississippi for Chicago in search of the Promised Land. He obtains a job as an agent in a black insurance company, which provides an indispensable service to denizens of the South Side who are denied life insurance coverage by white companies. Young and still sewing his wild oats, Cairo becomes involved in a scheme in the office in which the black insurance agents, all older than he, give free insurance to single and married female customers, who are unable to pay the ten cents weekly premium, in exchange for sex. They barter and trade these desperate women like chattel when they tire of them, or, "someone better" comes along. Cairo, still naive, falls in love with Ruby Meeks, an illiterate, eighteen-year old single mother with a daughter born out of wedlock. Her only means of survival is her wit and her sensuality. Obsessed and jealous because Ruby refused to commit to a monogamous relationship, Cairo doggedly hounds and stalks her. Ultimately, she rejects him when she decides to return back home to Alabama becauseof an incident with cocaine in which she endangers the life of her daughter. Cairo realizes that what he and the agents are doing is morally wrong. He refuses to participate any longer in the scheme. Unable to convince the others, he quits the agency to seek his fortune elsewhere.

ALL CHARACTERS ARE AFRICAN AMERICAN. SEEKING THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS:

CAIRO BIGGS: Young black male, early 20s --- new to Chicago from Mississippi, naïve, idealistic and vulnerable.

RUBYMEEKS: Young woman from Alabama. 18-19 years old. Sexy, outgoing and sassy, which conceals a sense of inadequacy and trepidation about the future.

ARJAY THORNTON: An insurance agent; 40s or early 50s, a family man, possessing a great sense of humor and a conscience.

TRAVIS MCKINLEY: An insurance agent; 40s; a family man, but somewhat conceited and in love with his appearance. He has strong convictions. Like Arjay, he has a sense of humor.

BOYD HENRY: An insurance agent; 40s, a wry sense of humor; opinionated, race conscious, sometimes hardheaded and stubborn.

MAE ANN BROADNECK: Early-late 30s, sensitive, hardworking, filled with guilt but without many choices in life, vulnerable.