West Valley Arts Audition Notice

Play - Wait Until Dark

Show Description

Fall, 1944 NYC. Old Brownstone Apartment.

Jeffery Hatcher's two act adaption of Frederic Knott's original three act, is a fast paced, on the edge of your seat thriller, Susan Hendrix, a courageous, recently blinded housewife, unwittingly possesses a doll filled with smuggled diamonds. Harry Roat, a brutal psychotic criminal coerces two small-time thugs Carlino, a crooked cop, and Mike, who poses as an old military buddy of Susan's husband, into helping him con Susan into giving up the doll. A battle of wits ensues as Susan and the young girl next door come up with a counter plan against the thieves. As the palm sweating drama plays out, Susan courageously turns her vulnerability into her strength to gain the upper hand.

Direction by JC Ernst
Assistant Direction by Colter Lincoln
Stage Manager: Makayla Riddle
Producer(s): John Sweeney and Vanessa Olson

Seeking

The production team seeks strong dedicated actors of all races, ethnicities, abilities, and backgrounds for all roles. We are committed to creating a professional atmosphere and rehearsal process. All roles are open and all are encouraged to audition.

Virtual Auditions Due
June 6, 2026 at 11:00 pm

- Please prepare a 30-60 second contemporary monologue appropriate for the roles you would like to be considered.  

Please begin your audition video with a slate of your name, height, and if you are available for callbacks

Callbacks (by invitation only)
Saturday June 13 (scene callbacks)

9 am - 1:00 pm

Materials will be provided for callbacks. 

Rehearsals and Performances
Rehearsals will begin Monday August 3, 2026 at 6:30 pm 

Expected rehearsals will be M-Th at 6:30-10 pm and Saturday mornings from 10-2

Tech weeks will be from September 21- October 1 6:30-11 pm

No absences will be accepted during tech week or performances.

Performances
October 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 7:30 pm
October 10, 17, and 24 at 3:00 pm

Possible single show extension on October 30 7:30 pm

Please be thorough in your audition form with your potential conflicts during the rehearsal process. 

Compensation
Performers 18 and over will receive a compensation of $80 per performance

Performers 18 and under do not receive compensation and are on a volunteer performer agreement. 

Roles
Performers ages 12  and up are welcome to audition for the role of Gloria.  

The Characters:

SUSAN

- Female, Must be able to play mid 20s to mid 40s

- LEAD

- A recently blinded woman navigating her world with extraordinary intelligence and a fierce, newly found self-reliance. Susan must project quiet vulnerability while making it clear — she has superior awareness.

Courageous, warm, and possessed of a genuine, unselfconscious sense of humor about her blindness. Her humor is not a coping mechanism, it simply is who she is.

What makes Susan extraordinary is what the play quietly reveals over time: the very things that appear to make her vulnerable — her blindness, her dependence on routine, her acute sensitivity to sound and touch — turn out to be her greatest weapons. She navigates the crisis not in spite of who she is, but because of it. 

- PHYSICALLY DEMANDING

- Stage combat a plus

ROAT

- Male, 30s to 50s

- . Roat is the most dangerous presence in the play, not because he is loud, but because he is controlled.  He operates behind multiple personas, each one a different mask worn for a specific manipulative purpose. The actor must be able to shift character entirely, convincingly, and rapidly — with changes in voice, physicality, and manner. Slightly psychotic beneath the surface. The cracks show only when they are useful to him. Deeply unsettling in stillness as much as in action.

- Ability to do DIALECTS and change personas.

- Stage combat a plus

MIKE

- Male, 30s to 50s

- One of the con artists — though the audience won't know that for some time. Mike is introduced as exactly who he claims to be: handsome, charming, and genuinely likable. He comes across as sincere, caring, and trustworthy, and the audience should believe him. They should want to believe him.

He is quick-thinking and adaptable, comfortably shifting tone within a scene without ever breaking the illusion. A man who is lying about everything while making sure nothing reads as a lie.

The reveal, when it comes, should feel like a betrayal to the audience as much as to Susan.

- Stage combat a plus

CARLINO

- Male, 30s to 50s

- Burly, gruff, and plainly crooked. Carlino's con persona is a corrupt cop — one he has played many times before and is almost part of him. He is the blunt instrument in a trio that otherwise relies on charm and cunning.

But Carlino is not simply a villain. He was pulled into this scheme — coaxed, pressured, or cornered — and somewhere beneath the gruffness is a man with maybe more conscience than he would ever admit to. He is not here because he wants to be. He is here because he has no good way out, and he will do what he has to do.

The actor should resist playing Carlino as one-note muscle. The most interesting moments are the ones where his discomfort surfaces, before he shoves it back down.

SAM

- Male, 30s to 50s

- Susan's husband. A photographer.  Handsome, capable, and deeply loving toward Susan. On the surface, Sam is steady, reliable, and uncomplicated.

But Sam carries secrets and a painful past that create a subtle, unresolved darkness beneath his warmth. The actor must hold both layers simultaneously without telegraphing one at the expense of the other.

GLORIA

- Female, Must be able to play a 12 to 14 year old brat.

- The girl who lives upstairs. Abrasive, prickly, and difficult, Gloria's toughness is the armor of a child who has been failed by the adults in her life. She is not a brat so much as a survivor.

Beneath her roughness is a loneliness she would never admit to. The actor must find the genuine affection developing between Gloria and Susan.

Open to actors who can credibly read as a young adolescent. 

LISA 

- Female, 20s to 40s

- Attractive woman that is hanging up dead in a closet