THE RITZ THEATRE PRESENTS:
Split in Three
Written by Daryl Lisa Fazio | Directed by Stephanie Vickers
SHOW DATES: MARCH 18-21
AN OUTDOOR THEATRE PRODUCTION
ON THE COMMONS @ the Tennessee Valley Art Association
*RAIN DATES March 26-27
AUDITION DATES: On Zoom
Friday, January 22, 2021, 2:00-6:00 pm
Saturday, January 23, 10:00 am-5:00 pm
CALLBACKS: On Zoom
Sunday, January 24, 2021, 1:00-5:00pm
Time slots must be booked in advance by emailing stephanie.vickers@tennesseevalleyarts.org. Attach a headshot and resume to your email. Please prepare a dramatic monologue no longer than 2 minutes.
Rehearsals begin Tuesday, February 2, 2021 on Zoom. All Covid-19 precautions will be strictly adhered to for the safety of our cast, crew, and audiences.
The Mississippi Delta. 1969. The Supreme Court has put its foot down and in this last county, segregation must dissolve. Poor, white sisters, Nola and Nell, one grounded by cynicism and the other by faith, live day-to-day. Until they discover a mixed-race, highly-educated sister they never knew they had. And in a place where separation begets isolation, difference turns out to be a saving grace.
Nola Parsons– (F) mid-to-late 40’s; white, the older sister; impatient, smart, wise-cracking, secretly overwhelmed by shame; uses her sexuality as a tool and is fiercely protective of the underdog.
Nell Parsons Cobb– (F) mid 30’s to early 40’s, white, the middle sister; deeply religious and maternal, gentle and soft-spoken unless she’s cornered; an innocent who absorbs the beliefs of others.
Penny Thompkins– (F) 30-early 30’s, mixed race (African-American/White), their half-sister; raised in the Chicago projects, bright, stubborn, a reserved intellectual who has never found her place or herself.
Clifford Barnhill– (M) 18, white, student and neighbor; polite, wounded and soulful with a searing intelligence and awareness of his surroundings.
Tucker “Tuck” Tackett– (M) 30-35, white, sheriff’s deputy; a teddy bear in uniform, close-minded only because he knows nothing else; lonely because no one knows him.
Eager to be back in production, but still prioritizing Covid-19 concerns, the Tennessee Valley Art Association and Ritz Theatre announce a production first: we are performing our 2021 spring play outside!
Theatres across the globe are energizing their communities by putting on plays in the open air and our creative team decided we were up for the challenge. Using the museum’s entrance as a backdrop defines this particular production as “found theatre”, in which staging is improvised into a non-traditional space.
The expanse of green lawn in front of the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art called “the Commons” is a perfect place to produce Split in Three, a play that confronts and examines identity, family, race, and faith in the Deep South of the late 1960’s.
To read more about the playwright, Daryl Lisa Fazio, click here: