CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

MARTIN VANDERHOF (60-75): Snake enthusiast. Clever, generous, and wanted for tax evasion, Martin is patriarch of the extended Sycamore brood. He is the definition of non-traditional and provides a welcome home to the artistic and slightly odd.

PENELOPE SYCAMORE (40-55): Playwright and painter. The mother of Alice and Essie and the daughter of Martin, Penelope is hardworking, brilliantly creative, and frank. She writes multiple plays at a time, often concerned with less than savory subjects. She understands that Alice is different from the rest of the family, and desperately wants her to find happiness.

PAUL SYCAMORE (40-55):  Pyrotechnician. Husband to Penelope and father to Alice and Essie, Paul spends most of his time in the basement creating new and explosive fireworks. Paul possesses both a genius for chemistry and a childlike wonder, and although he loves his family dearly, he is often singularly focused on his projects.

ALICE SYCAMORE (20-26): Secretary. In a family of distracted artists and erratic geniuses, Alice is remarkably “normal”. She is deeply in love with Tony, but fears that he won’t understand her non-traditional family. Although she loves her off-beat clan, Alice tries to pass them off as normal for the sake of the Kirby’s.

ESSIE CARMICHAEL (25-35): Ballet Dancer and Confectioner. Essie is soft, distracted, and always dancing. She is often found in the kitchen experimenting on new candies. This role requires extensive dancing, and basic pointe skills are helpful but not required.

ED CARMICHAEL (25-35) Xylophonist and Printer. Ed’s airy, innocent personality is perfectly suited to his wife, Essie. He provides much of the music that Essie dances to, and likes to block print random phrases he picks up throughout the day. Ed is one of the few members of the Sycamore family who regularly leaves the house, acting as a delivery boy for Essie’s candies. Xylophone skills are a plus.

RHEBA (25-35) Housekeeper. Although Rheba’s official job is that of a housekeeper, her culinary and cleaning skills are somewhat lackluster. Rather she functions as a constructive critic and champion of the various artistic pursuits occurring in the Vanderhof household. Rheba is bubbly, quick witted, and flirtatious, the favorite of both Donald and Kolenkhov.

DONALD (25-35) Handyman. Donald is chronically unemployed and performs various odd jobs for the Sycamores. He is sweet and a little bit slow, but is fiercely loyal to Rheba and his chosen family.

DE PINNA (40-55) Pyrotechnician and model. Mr. De Pinna is  the mailman turned pyrotechnician that assists Paul in the creation of explosives. Clever, proud, and a little vain, Mr. De Pinna also moonlights as a model for Penelope’s paintings.

BOLUS KOLENKHOV (40-55) Ballet instructor and tsarist. Kolenkhov is Essie’s tough-love Russian ballet instructor. He is aggressive, loud, and still bitter about the Bolshevik revolution. This very physical role that requires some fight choreography. A Russian accent is preferred.

TONY KIRBY (20-26) Businessman. Tony is young, open-minded, and deeply in love with Alice. He is vice president to his father’s Wall Street company, but finds the artistic life of the Sycamores to be much more appealing. 

KIRBY (40-55) Businessman. Mr. Kirby is Tony’s uptight, overstressed father. He has constant indigestion, and finds his only joy in the cultivation of expensive orchids. He is deeply unsettled by the alternative lifestyle of the Sycamores. This role also requires minor fight choreography.

MRS. KIRBY (40-55) Housewife. Mrs. Kirby is the long suffering wife of Mr. Kirby and the mother of Tony. She has a delicate constitution and very particular tastes, but finds emotional solace in spiritualism. She is secretly very bored by her life and would appreciate a little bit of spice in her marriage.

GAY WELLINGTON (50-65) Actress. Gay Wellington is a drunken actress well past her prime, brought to the Vanderhof house to perform in one of Penelope’s plays. She spends most of the play drunk and/or unconscious. This role is especially physical and requires fight choreography.

OLGA KATERINA (50-60) Waitress. Olga Katerina was a Grand Duchess and cousin to Tsar Nikolai II, but now works as a waitress in a diner. Despite her reduced circumstances she holds herself with immense dignity and is still exceptionally generous. She is an amazing cook and is brought to dinner by Kolenkhov. Ability to do a Russian accent is preferred.

HENDERSON (30-40) IRS agent. Henderson arrives at the Vanderhof house to alert Martin that he has over 20 years worth of unpaid back taxes. He leaves infuriated and perplexed by the unusual Sycamore family, who seem play exclusively by their own rules.

THREE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS (age and gender flexible) These characters come to take the Sycamore’s and the Kirby’s to jail. They only have a few lines but are very physical roles.