Auditions set one night only Nov. 6 for upcoming HEART production of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’

The Hilo Education Arts Repertory Theatre, or HEART, is hosting auditions for its upcoming production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” one night only, from 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 6 in the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center Black Box Theatre.

There are 12 male and four female roles available, ranging in age from their 20s to 70s.

If you can’t attend the live audition and want to submit a recorded audition for consideration, email HEART Producing Artistic Director and the show’s director Larry Reitzer at larry@hearthilo.org for guidelines. All video submissions must be received by midnight Nov. 5.

Performances will be two weekends in January 2024, from Thursday through Sunday, with opening night Jan. 11 and the final show Jan. 21.

Click here to read the script in advance.

For more information or to request scenes/pages in advance to prepare to audition, email Reitzer at the address above.

The Black Box Theatre is on the second floor of the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center, which is located at 141 Kalākaua St. in downtown Hilo.

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” a play by Dale Wasserman and adapted from Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, is a mordant, wickedly subversive parable set in a mental institution.

The play chronicles the head-on collision between its hell-raising, life-affirming hero Randle Patrick McMurphy and the totalitarian rule of Nurse Ratched. McMurphy swaggers into the mental ward like a blast of fresh air and turns the place upside down, starting a gambling operation, smuggling in wine and women and egging on the other patients to join him in open rebellion.

His revolution against Ratched and everything she stands for, however, quickly turns from sport to a fierce power struggle with shattering results.

For more information, click here.