AUDITIONS for "The Merry Wives of Windsor" by William Shakespeare

The disgraced and dissolute knight Sir John Falstaff arrives in Windsor with his ragtag retinue and takes a room at the Garter Inn. Desperate for money, he hatches a plot to woo—separately and secretly—two wealthy, married women of the town: Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. When his followers, Pistol and Nym, refuse to deliver the love letters he has written to the women, Falstaff fires them. They plot to get even by informing masters Ford and Page of Falstaff's designs on their wives. Meanwhile, three suitors seek the hand of Anne Page, the daughter of Master and Mistress Page. Doctor Caius, a French physician, seems to care for Anne, but his bad temper and eccentric mannerisms make him an unconventional suitor at best. Abraham Slender, nephew of Justice Shallow, seeks to marry Anne because his uncle tells him it is a wise move. His friend Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson, is content to play matchmaker: he does not want to marry Anne himself but he hopes to broker a match between her and Slender. (Unfortunately for Hugh, Doctor Caius catches wind of his meddling on Slender's behalf and soon challenges the priest to a duel.) Fenton, the youngest and most charismatic of the three contenders, is the last to appear onstage. Anne favors him, but her parents disapprove of his spendthrift ways and checkered past. This play is a rollicking, bawdy comedy that is as fun to be cast in as it is to see. Sign up today!