Audition Notice: Lena

I am delighted to be directing this play in March 2027.

LENA is a powerful play with music and recounts the true story of Scottish singing sensation, Lena Zavaroni. The 10-year-old became a star and a household name so young it certainly took its toll.

I look forward to bring Lena’s story alive in this powerful and thought-provoking play.

Hope to see you at the auditions!

Regards

Dean

Lena
by Tim Whitnall
Directed by Dean Caston

AUDITION DATE:
Monday 26 October 2026

8pm

Performance Dates: 4:5:6:11:12: 13 March 2027

(Potential for matinees on 6 & 13 March)

The play is being entered into the Kent Drama Full length play Festival and will be adjudicated on Friday 12 March

When we meet Lena in the play it's 1999, 25 years after her appearance on Opportunity Knocks. We discover a very different Lena, one for whom the glory days are long gone.

This play explores what happened to her over the intervening quarter of a century and reveals a startling, wholly separate story. From the age of 13, Zavaroni suffered from anorexia nervosa. While she was at stage school, her weight dropped to four stone. During the 80’s she continued to suffer with anorexia and severe depression.

As we are transported back to 1999 Lena is about to undergo a surgical procedure which she believes will turn around her troubled life. In a hospital waiting room her father, Victor, retraces the steps that have led him and his precious daughter to this critical point. His revealing journey is one filled with triumph, tragedy, tears and laughter.
 

Characters

HUGHIE GREEN (50s) - TV talent-show host. Our Machiavellian narrator

VICTOR ZAVARONI (50s) - Lena's father. A musician

LENA ZAVARONI (30s) - Ex-child-star. A tormented soul

HILDA ZAVARONI (40s/50s) - Lena's mother. Starstruck

DOROTHY SOLOMON (40s/50s) - Lena's personal manager. Formidable

*TOMMY SCOTT (40s) - Record producer

*DOCTOR

*These roles are played by the same actor

Audition Pieces

Lena - P21-23, P32-33, P37, P46-48

Victor - P21-23, P39-40, P46-48, P58

Hilda - P21-23, P39-40, P46-48

Hughie - P1, P15-17

Dorothy Solomon - P15-17, P21-23, P32-22

Tommy Scott - P13-14

Doctor - P43-44

The following characters will also have a singing audition:

Lena - P26-27 Ma! He’s Making Eyes At Me, P55-56 One Day at a Time

Hilda - P51 It Ain’t the Spotlight

Scripts are available now behind the bar.

If you cannot make the audition date, but wish to pre- audition please contact us.

Please make sure you have PAID your annual membership before the audition date. You will not be permitted to audition unless you have paid.