One Flew over the cuckoo’s nest
Auditions: February 26 & 27, 2024
Production: May 16-26, 2024
Director: Mike Dunham
After being convicted of a petty crime, a charming rebel named McMurphy contrives to serve his short sentence in a minimum security mental institution rather than in a prison. This, he soon learns, was a mistake. He immediately clashes with the authoritarian head nurse, a fierce taskmaster named Nurse Ratched. Despite her strict reign, McMurphy quickly takes over the patients, leading them out of introversion into revolt, swapping beds for baseball, pills for parties, and guards for girls. But McMurphy's brash insubordination has its consequences, leading to the unforgettable, electrifying ending.
The Patients
Chief Bromden
Gender: Male
Age: 30s or older
The narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden is the son a Native American chief and a white woman. He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, has received multiple electroshock treatments, and has been in the hospital for ten years, longer than any other patient in the ward. Bromden sees modern society as a huge, oppressive conglomeration that he calls the Combine and the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform. Bromden chronicles the story of the mental ward while developing his perceptual abilities and regaining a sense of himself as an individual. The dynamic and chemistry between him and McMurphy is pivotal to the arc of these two characters. The actor performing the role of Chief must be at least 6’-0” tall.
Randle P. McMurphy
Gender: Male
Age: mid 30s to late 40s
The protagonist of the play. A charismatic, larger-than-life, and profoundly masculine gambler, con man and womanizer. McMurphy was transferred to the ward after potentially faking psychosis because he believed the ward would be more comfortable than the work farm he was sentenced to work at. He is shocked by the emasculating control that Nurse Ratched has over the men, and becomes a radical, subversive force of change that inspires the men to challenge Ratched. The actor performing the role of McMurphy must be comfortable kissing a female actor and engaging in stage combat.
Dale Harding
Gender: Male
Age: early 40s or older
An acerbic, college-educated patient and president of the Patients’ Council. Harding helps McMurphy understand the realities of the hospital. Although he is married, Harding is a homosexual. He has difficulty dealing with the overwhelming social prejudice against homosexuals, so he hides in the hospital voluntarily. Harding’s development and the reemergence of his individual self, signal the success of McMurphy’s battle against Ratched.
Billy Bibbit
Gender: Male
Age: early 20s to early 30s
A shy patient. Billy has a bad stutter and seems much younger than his thirty-one years. Billy Bibbit is dominated by his mother, one of Nurse Ratched’s close friends. Billy is voluntarily in the hospital as he is afraid of the outside world. The actor performing the role of Billy must be comfortable kissing a female actor.
Cheswick
Gender: Male
Age: mid 30s or older
The first patient to support McMurphy’s rebellion against Nurse Ratched’s power. Cheswick, a man of much talk and little action, has a nervous disposition and is prone to hysterical outbursts. When McMurphy arrives, he believes he’s found a savior who’ll stand up for him and the other patients.
Ruckly
Gender: Male
Age: mid-30s or older
A Chronic patient. Ruckly was once an Acute but was transformed into a Chronic due to a botched lobotomy. His few lines are mostly profanities, but his tortured silence and stillness speak volumes. The character Ruckly serves to demonstrate to McMurphy and the audience, the debilitating outcome having received a frontal lobotomy.
Scanlon
Gender: Male
Age: mid-30s or older
The only Acute besides McMurphy who was involuntarily committed to the hospital. He’s cranky, stand-offish, and possibly violent.
Martini
Gender: Male
Age: early 30s or older
Martini is a delusional Italian American man who lives in a world of hallucinations and has a highly contagious and recognizable laugh. McMurphy frequently includes him in the card games with the other patients, even when Martini is interacting with his own hallucinations.
The Staff
Nurse Ratched
Gender: Female
Age: mid-30s or older
The head of the hospital ward. Nurse Ratched, the play’s antagonist, is a middle-aged former army nurse. She rules her ward with an iron hand and masks her humanity and femininity behind a stiff, patronizing, and icy facade. She selects her staff for their submissiveness, and she weakens her patients through a psychologically manipulative program designed to destroy their self-esteem. Ratched’s emasculating, mechanical ways slowly drain all traces of humanity from her patients. The actor performing the role of Nurse Ratched must be comfortable engaging in light stage combat.
Nurse Flinn
Gender: Female
Age: late 20s or older
A perpetually frightened and attractive nurse. She is apprehensive with a gold cross at her throat.
Doctor Spivey
Gender: Male
Age: mid 40s or older
A smart doctor who is easily controlled by Nurse Ratched due to his mild-mannered and timid demeanor. Nurse Ratched chose Doctor Spivey as the doctor for her ward because he is as easily cowed and dominated as the patients. With McMurphy’s arrival, he, like the patients, begins to assert himself. He often supports McMurphy’s unusual plans for the ward, such as holding a carnival.
Aides Warren and Williams
Gender: Male
Age: mid-30s or older
Hospital aides. Warren and Williams are Nurse Ratched’s daytime aides. Nurse Ratched hired them because they are filled with hatred and will submit to her wishes completely. The actors performing the roles of Warren and Williams must be comfortable safely engaging in physical situations including small hand-to-hand combat.
Aide Turkle
Gender: Male
Age: mid 40s or older
The nighttime orderly for Nurse Ratched’s ward. He has a genuinely warm presence that stands in opposition to the rest of the hospital staff but is not the best employee. Aide Turkle frequently shows up to work inebriated and stoned. He is responsible for helping McMurphy throw the illicit nighttime party that leads to the play’s tragic ending.
Others
Candy Starr
Gender: Female
Age: early 30s or older
Candy, a longtime friend of McMurphy’s, is beautiful and carefree. She comes to the ward for a late-night party that McMurphy arranges. The actor performing the role of Candy must be comfortable kissing a male actor.
Sandra
Gender: Female
Age: early 30s or older
A friend of McMurphy’s and Candy’s. She accompanies Candy to the illicit nighttime party that McMurphy hosts on the hospital ward. This is an ideal role for someone new to theater and wanting a small part.
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