Rootbound The Musical

DESCRIPTION

About the Show:

In the hollows of Appalachia, where mist curls around the tree trunks and slips in through cracks in the windows and doors, something is amiss in the forest. When long-buried memories begin to resurface and Cordelia Spencer begins having nightmares of being lost among the trees, she seeks help from the local “granny witch” (a traditional Appalachian folk healer) who sets her on a journey to rediscover and reunite herself.

Currently Casting For:

CORDELIA: (20s–30s, female, Soprano/Mezzo-Soprano) Quiet and introspective, she is the preserver of others’ memories through her story quilts. She is haunted by fragments of her own memories she can’t fully remember. Unwilling to go searching for the answers, her shadow self begins appearing in her nightmares. She is drawn to the unnatural stillness of the woods, feeling its pull even as it scares her.

GRANNY WITCH: (70s/80s, female, Mezzo-Soprano/Alto) Echrynn’s healer-woman who has an apothecary on the edge of town. Wizened and time-worn, stern to most and kind to the rest, she carries deep knowledge of the land’s history

and has a cure for almost everything. She knows Cordelia’s past better than Cordelia herself does, but she also knows that some truths can only be discovered—not given away.

ANCIENT BEING: (Ageless, genderless, Alto/High Tenor) Neither ghoul nor demon, this is an ancient creature of absence and hunger that once roamed the land. It would consume memories and devour consciousnesses, feeding on the pain of others. Long ago, it was sealed away by people merely forgetting its name. Cordelia accidentally stumbles across it as a child in the woods, unleashing it.

HARLAN: (20s–30s, male, Tenor) Cordelia’s suitor. Persistent. Optimistic, upbeat, and smiley. Skeptical of traditional folk medicine. A perpetual stranger to this parts, at least from the locals’ point of view, despite living in Echrynn for most of his life. The locals don’t take kindly to outsiders, and Harlan feels that.

CORDIE: (15, female [played by 18 actor], Soprano) Cordelia’s 15-year-old self, who was abused by a neighbor and ran into the woods to

escape. It was there that she accidentally encountered the Being and it wiped the event from her memory. In the present day, she exists inside Cordelia’s mind, trapped in time, trapped in hurt.

DELIA: (20s–30s, female, Soprano/Mezzo-Soprano) The woman Cordelia would have grown to be had she never encountered the Being and lost the memory of that event. Delia is insistent, resilient, determined, and angry. Like Cordie,

she exists trapped inside Cordelia’s mind.

OLD SAL: (80s, male, Baritone) Echrynn’s oldest resident. He remembers the history and the legends of the mountains that most have forgotten.

ENSEMBLE / RHODA: (60s, female, Mezzo-Soprano) Harlan’s mother. Sharp and hard-hearted from years of being an outsider in Echrynn and from suffering at the hands of her late husband.

ENSEMBLE / SHERIFF RODGERS: (30s/40ss, male, Baritone/Tenor) Harlan’s late father, appearing in a flashback. He was Echrynn’s sheriff for many years. Buddy-buddy with most of the men in town, he let people off the hook who committed

serious crimes.

ENSEMBLE / CORDELIA’S MOTHER: (30s/40s, female, Alto)

Cordelia’s mother. Warm and loving, she only appears in a memory, teaching Cordie how to Quilt.

TOWNSPEOPLE / ENSEMBLE / VOICES: (Various) Echrynn’s population. Poor, but self-sufficient. Also the spirits that populate the forest and call to those who wander through.

A small stipend will be provided for all roles.

DURATION

Jul 10, 2026 - Aug 16, 2026

• NON-UNION