Professional Audio Actors Wanted
Theatre503 & Riverside Radio, in partnership with Wandsworth Council, seek two professional actors to be leads for a radio soap opera with Wandsworth at it's heart.
Two storytellers. Two Wandsworths. One car.
When famous novelist Tash returns home to Wandsworth for the first time in decades to research her new book, she hires local geezer Mike to drive her around. At first they clash terribly - but gradually sparks begin to fly.
This paid role is for actors with a Wandsworth connection (residence, education, or work). Recording runs throughout the year. Pay is £200 per day (max 10 days).
The two characters being cast are Tash Defoe (black, 49), playing age 40-55, and Mike Hardy (white, 49) playing age 40-55.
This is a paid opportunity for two professional actors, and the rest of the cast will be made up of volunteer community actors. As such, we would love to hear especially from any actors who have experience in facilitation or outreach. Audio experience is essential due to the tight recording schedule. Please include any unavailability (April 2025- Feb 2026) in your application.
If you need any further information, please email [javascript protected email address]
Find out more about The Wandsworth Way project.
Character details:
TASH DEFOE (black, 49) Playing age 40-55 is a famous multi-millionaire novelist. Renowned for her ability to capture an area through the stories of its people, she has reached that rarefied status where every new novel is an event. Now she is undertaking her most personal project to date. For the past fifteen years she’s been living in New York. Now, recently divorced, she has moved back to Wandsworth - where she was born - in order to spend a year researching her new book: the first time she has set something in the streets she grew up in. Problem is, it has been so long since she lived there she doesn’t know where to start... The Wandsworth of her memory is a thing of the past - if it ever existed at all. Living out of a riverside apartment that wasn’t even built the last time she was here, she must rediscover the place she once called home if she is to write about it honestly. To do so she resolves to scour every inch of the borough, meeting its residents and reconnecting with family and friends from her youth. Tash, however, is unable to drive, and is recovering from a leg injury that makes it difficult to walk or get about by public transport. At the encouragement of her publisher she hires a private car service to take her around Wandsworth for the duration of the year....
MIKE HARDY (white, 49) Playing age 40-55 has never left Wandsworth. The gregarious former cab driver and amateur musician is a font of local knowledge - and colourful anecdotes - who claims to know the area better than anyone alive. Mike’s a geezer and a gifted storyteller: he’s always got a new yarn, a new funny thing that happened to him or someone he knows. Having recently traded his taxi for a regular gig at high-end car service, he finds himself showing up at a fancy riverside apartment to collect an author called Tash....who he’s never heard of. Born in St. George’s on the exact same day, the two couldn’t be more different - or have more different ideas of Wandsworth. Tash finds Mike brash and annoying, Mike finds Tash pretentious and superior. As Mike ferries Tash between cultural engagements and research trips (including several interviews with local residents), their differing worldviews and personalities constantly clash. But gradually, over the course of the year, they discover they have more in common than they realise. As the two learn to see their home through each other’s eyes, a friendship begins to blossom. A friendship that might, just might, turn into something more....
