Audition Central: Annie JR.

Script: Miss Hannigan

 

(MISS HANNIGAN, wearing a bathrobe, flings open her door and, witch-like, stands bathed in white light before ANNIE)

MISS HANNIGAN

Aha! Caught you!
(Flings ANNIE to the floor and switches on the hallway light. LIGHTS brighten)
Get up. Get up!

ANNIE

(Getting up, warily)
Yes, Miss Hannigan.

MISS HANNIGAN

Turn around.
(ANNIE doesn't)
I said turn around.
(ANNIE turns around and MISS HANNIGAN hits her on the backside with a paddle)
There! Now, what do you say? What… do … you … say?

ANNIE

(Reluctantly; through her teeth)
I love you, Miss Hannigan.

MISS HANNIGAN

Rotten orphan.

ANNIE

(Angrily)
I'm not an orphan. My mother and father left a note saying they loved me and they were coming back for me.

MISS HANNIGAN

That was 1922; this is 1933.
(Switches on the LIGHT in the dormitory, sticks her head through the door and BLOWS her whistle)
Get up! Now, for this one's shenanigans, you'll all get down on your knobby little knees and clean this dump until it shines like the top of the Chrysler Building!

TESSIE

(Starting to cry) 
But it's four o'clock in the morning.

MISS HANNIGAN

(Laughs cruelly)
Get to work.

ANNIE, ORPHANS

Yes, Miss Hannigan

MISS HANNIGAN

Now!
(Orphans run for pails and return to front)
Why any kid would want to be an orphan, I'll never know.