Cast Needs 

Eighteen. 
 

Gender and Age

The minimum cast (already assuming doubling) is nine males and nine females, although for some roles, gender is immaterial. In other cases, the script was written with genders in mind, but alternative casting can work if the intent of the script is maintained. 

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Age is important to the plot, so age-blind casting is discouraged; The script calls for a middle-aged actor to be cast as a young one and vice versa. (Olivia-as-Penelope, who loses the role to the young starlet Tru, and spends much of the play made up to play the young slave girl Melantho). To add confusion, they swap back the roles toward the show's finale. These role-swaps influence and reflect Ryder's personal remembrances away from the theatre.

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Ethnicity

Diverse casting is preferred, if not required. The show-within-the-show, "The O.G. And the Aegean," is a "Homer Meets Hamilton"-style production. It will feel like a stretch without diversity, and some scenes will create even greater challenges. Specifically, the suitors, who are traditionally so often compared to a fraternity, are imagined performing a step routine. In general, while the show is not and does not claim to be about the Black experience, its form is intended to provide a platform for a racially inclusive cast. (Since "After Every Dream" is about staging "O.G.," it organically and intentionally creates an opportunity for inclusion.)