THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

ANDY DUFRESNE: UNION ROLE - 30’s - Described in the book as "thirty years old, a short neat little man with clever hands and gold-rimmed spectacles, his fingernails were always clipped and they were always clean." However, we don't have to prescribe to this exact description. Tim Robbins, who played him in the movie, was nothing like that, and also Kyle Secor, who played him in the Edinburgh production, was a lanky six-foot-five; but I think it is important to keep this description in mind. Andy is a fish out of water and in a place like the Shawshank that really has to come across, so in the end, despite the brutality and injustice he receives, this quiet, very intelligent, softly-spoken man manages to retain his humanity and his dignity, manipulate almost everyone in the Shank, exact his revenge on the warden, and break out by crawling through a sewer shit-pipe five football fields long.

RED (Ellis Boyd Redding): UNION ROLE - 40’s
 - Has been played in the movie and in the stage play by an African-American actor, and this seems to be the preferred option, though original written as Irish. He uses his charms and sales technique that he learned on the outside to become the "guy who could get things." Over the years Red had learned almost every trick in the book to survive the Shank, which is why Andy is drawn to him.

WARDEN STAMMAS (Gregory) : UNION ROLE - 40-50’s - 
Described in the book as "a lean man with a tight wiry gut and the coldest eyes you ever saw. He always had a painful pursed little grin on his face as if he had to have a shit but couldn't quite manage it, a cruel wretched cold-hearted weasel of a man." Gregory Stammas was expelled from college when he was 19 for trying to bribe one of his tutors into giving him a good grade. Stammas is a coward, a bully, and a cheating hypocrite, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

HADLEY (Bryan): 40’s
 - The head prison guard at the Shank. Described in the book as "a tall muscular shambling man with thinning brown hair, he sunburned easily and talked loud all the time and if you didn't move fast enough for him he'd cut you with his nightstick." There is not much subtlety to Hadley. He is in the pay of Stammas and is paid to watch his back at all times. Hadley isn't really aware of it but he is just as institutionalized as the cons on his landings. He would have no idea what else to do if he wasn't a warder at the Shank. It gives him a power that he could never attain anywhere else. He is not the sharpest knife in the box and the rumor is he can't read or write.

BOGS DIAMOND: 35-40’s
 - Described in the book as "a big hulking sister with a brooding expression." I wanted Bogs to be more than a thug, which he is in the book. So I gave him an interest in chess and more of a vocabulary than most cons in the Shank. Bogs is a psychopath but he's not stupid and not without charm and humor. He is feared throughout the prison. He is the first one to suss out Andy, and at one point tells him, "You don't fool me with your fucking Mr. Nice Guy act." He is jealous of Andy, sees him as a challenge and tries his best to break him.

BROOKSIE (Brooks Hatlen): 65-70’s
 - Described in the book as a "tough old con." Brooksie has been incarcerated in the Shank since the 1920s-he’d had a college degree in animal husbandry and worked as a researcher for a pharmaceutical company. Poker was Brooksie's downfall, he lost everything: his house, car, and finally his job. When his wife tried to leave him and take their 11-year-old daughter with her, he shot them both dead in a drunken rage. He became a model prisoner in the Shank and was in charge of the library trolley. This was a status that Brooksie held on to for years, it defined who he was inside. When he was eventually paroled, he was riddled with arthritis, and had spent 30 years in the Shank.

ENTWISTLE (Mert): 35-40’s - Part of the furniture at the Shawshank. He's a "yes-sir, no-sir, three-bags-full sir" Jobsworth. He follows in the scary shadow of his head guard Bryan Hadley, who treats him like a slave. Entwistle does have a heart though, and when he can, goes easy on the cons. They know this, which makes him an easy touch-sometimes he tries to emulate Hadley and play the tough guy but he doesn't convince anyone.

ROOSTER (Roger Coogan): 40-50’s
 - Serving two life sentences for beating his stepson to death with a claw hammer when he threatened to tell his mother about Rooster's sexual advances. He hails from white "trailer trash" in Montgomery, Alabama. Rooster has been a drug addict all his life, and his denial of his attraction to men manifests in sexual violence. The Shank has given him a status that he would never have gained on the outside, and it is also an environment where it is common to have sex with men. Rooster never wants to leave the Shank and glories in the fact that he's Bogs Diamond's "Sister," slang for sexual partner.

RICO (Paul Rodriguez): 35-40
 - Rico is originally from Portuguese stock and grew up in Detroit. His father was a Pastor and his mother a former prostitute who was "saved" by his father's church. Rico is bipolar. He married young and had seven kids. He could never hold down a job and was eventually jailed for three years for robbing a gas station.
When he got out, he tried his best to hold down a job but he was eventually evicted from his home and before the bailiffs arrived he set it on fire and burned his whole family to death. Rico is now a born-again Christian.

TOMMY WILLIAMS: 20-25
 - At 24 years old, Tommy is the youngest con in the Shank and the best looking, which causes him problems with the "Sisters." He was brought up in an orphanage and then fostered from family to family; he never knew his parents. He was addicted to stealing expensive cars and became quite good at it. He fell in love with Shirley, and she married him after he promised her he would never steal another car. They have a two-year-old baby girl, Tommy went back on his word and is now doing three years in the Shank. He is a good kid at heart and is desperate to better himself and prove to Shirley that he will be a good husband and father to their baby. Andy is a father figure to him and is helping him with his studies.

DAWKINS (Jordan Dawkins): 35-40
 - Was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and is serving life for the murder of his two former associates. Bill Neely and Harold Pinker. Neely and Pinker ran a gambling den in Kansas City. Dawkins, who was part of their criminal gang at the time, tried to steal $100,000 of their money. They suspected he was up to something and lay in wait for him in the cellar where they kept the safe. Dawkins shot both of them in a gun battle. He went on the run but was captured several weeks later. Dawkins has a short fuse and can be prone to violence, but could be described as an ordinary decent criminal. He was married three times, twice to the same women. Despite spending many months in the hole for persistent betting, he is still obsessed with gambling and will bet on anything.

PINKY: (any age)
 Really a minor character. Can be of any age, creed, or color, and can come from any corner of the USA. Can double as the prison COOK.