Director in Despair

I am in the process of producing the World Premiere of one of my own plays. For reasons I won't go into we have lost a cast member. It is so frustrating, I am having real difficulty replacing that person and it is such a vital moment in the rehearsal process. We have five weeks to go till opening night. The remaining 6 cast are all getting their books down and beginning to take those amazing exporatory steps into the full realisation of their characters. We are spending rehearsals doing the deep work, finding the moments and reworking parts of the script to keep the characters honest. I would be loving it but we come to a halt when we reach a line from the missing character and it is put in by the Assistant Director. I can't take over the role I am 20 years too old and much too heavy. The Assistant Director can't she's a woman. I even found myself trying to work out what I needed to change to make the role work as female and if I had time to do the rewrites. An unusual dose of sanity took over and I decided not to try. So, if any actors with a playing age of 35 - 45 based in Adelaide are out there wondering what to do with the next couple of months please contact me. It will get on, I know it will, it will get on, I know it will. Watch this space.