DANCING AT LUGHNASA – OPEN Auditions
The Gallery Players – Brooklyn, NY Equity Showcase, approval pending
Producer: Hannah Mason
Director: Heather Siobhan Curran
Writer: Brian Friel
1st rehearsal: 11/4/10 (evenings and weekends). Run: 12/4 – 12/19 (Thur-Sun, 12 performances).
OPEN Auditions (Equity/non-Equity):
Monday October 11, 2010 at the Gallery Players
and 199 14th Street
Tuesday October 12, 2010 Brooklyn (Park Slope), NY
7 PM - 9 PM each day
(sign-in begins 6:30pm).
Equity audition procedures are NOT in effect. No Equity monitor provided. Producer runs all aspects of the audition, however AEA members receive priority.
Please prepare one contemporary short monologue. Bring picture and resume, stapled together.
Callbacks: October 17 (daytime).
An Irish accent is desired but not required for the initial audition for all characters except Gerry (m). Irish accents will be required at callbacks. Gerry (m) is Welsh.
*all the characters (except Michael) sing and dance at some point. This is character driven movement and song, not a musical.
Dancing at Lughnasa is the story of five unmarried sisters eking out their lives in a small village in Ireland in l936. We meet them at the time of the festival of Lughnasa, which celebrates the pagan god of the harvest with drunken revelry and dancing. It is a memory play told from the point of view of the adult Michael Evans, the narrator. He recounts the summer in his aunt’s cottage when he was 7 years old. The play depicts the late summer days when love briefly seems possible for three of the Mundy sisters and the family welcomes home the frail elder brother, who has returned from a life as missionary in Africa. However, as the summer ends, the family foresees the sadness and economic privations under which they will suffer as all hopes fade.
Michael:
Male, 20s-30s, narrator, charming, humorous, honest. He moves in and out of the action, not only dictating the action as it goes on, but revealing the futures of the other characters in the play and his feelings towards them. Michael does not appear onstage as a child, but his presence is alluded to by the other characters.
Kate:
Female, 40s. Schoolteacher, eldest, behaves as Mother figure. Fiercely religious, she tries to use her bossy demeanor to cover her sensitivity. The only wage-earner in the family. Disapproves of Gerry.
Maggie:
Female, mid to late 30s, housekeeper, the joker of the family who has dreams of her own.
Agnes:
Female, 30s, knitter, quiet and contemplative, special caretaker to Rose she is silently infatuated with Gerry.
Rose:
Female, 20s-30s, knitter, behaves younger than her years due to a developmental disability. Very close to her older sister Agnes. Rose believes that someone is in love with her, who may be exploiting her.
Chris:
Female, 20-30s, Michael’s mother. She fluctuates between depression and renewed optimism with Gerry’s infrequent visits. Defensively protective of her son.
Gerry:
Male, 30s, Michael’s father. Charming and genuinely affectionate towards Chris though he had left her before Michael’s birth. He is a fun loving wanderer. Welsh accent.
Father Jack:
Male, 50s. A missionary priest who worked for many years in a leper colony. Forgetful and troubled, he is suffering from malaria. He is respected within the town for his work but struggles with his return home. Misses his life in Africa.
Directions: Take the R to 9th St. or the F to 4th Ave. in Brooklyn. The R can be accessed at the Pacific/Atlantic station in Brooklyn which is served by the 2,3,4,5,N,B,D and Q trains from Manhattan.
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