|
Breakdown
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, CHOICE, MILK LIKE SUGAR, CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?, I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Book:Hugh Wheeler; Music/Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Dir: Peter DuBois
LORT B+
1st Reh: 8/18/15. Runs: 9/11- 10/11/15
DESIREE ARMFELDT
40 – 50. Self-absorbed, once-successful actress now touring the country-side. Entangled in a love triangle with the Count and Fredrik. F?3 - Ab5. Mezzo-Soprano.
MADAME ARMFELDT
70+. Desiree’s elderly mother. Brutally honest and a veteran of discreet encounters with the crowned heads of Europe. C3 - F?4. Contralto.
FREDRIK EGERMAN
35 – 45. Successful, still dashing, middle-aged lawyer. Married to his 2nd wife, Anne. Has a son, Henrik, from his first marriage. A2 – E4. Baritone.
HENRIK EGERMAN
18 – 23. Fredrik’s gloomy son. Serious & confused. Studying for the Lutheran priesthood while harboring a secret passion. G3 – B4. Tenor. Actors with cello experience preferred.
ANNE EGERMAN
18 – 21. Giddy & virginal; naïve at times. Breathtakingly gorgeous young bride & Fredrik’s new wife. ?3 –Ab5. Soprano.
COUNT CARL-MAGNUS MALCOLM
30 – 45. Vain, arrogant, & splendidly proportioned but ferociously jealous. A military dragoon. Desiree’s newest lover. G3 – F?4. Baritone.
COUNTESS CHARLOTTE MALCOLM
30 – 40. The Count’s manic-depressive, mistreated, & downtrodden wife. G3 – F5. Mezzo-Soprano.
FREDRIKA ARMFELDT
Seeking actresses 17+ but who look 12 - 15. Desiree’s witty daughter. Self-contained and formal with the precise diction of the convent-trained. C4 - Eb5. Soprano. Actresses with piano experience preferred.
PETRA
20s. Anne’s earthy maid & close confidante. Seizes every moment to rustle in the hay. F?3 – F5. Mezzo-Soprano.
FRID
20–40. Madame Armfeldt’s butler. One of Petra’s conquests.
LIEBESLIEDER SINGERS
30s – 50s. Group of 5 singers that act as a Greek chorus.
MR. LINDQUIST – Bb2 – F4. Baritone.
MRS. NORDSTROM – Ab3 – E6. Soprano.
MRS. ANDERSON – Ab3 – Bb5. Soprano.
MR. ERLANSON – C3 – Bb4. Tenor.
MRS. SEGSTROM – Ab3 – G5. Mezzo-Soprano.
_______
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, from the novel by John Kennedy Toole
Dir: David Esbjornson
LORT B+
1st Reh: 10/13/15. Runs: 11/11-12/20/15
Time: Early 1960s
Place: New Orleans
SEEKING
MRS. IRENE REILLY
Female, 50s – 60s. Ignatius’ mother. Slightly past middle-agedl; widowed. Long suffering & patient; has greatly sacrificed the little she has to indulge her “stay-at home” son’s existence. Despite arthritis and other ailments of age, she is indefatigable, sees the best in people and loves her son deeply. Her future depends on getting her son to successfully grow up. Has a spirited and generous energy, coupled with a somewhat frail spirit. There is also a robust physicality that suggests a dormant sexual energy.
SANTA BATTAGLIA / BARTENDER
Female, 40s – 50s. New & colorful friend of Irene’s—generous, fun-loving, vulgar and over-bearing; fiercely protective of Irene, looks after her and helps her change her life. Has a bold and confident presence. Also plays BARTENDER.
CLAUDE
Male, 60s – 70s. Working class with conventional and conservative political beliefs. Retired with a pension and the love of his family but is looking for female companionship. Although a former railroad worker, he speaks and carries himself like a gallant, old-world southern gentleman.
MANCUSO
Male. Late 20s – Mid 30s. Italian American. Dedicated but frustrated undercover cop with a beat-cop’s mentality. Passionate, earnest and prepared to pay his dues. Tries to act tough, but at heart he’s very sweet. Works mostly nights and dons a variety of bad disguises in an attempt to remove an unsavory collection of New Orleans criminals from the streets. Role requires the ability to role-play in numerous dialects.
LANA LEE / MYRNA MINKOFF / LIZ: Female, 30s.
LANA LEE - Sexy & hardened club owner; leader of a pornography ring. Attempts to scrape together a living by running her two businesses from the same location. Has a sexy, perhaps S&M quality and tough demeanor. Role requires poise, command & ideally, a throaty vocal quality. MYRNA MINKOFF- A NY Jewish lefty with opinions on almost everything, including her former boyfriend Ignatius. A force of nature and very intelligent but like Ignatius, is full of paranoid & implausible fantasies. Possesses a highly spirited, no-nonsense, tough-love quality. LIZ- Part of colorful trio, boisterous butch lesbians.
MRS. LEVY / GEORGE / FANTASY MYRNA #2 / BETTY
Female, late 20s – early 30s.
MRS. LEVY- High-strung & intolerant when it comes to her husband but has a self-flattering interest in social causes & in particular, those employees she feels are ignored & exploited by the factory her husband fails to run effectively. Role requires strong sharp quality. BETTY - Part of a trio of colorful, boisterous butch lesbians. GEORGE - Hyped up street kid; functions as Lana’s porn runner & lackey. Possibly a user, he is high-strung slim-jim, impatient & lacking good judgment. Has a quirky, caffeinated physicality and a quick tongue.
DARLENE/ FANTASY MYRNA #3
Female, 20s. A dumb-like-a-fox B-girl working in Lana’s club. Parades a sexy innocence & aspires to becoming a stripper with her own act involving her pet cockatoo. Is open & kind & therefore quite exploitable. Possesses a lack of modesty and a keen sense of irony. Also plays the FANTASY MYRNA #3.
BURMA JONES
Male. African-American. Late 20s – 30s. Cocky, funny and raging hustler with a subjective & astute sense of racial and political injustice, he is often vagrant and in trouble. Jones uses his sharp wit and perceptions to survive both jail and the street. Irreverent sensibility and a quick, sharp delivery.
GUS LEVY/SERGEANT/FRIEDA:
Male. 40s.
GUS LEVY- Often-absent owner of Levy Pants Company, a factory operation inherited from his father, Gus is a seething vat of irritation always ready to blow. He so loathes Levy Pants that he comes into work only to collect his mail. Intelligent & well-meaning but his imagination has been clipped by his tyrant of a father & his optimism brow-beaten into submission by his hectoring wife. Mr. Levy doubles the SERGEANT-The somewhat sadistic superior officer to Mancuso, and Frieda. FRIEDA - Part of a trio of colorful, boisterous butch lesbians.
MR. GONZALES / DORIAN
Male. Hispanic, 30s – 40s.
MR. GONZALES - Beleaguered Hispanic manger of the day-to-day operations at Levy Pants. Striving & fussy, he struggles to function in the wake of Mr. Levy’s neglect, a failing infrastructure and incompetent employees. Has a Spanish accent. DORIAN - A flamboyant New Orleans gay man who loves to cruise and party his way through life. Straight out of Pangborn/Lynde/Nelson Reilly.
MISS TRIXIE
Female, plays 70+. An example of one of the incompetent employees at Levy Pants. Addled, loopy and sometimes hostile, she is well over retirement age and is victim of Mrs. Levy’s social experiment, forced to stay working at the factory for her “own good”. Has an aggressive and comedic approach to old age.
MR. WATSON / MR. CLYDE
Male, African-American, 40 – 60. Somewhat disgruntled factory worker. Watson does not stretch his working-class mind very far but has a few strong opinions to share. Doubles with the stoic and somewhat Dickensian figure, MR. CLYDE.
IGNATIUS REILLY
ROLE CAST. Male, 30s – 40s. Extremely over-weight with an eccentric and somewhat baffling approach to fashion. A complex and contradictory character driven by insecurity and a profound need to be accepted on his own terms. Self-aggrandizing & aggressive in his world-view & his ego often spins out of control. Loves words & sound of his own voice. Role requires skills in language, innate sense of timing, good physical skills
CHOICE
By: Winnie Holzman
Dir: Sheryl Kaller
LORT C
1st Reh: 9/22/15. Runs: 10/16- 11/21/15
Time: Now
Place: Near and In New York City
ZIPPORAH (ZIPPY) ZUNDER [CAST]
50s. Female. Successful journalist. Intelligent, personable, quick. Entering a new chapter
of her life with some trepidation. Bit forgetful & technology challenged.
CLARK PLUMLY
70s+. Zippy’s husband. Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist. Honest, straightforward, and incredibly perceptive. Often mishears words & phrases. Acknowledging the realities of old age, he tries to prepare Zippy for a life without him.
ERICA TEMPLE
50s. Zippy's best friend. Journalism teacher. Supportive friend but often second fiddle. Passionate & deeply restless. Less known in the field.
ZOE ZUNDER PLUMLY
23. Clark and Zippy's daughter. Recent Bennington College graduate with a major in philosophy and a concentration in yarn. Currently living in parents’ home in Westchester while contemplating a leap into adulthood. Smart, quick, protective of her mother. Also plays: LEAH OR LENA: 20s. Russian. An esthetician. Storyteller & people person. Blunt and hypnotic.
HUNTER RUSH
27. An aspiring journalist. Attractive, odd, fiercely determined to please. Although he has a murky past, is personable & helpful in person. Also plays: WAITER
MARK
50s. Erica’s current flame. Divorced. Home security system salesman. Vulnerable & tries a bit too hard. Also plays: THE OTHER MARK: 50s. Zippy's one time boyfriend. Recently had a stroke; now walks with a cane and speaks with an Austrian accent.
________
MILK LIKE SUGAR
By: Kirsten Greenidge
Dir: M. Bevin O’Gara
LORT D
1st Reh: 1/5/16. runs: 1/29- 3/5/16
Place: A small city in the Northeast
ANNIE
18+ to play 16. African American. Naturally independent & intelligent but sensitive to peer pressure. Interested in education & learning about the larger world. Filled with false bravado. Not one to start an argument, but not one to back away either. Desperate for connection, warmth, & belonging. Wants more from life, without any avenue to get it. Stuck in a vicious cycle.
TALISHA
18+ to play 16. Ethnicity unspecified. Derisive, abrasive ringleader of clique of girls. Tough as nails. Appears confident & knowledgeable. Uses people to get what she wants. Scared of being left all alone.
MARGIE
18 + to play 16. Ethnicity unspecified. The follower & the gossip. Fiercely loyal, but not very bright. Invested in a very narrow, naïve idea of the future. Finds comfort in material goods.
ANTWOINE
23. African American. Aspiring tattoo artist & current grocery store bagger. Introspective and poetic, but mocked by peers for his sensitivity. Looking for a chance to be heard & make a connection.
MALIK
18+ to play 16. African American. Teenager forced into the parent role by necessity. Smart, earnest, wily, determined. Caring, sensitive, but willing to do whatever it takes to get out of the neighborhood.
MYRNA
35 – 45. African American. Annie’s mother. Stoutly convinced of the correctness of her view of the world. Unable to resist the siren song of white collar comfort, despite her lack of a basic education to set her on the path to advancement. Wrapped up in the idea of glamorous writers and movies. Her head's in the clouds at her daughter’s expense.
KEERA
18+ to play 16. African American. The new girl at school. A tractable, evangelical outsider. Zealous; highly vocal in spreading The Word. Looking for a crumb of acceptance & inclusion.
_________
CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?
By: Gina Gionfriddo
Dir: Peter DuBois
LORT C
1st Reh: 3/1/16. runs: 3/25- 4/30/16
Time: Present Day, Halloween Night
Place: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
GRAHAM
40. The guy who gets the party started, but can’t go home. Child of divorce. Recently lost his mother & is unable to either come to terms with her legacy or move on. Anti-confrontational, easily malleable. Loves the anesthetized life, but not sure how to grow up. A moth drawn to flame. Tanya’s boyfriend.
TANYA
27. Single mother. Career bartender attending accounting night school. Her natural optimism has led her down a few wrong roads with the wrong type of guy. Committed to making a better future for her child. Has developed a life plan & wants others to adhere to it, but still a romantic at heart. Graham’s girlfriend.
MIRANDA
28. Uses people to get what she wants. Educated, intellectual. Not a lot of personal boundaries. Jealous, passionate, willful, blunt, unpredictable. Caught in vicious cycle of debt & aspiration, compounded by guilt. Not willing to make lifestyle sacrifices to change. Has a long-standing, paid, sexual arrangement with David.
DAVID
early 50s. Plastic surgeon. Rich but frugal. Emotionally stunted but loves to save the day. Socially awkward but trying. Sees the world in strict black & white. Deeply caring despite an inability to show it. Miranda’s sugar daddy.
SATEESH
24. South Asian origin. Nerdy kid on a temporary work visa. Pursuing his version of the American dream: girls & cash. Cares a lot about how he is perceived by the outside world; willing to spend to keep up appearances. Miranda’s platonic consort.
__________
I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU
By: Craig Lucas
Dir: Craig Lucas
LORT C
1st Reh: 4/16/16. runs: 6/1- 7/10/16
All characters sign at some point in the play. Actors with some knowledge of ASL encouraged. There will be a reader present at the EPA who is fluent in ASL.
KNOX
early 30s. Adopted son of Ash and Pleasant; Deaf, signs fluently, speaks & reads lips well; does not have an implant. Lives in constant contact with many different individuals within the Deaf community and the hearing world; he’s learned the hard way what works for him in life; works as an ASL educator & loves it. (auditioning actor may choose to either do a monologue or read from a side provided at the audition)
FARHAD
early – mid 20s. Iranian. Deaf; reads lips well, speaks (if infrequently) but seldom signs, though he certainly knows how to; has a cochlear implant, but seldom uses it; has quite a few tattoos, maybe some piercings; if you boil things down, you might say he has equal contempt for the hearing & Deaf communities: an equal opportunity offender; he’s quite a looker –both men & women find him hot – & that has been his primary source of power. (auditioning actor may choose to either do a monologue or read from a side provided at the audition)
ASH
50s. Hearing, signs quite well for a hearing person (rarely needs to revert to spoken English; recovering alcoholic and addict; TV writer, born into Hollywood royalty; Knox’s adopted father.
PLEASANT
50s. Ash’s wife; knows very little sign; in certain ways she is the hearing equivalent of Farhad – doesn’t like any kind of Group-think –actively dislikes religion, AA, middle-class values among the hearing and Deaf community equally; has always been a loner.
ASTRID
40s/50s. Ash’s writing partner, hearing, knows quite a bit of sign from both spending time with Ash and Knox and from study; her tendency is to flip in and out of ASL and back into spoken English when she reaches something she doesn’t know how to sign; knows that both Knox and Farhad read lips well; has had to learn how to fight for what she wants; this has taken her a long time and is not about to give up any of what she’s won; wit & tenacity have gotten her through most of life’s scrapes. Atheist.
CARLA
70s/80s. Ash’s mother, widowed; a hearing person, knows some sign; graceful, cultured, appropriate, no bullshit; raised Christian, converted to Judaism when she married Ash’s father.
MARIAMA
50s. Hearing, fluent in ASL as taught to her by the Jehovah’s Witness; former addict, a private person.
|
