LORT
Arvada Center 2011-12 Season Plays
- Equity Principal Auditions
Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities (Denver CO) LORT D; $566/week minimum
Artistic Producer: Rod A Lansberry
Casting (EARNEST): Wojcik/ Seay Casting
Casting (TWELTH NIGHT): Karyn Casl
Equity Principal Auditions:
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at The New Pearl Studios “519”
10 AM – 6 PM 519 Eighth Avenue, 12th Floor (Sign in Studio A)
Lunch from 1:30 – 2:30. New York, NY
Preparation:
For Earnest – prepare a brief monologue appropriate to the period and style of the production. All characters need Standard British dialect.
For 12th Night – prepare a brief Shakespeare monologue, either verse or prose, depending on which role interested in (i.e., verse for Orsino, prose for Toby Belch, etc.)
OR you may prepare a 1 minute monologue each of a classical monologue for Earnest and verse OR prose for Shakespeare.
All auditions should not exceed two minutes TOTAL.
Please bring an updated photo and resume
Note: The EPA for the 2011-12 Season Musicals was held in June 2011.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
Artistic Producer/ Director: Rod A Lansberry
1st rehearsal: 1/3/12. Runs: 1/24/12 – 2/19/12
John “Jack” Worthing:
(male, late 20s – mid 30s) A seemingly responsible and respectable young man who leads a double life on his country estate and his “city” persona, “Ernest”. Comparatively serious. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolyn Fairfax.
Algernon Moncrieff:
(male, late 20s – early 30s) A charming, well dressed and nephew of Lady Bracknell and cousin Gwendolyn Fairfax. He is Jack Worthing’s best friend. He is brilliant, witty and selfish. A charming, idle, decorative bachelor.
Gwendolyn Fairfax:
(female, mid 20s – early 30s) She is the epitome of taste and cosmopolitan fashion. She is sophisticated, intelligent and completely pretentious. An authority on matters of taste and morality.
Gwendolyn is completely fixated on the name Ernest and says she will not marry a without that name.
Cecily Cardew:
(female, late teens – to early 20s) She is young and innocent. Sheltered from any cosmopolitan elements of life. Naïve but curious and somewhat intrigued by “wickedness”. She has a vivid imagination and invents elaborate romantic encounters and expectations.
Lady Bracknell:
(female, 60s +) A snobbish, mercenary and domineering aunt, and Gwendolyn’s mother. She is given to making outrageous pronouncements, which she holds to be the ultimate truth. She is shrewd, cunning, narrow-minded, and an authoritarian on all matters.
Miss Prism:
(female, 50s to early 60s) She is a sweet but pedantic governess who can be demanding and rigid, but has an inner soft side. Puritanical in her beliefs, but secretly in love with Dr Chasuble. Has a hidden inner romantic fantasy that she struggles to keep contained.
Dr. Chasuble:
(male, 50s to mid-60s) A vicar with a soft cheery soul. Always proper but with a sunny and positive outlook. He is a very proper bachelor with an attraction to Miss Prism he struggles to keep in check.
Lane:
(male, late 40s – late 50s) Algernon’s manservant. Dry, proper with a very subtle delivery and while professional, has the ability to put Algernon in his place.
Merriman:
(male, 30s) Jack’s Butler on his country estate. Proper yet observant.
TWELFTH NIGHT
Director: Phillip C Sneed
1st rehearsal: 4/10/12. Runs: 5/1/12 – 5/27/12
Note - This production will then move to The Colorado Shakespeare Festival/Boulder running April 10 to mid-August 2012
Orsino:
(male, 30-45) – in love with Countess Olivia, who does not reciprocate; very sensitive and given to poetry; in love with being in love, until he learns the true meaning of it from Viola/Cesario; leading man-type, very expressive vocally and verbally, with excellent verse-speaking skills
Curio:
(male, 20-40) – a gentleman attending Orsino; ability to sing and/or play a handheld stringed or wind instrument is desirable (doubles as a servant and a priest)
Valentine:
(male, 20-40) – a gentleman attending Orsino; doubles as an officer of the peace; ability to sing and play a handheld stringed or wind instrument is desirable
Viola:
(female, 20-30) – a young woman shipwrecked and washed ashore, who believes her twin brother Sebastian drowned in the same wreck; disguises herself as a male named Cesario in order to survive; falls in love with Orsino, but can’t reveal her true gender and feelings to him
Captain:
(male, 30-50) – captain of the wrecked ship, he befriends Viola; a working-class man accustomed to being at sea and away from society; appears in only one scene (but doubles as an officer of the peace)
Sir Toby Belch:
(male, 35-60) – a close relative and houseguest of the Countess Olivia; he is a large presence and is given to excesses of alcohol and late-night partying (think Falstaff); his knighthood is probably inherited and does not suggest high class or status; needs to be a very good comic/character actor
Maria:
(female, 25-45) – a gentlewoman waiting on Countess Olivia, she is probably romantically and/or sexually involved with Sir Toby Belch, and is instrumental in the plot to humiliate Malvolio; despite her position as a gentlewoman, she is not necessarily of high class or status
Sir Andrew Aguecheek:
(male, 25-45) – a companion to Sir Toby Belch, he is physically different (his name could suggest lean and gaunt), and mentally far inferior; he is looking for love in Olivia’s household, but is also happy to be Toby’s sidekick and fellow partier; like Toby, the “Sir” in his name does not necessarily imply anything about his class or status
Fabian:
(male, 25-40) – probably a member of Olivia’s household, although he could be another guest; he is also a part to the plot to humiliate Malvolio, but is smarter than Sir Andrew
Feste:
(male or female, indeterminate age) – Olivia’s clown or jester, he/she is wiser than most of the others in the household, but uses often dark humor to comment on the folly of others; the role allows for a wide variety of interpretations, but physical expressiveness and singing ability are desirable
Olivia:
(female, 30-50) – a countess, in mourning for the death of her brother; she is weary of Orsino’s attempts to woo her, and is comforted by Malvolio’s seriousness; when she meets Viola, in disguise as the male Cesario, she begins to forget her brother’s death and fall in love – not realizing that Cesario is actually a woman; unlike many in her household, she is of high class and status, a true countess
Malvolio:
(male, 40-60) – Olivia’s steward, and a very grave and serious guardian of order; he cannot abide chaos or unruliness, and treats Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria, and Fabian with contempt – he clearly feels himself superior to them and above the sway of natural and unchecked impulse; when he is tricked into believing that Olivia is in love with him, however, we see another side of him
Antonio:
(male, 25-45) – a sea-captain who befriends Sebastian and gets caught up in the confusion when the twins Viola and Sebastian are mistaken for one another; like the other captain, he is a rough working-class man, with little understanding of the ways of the likes of Orsino and Olivia
Sebastian:
(male, 20-30) – Viola’s twin brother, presumed by her to be drowned in the shipwreck that washed her ashore; when Viola disguises herself as the male Cesario, she and her brother look very much alike and are confused for one another; a young leading man; stage combat ability desirable
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