BLACK TIE Equity Principal Audition - Primary Stages Auditions

BLACK TIE – Equity Principal Auditions

Primary Stages ANTC $506/week minimum.

Artistic Dir: Andrew Leynse

Managing Dir: Elliot Fox

Assoc Artistic Dir: Michelle Bossy

Playwright: A. R. Gurney

Dir: Mark Lamos

Casting: Stephanie Klapper Casting

1st reh: 12/2/10. Runs 1/25/11 – 3/20/11. May extend to 3/20 or 3/27 (at the latest).

Equity Principal Auditions:

Friday, October 1, 2010 Actors' Equity Association Audition Center

9:30 AM - 5:30 PM 165 West 46th Street, 2nd Floor

Lunch from 1 - 2. New York City

Please prepare a brief contemporary monologue.

Please bring a picture & resume, stapled together.

World premiere. Father-of-the-groom Curtis simply wants to make a memorable toast. But before he is able to raise his glass, he must defend the time-honored ways of his past, including his attire. A. R. Gurney, sometimes labeled the dramatist of the WASP, once again provides insight into the world of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant enclave.

Seeking (all roles are available (i.e. not yet offered and accepted)):

Curtis:

50s. Middle-aged family man who is devoted to his wife and children. Charming, intelligent, generous- spirited; very much his father's son. Anxiously trying to enter the modern world while still embodying the customs and behavior he has inherited from his father. Adores his two children and does his best to respond to, if not embrace, the very different customs they have acquired. He is caught between two worlds—the old-fashioned world of manners, decorum and tradition, and the modern world of acceptance, understanding and all things casual. The world is changing all around him, and he can choose to either adapt or get left behind. He idealizes his now-deceased father, along with all of the old-world civility he represents. Eventually, he decides to adapt, as his family’s happiness is more important to him than his sense of propriety.

Curtis’s Father:

Character should read in his 80s. Classy old gent who is vigorous and cantankerous, very much an emissary from an old and obsolete world. Snobbish, discriminating and out of touch, but in one sense an admirable example of his breed, since he is infinitely polite, thoughtful and well-educated. He is a ghost who can only be seen by his son. A relic of the past, when men were gentlemen and women were ladies. Wants to help his son by providing wise and useful advice. Unfortunately, much of his advice has outlived its usefulness. In his day, he was extremely charming and well-put-together. Thinks he knows everything, and is somewhat shocked by how different the world is now. He is good-natured at heart, and truly wants his family to be happy.

Mimi:

50s. Curtis’s wife. Perhaps a year or two younger than her husband. Attractive and well-put-together. Very much the modern, liberated woman. Well-educated, aggressively liberal and socially conscious; able to ignore or poke fun at her husband's obsolete responses even as her own more traditional values occasionally come to the surface. Loves Curtis, but is annoyed by his penchant for clinging to tradition, and by his reverence for his father. Mimi never got along with Curtis’s father, and this is a source of contention for them. Loves her kids and wants the best for them. She is more easy-going than Curtis, and more willing to abandon formality in favor of fun.

Teddy:

Mid 20s. Curtis and Mimi’s son. Serious, dedicated college graduate, eager to green up the earth he has inherited. Not a tree-hugger, but a focused and passionate student of acid rain and its effect on the Adirondack trout he once fished for. In spite of his tough-mindedness, he is totally in love with his free-spirited, multi-ethnic, sexually liberated fiancée, who has introduced him to a wild and wonderful new life in New York, and in bed. But he, too, gets caught in the pull of the past... He is having doubts on the eve of his rehearsal dinner, and is questioning his love for his soon-to-be bride. He is also struggling with tradition vs. modernity, and in the end, comes out in favor of the latter. Realizes that the way his fiancée fails to see eye-to-eye with his parents could become a problem down the line, but chooses to overlook it, as he is truly in love. Has a good relationship with his family and respects their opinions.

Elsie:

20s. Teddy’s younger sister. Bright and athletic. Easy-going in her relationship with her live-in partner. Irritatingly know-it-all to her brother, who calls her “Little Hitler”. She is very much on top of things, shifting back and forth between the values of her contemporaries and those of her parents, who count on her constantly as an interpreter and ambassador. Deals with her anxieties by running whenever she has the chance. She is the peacemaker of the family, trying to hold everything together as her brother’s rehearsal dinner is erupting in chaos. Gets annoyed that she is constantly the messenger who must go between family members, but does it anyway. Happily living with a boyfriend whom she has no intentions of marrying anytime soon, much to the confusion of her dad—she’s less conventional than he’d like.