CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY 2011-12 SEASON Equity Principal Auditions - Classic Stage Company Auditions

Classic Stage Company 2011-12 Season

– Equity Principal Auditions

ANTC (2010-11 salary: $506/week).

Artistic Dir: Brian Kulick

Exec Dir: Jessica R. Jenen

Assoc Artistic Dir: Tony Speciale

CD: Calleri Casting / James Calleri, Erica Jensen, Paul Davis

Equity Principal Auditions:

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 Actors' Equity Association Audition Center

Thursday, September 8, 2011 165 West 46th Street, 2nd Floor

9:30 AM - 5:30 PM both days. New York City

Lunch from 1 - 2.

Please prepare a monologue, 2 minutes or less. Monologues can be classical or modern drama.

Please bring a picture & resume, stapled together.

Note: In addition to being considered for available roles, auditioning performers will be considered as possible replacements for pre-cast roles, should any become necessary.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM by William Shakespeare. Dir: Tony Speciale. 1st reh: 2/27/12. Runs 3/28 – 5/6/12. May extend to 5/20/12.

Seeking actors who have extensive training in Viewpoints, improv, standup comedy, clowning, slapstick, acrobatics, juggling, musical instruments, singing, dance, magic tricks and other circus/sideshow-type skills. All ages and types are encouraged to apply.

Oberon / Theseus:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Male, 30s-50s. Oberon: Masculine, controlling, vengeful, but also charismatic and sensual. King of the Fairies. Actor will also play Theseus.

Puck:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Male or female, 20s-80s. Mischievous, unpredictable and sometimes forgetful fairy. Oberon’s confidant. Occasionally takes delight in playing pranks on mortals. Actor may also play Egeus.

Nick Bottom:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Man, 30s-40s. Confident, arrogant and clownish. Passionate lover of the spotlight, but oblivious of his inability to collaborate with his fellow man. A weaver. The most ambitious member of the Rude Mechanicals.

Helena:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Woman, late teens – early 20s. Intelligent, witty, resourceful, manipulative and co-dependent. From Athens. Though she lacks confidence in her physical appearance, she is striking nonetheless. Actor must look physically similar to Hermia.

Hermia:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Woman, late teens – early 20s. Strong, fiery, defiant, independent yet obsessive teenager from Athens. Refuses to take no for an answer when her father forbids her to marry Lysander. Actor must look physically similar to Helena.

Lysander:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Man, late teens – early 20s. Brave, articulate, polite and classically handsome youth from Athens. Hot for Hermia. Once under Puck’s spell, his sexual appetite for Helena becomes insatiable, and his manners fly out the door. Actor must look physically similar to Demetrius.

Demetrius:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Man, late teens – early 20s. Entitled, handsome, competitive and impulsive youth from Athens. Very short attention span. Brazenly pursues his desire for Hermia until he falls under a spell for Helena, where he still remains at play’s end. Actor must look physically similar to Lysander.

Peter Quince / Fairy:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Male or female, 20s-60s. A carpenter by trade, Quince is the gentle, down-to-earth, unassuming director of the Rude Mechanicals, a group of craftsmen dedicated to presenting a production of “Pyramus and Thisbe” as part of Theseus’s wedding celebration.

Francis Flute / Fairy:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Male, 20s. A bellows-mender by trade, Flute is forced to play the female role of Thisbe in the craftsmen’s production of “Pyramus and Thisbe”, because of his dulcet voice and slender figure.

Robin Starveling / Fairy:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Female, 20s-60s. A shy tailor by trade, Robin is chosen to play Thisbe’s mother, but ends up playing the part of Moonshine in the craftsmen’s production of “Pyramus and Thisbe”.

Tom Snout / Fairy:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Male or female, 20s-60s. A pragmatic tinker, Snout is chosen to play Pyramus’s father, but ends up playing the Wall in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s wedding celebration.

Snug / Fairy:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Male or female, 20s-60s. A worrisome and easily excitable joiner with poor memorization skills, Snug is cast in the role of the lion in “Pyramus and Thisbe”.

Titania:

CAST. Female. The beautiful queen of the fairies. Resists the attempts of her husband, Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s potion-induced occurrence leads her to fall in love with Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass. A powerful woman, she fits into the world of a side-show oddity.

GALILEO by Bertolt Brecht (Charles Laughton translation). Dir: Brian Kulick. 1st reh: 1/2/12. Runs 2/1 – 3/11/12. May extend to 3/18/12.

Virginia / As Cast:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Woman, late 20s - 30s. Galileo's long-suffering daughter. Loves her father. Deeply religious. Even though she disagrees with her father’s science, she spends the better part of her life supporting him. Warm, well-meaning, open, honest, full of life.

Ludovico / As Cast:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Man, 30s. Wealthy, upper-class student of Galileo. Cares more about fashion and politics than science, and will always do whatever is most expedient. Sly, winning and very entitled.

Little Monk / As Cast:

AVAILABLE ROLE. Man, late 20s - 30s. From the countryside. He, too, comes from simple folk, but possesses a fine intelligence. Deeply conflicted between the way of his country folk and what the new science portends. Honest, decent, down to earth, earnest and hardworking.

Galileo Galilei:

CAST. 60s+. Large, expansive, theatrical, the center of attention. Part scientist, part showman.

Andre / As Cast:

CAST. Male, 20s. Neighborhood boy; becomes Galileo's life-long disciple. Must have range to go from a wayward youth to a formidable scientist in his own right. Goes from innocence to a hard-earned realism.

Priuli / Street Singer / As Cast:

CAST. Male, 40s. Two expansive roles; two men of the streets who know how to draw a crowd and hold them. Like modern-day carnival barkers/with edge.

Pope / As Cast:

CAST. Man, 40s. Very intelligent, urbane; a real political operator. Thoroughly modern man who still maintains the status quo at all costs (even of his own “soul”).

Federzoni / Old Cardinal / As Cast:

CAST. Male, 60s. Federzoni: Lab assistant to Galileo. Not educated. Gruff. Simple peasant with the wit and wisdom of the common people. Old Cardinal: Deaf. Hostile and reactionary.

Sagredo / Cardinal Inquisitor / As Cast:

CAST. Male, 40s. Sagredo: Galileo's life-long friend; shares Galileo's love for knowledge and truth, but is much more cautious and pragmatic about speaking about it. Inquisitor. Urbane. His light, ironic surface masks a true political animal who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD by Anton Chekhov. Dir: Andre Belgrader. 1st reh: 10/11/11. Runs 11/9-12/18. May extend to 1/15/12.

Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya:

CAST. Woman, 50s-60s. Land-owner. Has faced tragedy many times in her life, or rather has tried to escape from it. Seems to exemplify love with her generosity, kindness, physical beauty and sexual nature. She is the only character in the play with a lover. But her feelings of love often cloud her judgment. She is also unable to control her spending, a sign of her disconnection from her present status as an impoverished aristocrat.

Leonid Andreyevich Gaev:

CAST. Man, 51. Ranevskaya’s brother. Kind, concerned uncle and brother. Behaves very differently around people not of his own social class. He is 51 years old, but, as he notes, this is “difficult to believe”, because he is, in many ways, an infant. Constantly pops sweets into his mouth, insults people (such as Lopakhin) with whom he disagrees, and has to be reminded by Firs to put on his jacket.

Anya:

CAST. Woman, 30s. Daughter of Ranevskaya. Seems to have lived a sheltered life. Greatly enjoys the company of Trofimov and his lofty idealism. Quick to comfort her mother after the loss of her orchard. Anya and Trofimov become so close that Varya fears they may become romantically involved.

Varya Mikhaylovna:

CAST. Woman, 24. Ranevskaya’s adopted daughter. She is the estate's manager, so she will lose her job if Ranevskaya loses the estate, but, lacking money or a husband, she has no control over its fate or her own. Hard-working and responsible. She is often in tears; but this may reflect her sense of powerlessness, as she is the one character in the play who may be most affected by the loss of the estate.

Yermolay Alekseyevich Lopakhin:

CAST. Man, 40s. Middle-aged businessman. Son of peasants on Ranevskaya’s estate. Extremely self-conscious, especially in the presence of Ranevskaya. Perpetually complaining about his lack of education and refinement, he attributes this to his upbringing as a peasant on Ranevskaya’s estate. His memories of the brutality of a peasant child’s life on the estate contrast with Ranevskaya’s idyllic memories as a child of the land-owning class.

Petya Sergeyevich Trofimov:

CAST. Man, 30s. Student at the local university. Referred to as the “eternal student”, for he has been in university most of his adult life. Not known for his looks. Very serious-minded. Believes himself “above love”, and has a forward-looking nature. His utopian idealism contrasts with Lopakhin's practicality and materialism.

Boris Borisovich Simeonov-Pischick:

CAST. Man, 40s. Nobleman and fellow landowner who, like Ranevskaya, is in financial difficulties. Characterized mainly by his boundless optimism — however, he is continually borrowing money from Ranevskaya. His name means “squealer” in Russian; appropriate for someone who never stops talking.

Yasha:

CAST. Man, mid 20s. Manservant. Has been traveling with Ranevskaya ever since she left for France. Man’s man with a taste for the upper-class. Complains that Russia is uncivilized in comparison to France. Exploits Dunyasha's love for physical pleasure. Openly tells Firs that he should die. Most of the characters besides Ranevskaya regard him as repulsive and obnoxious. Has a strong taste for acrid-smelling cigars.

Semyon Panteleyevich Yepikhodov:

CAST. Man, late 20s. A clerk. Source of amusement for all the other workers, who refer to him as “Simple Simon”. Self-consciously carries himself as the hopeless lover and romantic, often contemplating suicide. For him, life is perpetually getting worse. Desperately loves Dunyasha, to whom he has proposed.

Charlotta Ivanovna:

CAST. Woman, 60s. A governess. Something of a clown, performing tricks for the amusement of the elite around her like Yasha, Ranevskaya and Lopakhin, while at the same time subtly mocking their preoccupations. At a young age, she traveled from town to town with her parents, performing tricks like “the dive of death”.

Firs Nikolayevich:

CAST. Man, 87. A manservant. Possibly senile, and constantly mumbling. The only surviving link to the estate's glorious past. Frequently talks about how life was before the serfs were freed and when the estate was prosperous.

Dunyasha:

CAST. Late 20s – early 30s. Maid on the Ranevsky estate. Her presence with the upper-class has led her to believe that she is as delicate as they are. Loves Yasha and, with her naïve innocence, she desperately throws herself at him.

Note: Casting Director states that the smaller roles (e.g. Tramp, Station-Master, etc.) have been cut.

Theatre’s statement: “Seeking actors of all ethnicities.”