DUST AND SHADOW: THE MUSICAL
- OPEN (Equity/non-Equity) Auditions
Good Music at 221B, LLC (NYC) AEA 29 Hour Reading
Creator/Producer: Jonathan B. Howard
Music: Jonathan Reid Gealt
Lyrics: Dustin Sullivan
Book; Kasey Marino
Stage Manager: Shawn Pennington
Based on the Novel DUST AND SHADOW: AN ACCOUNT OF THE RIPPER KILLINGS BY DR. JOHN H. WATSON by Lyndsay Faye
Rehearsal Dates: November 5th-12th. Reading Dates: November 12th and 13th
OPEN (Equity and non-Equity) Auditions:
Monday, October 22, 2012 at Pearl Studios
10 AM – 4 PM 500 8th Avenue
Lunch from 1 – 1:30. New York, NY
Equity audition procedures are NOT in effect. No Equity monitor provided. Producer runs all aspects of the audition.
Please prepare a contemporary musical theater song that shows off vocal range and acting ability. Must be solid with contemporary rhythms and must have an strong sense of musicality. Think contemporary legit along the lines of Adam Guettel, Stephen Sondheim, and Ahrens and Flaherty.
Bring picture and resume, stapled together.
SEEKING:
Inspector Lestrade:
Early 40s to mid 50s, any ethnicity. Dogged, gruff, brave, loyal police inspector whose respect for Holmes is only matched by his profound annoyance at him. Lestrade’s detection skills are merely average, but he is truly horrified by the Ripper murders. Lower middle class British accent. Range: baritone; character with Low C/High G.
Leslie Tavistock:
30s, any ethnicity. With a silver tongue and a heart of slime, Tavistock is the quintessential tabloid journalist, the original bottom dweller of the breed. He would sell out his own mother to sell more papers, and wouldn’t mind dragging all of London down into the muck with him. Standard British accent. Range: high tenor; harsh, brassy. Low E/High B.
George Lusk:
Mid-30s to early 50s, any ethnicity. A rabid socialist and civic agitator, Lusk loves his country, loves his fellow Londoners, and refuses to shut up about any of it. Holmes enlists him to form a Vigilance Committee against the Ripper, which Lusk agrees to with almost frightening enthusiasm. Standard British accent. Range: bari-tenor with bravado; hearty. Low C/High A flat.
Hawkins:
Boy, 9-12, any ethnicity. One of Holmes’s ragtag band of Baker Street Irregulars, a scrappy youth who nonetheless is horrified at discovering one of the Ripper’s corpses. Brief stage combat with Holmes in a lighthearted self-defense lesson. Cockney accent with period slang. Range: angelic. Low A flat/High A flat (one octave
Ensemble:
4 men and 4 women, all character types, ethnicities, and vocal ranges. The Ensemble will bring to life all of greater London as both individuals and as a chorus, so some facility with accents is preferred, and opportunities for character features exist.
The following roles have been cast or an offer extended. Actors auditioning may be considered for possible replacements if needed:
Sherlock Holmes:
CAST. Mid-30s, any ethnicity. An aloof, arch, caustic crimesolving genius with a streak of languid Bohemianism and a strong taste for mayhem. His mind demands constant occupation, in the absence of which he turns to intravenous cocaine and morphine, and he has a chameleon-like ability to become other, more likeable people at the drop of a pin. Devoted to his friend John Watson and generally oblivious to everyone else, but when Jack the Ripper presents him with a gruesome series of murders, he is pushed far beyond limits he didn’t know he possessed. Very upper class/aristocratic British accent when himself, a range of other UK accents when he adopts a new personality. Range: baritone; crass; extremely versatile. Low B/High G.
Dr. John Watson:
CAST. Mid-30s, any ethnicity. Medical doctor and courageous veteran of the Second Afghan War, a lover of women and gambling, he would be the quintessential solid and upright British citizen were he not so tolerant of the eccentricities of his bizarre fellow lodger Sherlock Holmes. A deeply sympathetic man, Watson would stand in front of a bullet for Holmes but would really prefer it didn’t come to that—practical, wry, amused, steadfast. Upper middle class British accent. Range: bari-tenor; dynamic and powerful. Low C/High A flat.
Constable Bennett:
CAST. Late 20s to mid-30s, any ethnicity. A calm, quiet, mild-mannered police officer who is almost ethereally unobtrusive and can slip through crowds unseen. Standard British accent. Range: tenor; light and eerily beautiful. Low C/High B flat.
Johnny Blackstone:
CAST. 30s, any ethnicity. Burly, hot-tempered, charming, hedonistic, severely masculine member of the guards. While his character is not evil, his fury is palpable and deadly. Lower class British accent. Range: baritone; agile. Low F/High F (one octave).
Mrs. Hudson:
CAST. Mid-40s to late 60s, any ethnicity. Mrs. Hudson is the world’s most courageous housekeeper, and the only housekeeper on the planet who could possibly give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money. Despite her dry wit, she is very fond of her boys, and she hides an iron spine beneath her matronly respectability. Standard British accent. Mainly a non-singing role.
Stephen Dunlevy:
CAST. 30s, any ethnicity. A reporter walking the mean streets of London in search of an inside scoop, Dunlevy dons disguises to further his aims but owns much more honorable motives that your typical tabloid hack. Handsome leading man type, slightly hapless, a sleeves-up working man’s Freddie Eynesford-Hill. Standard British accent. Mainly a non-singing role.
Mary Ann Monk:
OFFER EXTENDED. Mid-20s to low-30s, any ethnicity. Warm, engaging, bright, curious, charismatic streetwalker with a keen eye for observation she learned in the school of hard knocks. She is hired by Holmes to provide inside information on the Ripper murders, but soon gets more than she bargained for. Cockney accent, required to handle heavy Victorian slang. Range: Low A flat/High E flat.
Dead Girls Chorus:
OFFERS EXTENDED. Early 20s to late 40s, any ethnicity. There are six Dead Girls, and they are the whores murdered by Jack the Ripper who have come back to torment the haunted mind of Sherlock Holmes. All of them have been bitterly used by life, but their individual experiences vary according to individual. Standard to low British accents. Must have large range. Low E/High E (2 octaves) Mixy and light.
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