Duluth Broadway LLC
AUDITION DATE
Fri, Sep 20, 2019
10:00 am - 6:00 pm (EDT)
Lunch 1:30 to 2:30
CONTRACT
Production (League) $2095/week current min
SEEKING
Equity actor/singers for various roles. See breakdown.
All SM positions have been filled.
PREPARATION
Please a brief contemporary pop or folk song in the world of Bob Dylan. Please bring picture, resume, and sheet music. No a cappella singing.
LOCATION
TWStudios: Chelsea
151 W 26th St
Fl 6
New York, NY 10001
PERSONNEL
Producer: Duluth Broadway LLC
Songs by: Bob Dylan
Book by: Conor McPherson
Director: Conor McPherson
Casting: Jordan Thaler/Heidi Griffiths
Attended by Jordan Thaler, Heidi Griffiths, or Chalin Tulyathan (TBD).
OTHER DATES
First Rehearsal: 1/6/20
First Performance: 2/7/20
Opening: 3/5/2020
Open run – No closing date set
OTHER
Pursuant to the terms of a concession made to this employer's agreement, the employer has agreed that any Equity member who attends this call will have an opportunity to be seen.
EPA Procedures are in effect for audition.
An Equity monitor will be provided.
Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition.
Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.
BREAKDOWN
In the Winter of 1934 in Nick Laine’s soon-to-be foreclosed guesthouse in Duluth, MN, the Great Depression has left its mark on the struggling residents, all of whom are one piece of bad luck removed from disaster. With little to be thankful for except for the kindness (and sometimes the deceit) of strangers, they gather together as a group of survivors for their last Thanksgiving together before scattering to whatever is next for them. PLEASE NOTE: The entire company functions as an ensemble, both creating the world of the boarding house and singing as a group and are onstage almost all the time. All must be STRONG singers with the ability to blend in the choral parts and be able to step out with their own unique voice as well. Rock and folk vocal styles are a preference, but if you think you don’t sound like anyone else, then we want to hear that too as a unique vocal presence is also a part of a proposal about what our country and this music calls for.
SEEKING:
JOE SCOTT: Male. Late 20’s – Early 30’s. Black. STRONG singer with wide vocal range. A Boxer. Physically fit and strong looking. He is making his way to Chicago where he is looking for a fresh start after serving time. Although prison interrupted a promising career as a fighter, he still has the quickness and ferocity that will put him on top in a physical confrontation. He is forthright and piercingly clear about what he wants but there is still something enigmatic about his past. He just might be Nick’s adopted daughter’s ticket out of town.
OFFSTAGE UNDERSTUDY MAN: 30’s. Black. To understudy Joe Scott, Elias Burke and Ensemble (character descriptions below). Seeking an actor with a large range to cover both baritone and HIGH tenor solos.
OFFSTAGE UNDERSTUDY WOMAN 1: Late 20’s – Early 30’s. To Understudy Kate Draper and Ensemble (character descriptions below).
OFFSTAGE UNDERSTUDY WOMAN 2: Late 30’s – 40’s. To Understudy Elizabeth Laine, Mrs. Burke and Ensemble (character descriptions below).
THE FOLLOWING ROLES ARE CAST:
NICK LAINE: Male. 50’s – Early 60’s. The proprietor of the guesthouse. An unconventional leading man with edge, and imposing physicality and sexual vitality. A restless man who seems younger than his years and yet he still wears something that is broken. He is all heart, taking in the waifs and strays who knock on his door, but has no head for business. The bank is about to repossess the house, which has been in the family for generations. He takes care of his wife who is slowly succumbing to dementia. Knowing that the world is about to crash down around him he struggles to find security for his family. (CAST)
DR. WALKER: Late 40’s – Early 60’s. A physician. A storyteller. A likeable man with a warm spirit and speaking voice. Although a frequent visitor to Nick’s house, he is something of an outsider amongst the others, a characteristic which suits him perfectly as the narrator of the story. He knows everything about the intimacies of his patient’s lives but his own life is an enigma to them and perhaps to himself. An acute observer of other people’s pain, he eventually succumbs to the unbearableness of his own loneliness. (CAST)
ELIZABETH LAINE: 50’s. Nick’s wife. A complicated and contentious woman at the best of times she is now struggling through the haze of progressively worsening dementia. She had, long ago, fallen out of love with her husband but the two are now forever tied together by the needs of her caretaking. She is still more than capable of showing flashes of the woman she used to be. Tough, acerbic and a ferocious defender of her two kids. (CAST)
MARIANNE LAINE: Early 20’s. Black. Nick and Elizabeth’s daughter. Abandoned by boarders who left her in a bag at the guesthouse as a baby, she has been raised by Nick and Elizabeth. She is pregnant but who the father of her child is remains a mystery. Her world is small and she yearns to blow it open. She has a lot of her father’s strength as well as his restlessness. A chance encounter with a penniless drifter gives her one shot at getting out and starting a new life. (CAST)
GENE LAINE: 20’s. Nick and Elizabeth’s son. Aspires to be a writer, with perhaps the soul of a poet but looks more like a farmhand. Something rough-hewn about him already despite his youth. Smart and appealing, he has a way with words. Already something of a lost and yearning soul. He sits in the bars in town in search of inspiration but mostly what he finds is the bottom of the bottle. Alcohol fuels his sense of rage at the disappointment life has already dealt him. If he could only get to New York surely the great American novel would pour out of him. (CAST)
MR. BURKE: 50’s. A onetime factory owner. A man’s man who relished his power and the fraternal combat involved in business. He now carries an air of defeat, although he doesn’t know it. The combination of his family tribulations and the depression have knocked the wind out of his sails. (CAST)
MRS. BURKE: Late 40’s – Early 50’s. Elias’ mother. She has devoted herself to caring for her son at the expense of her own happiness and fulfillment, with little or no help from her husband. Was attractive and is now trying to hold on to something that is slipping away along with the best years of her life. She numbs the pain with an addiction to morphine. A role for a character actor with both dramatic and comedic skills. A strong singer who is more chanteuse than musical theater vocally. PLEASE NOTE: We are extremely interested in actors who play a drum kit or have developed percussion skills. (CAST)
ELIAS BURKE: Early 30’s. Mr. and Mrs. Burke’s son. A grown man with the developmental capabilities of a four year old child. Although he has a sweet and benign spirit, he has a physical strength that he doesn’t understand or know how to control. A role for an actor who is capable of creating an expressive physical life. (CAST)
MRS. NIELSEN: 40’s. Black. A widow. Nick’s mistress. Attractive. Self-possessed. Equal parts warmth and ballsy poise. You know she is in the room when she enters it. She is living at the boarding house while she waits for her dead husband’s money to come through. Still vibrant and full of life she is yearning for another chance at life and love. (CAST)
REV. MARLOWE: 50’s. A bible salesman and a weasel. He hides behind the semi-respectability of selling God’s word but in reality he’ll pull any con to survive. (CAST)
MR. PERRY: 60’s. A shoe mender. Although he is over forty years her senior he is Nick’s best bet for a husband for Marianne. He is a decent and kind man with his own business and house. A widower, he is lonely and afraid of his rapidly approaching old age. (CAST)
KATE DRAPER: 20’s. Gene’s ex-girlfriend. She is beautiful and bright with a life ahead full of possibilities. Unable to embrace Gene’s darkness and complication she has moved on with her own life. In a town this small, she will always be the one who got away. (CAST)
THE ENSEMBLE are all strong, versatile singers and character actors who look and feel more like they belong in The Grapes Of Wrath than Meet Me in St. Louis. All will be part of the onstage company and cover principal roles.
ENSEMBLE WOMAN 1: 20’s. Black. This actor will also cover principle roles likely to include Marianne Laine, Mrs. Nielsen and Kate Draper. (CAST)
ENSEMBLE WOMAN 2: 40’s. This actor will also cover principle roles likely to include Elizabeth Laine, Mrs. Nielsen and Mrs. Burke. (CAST)
ENSEMBLE MAN 1: Late 20’s – Early 30’s. Black. This actor will also cover principle roles likely to include Gene, Joe and Elias. Seeking an actor with a large range to cover both baritone and HIGH tenor solos. (CAST)
ENSEMBLE MAN 2: 40’s -50’s. This actor will also cover principle roles likely to include Nick, Reverend Marlowe and Mr. Burke. (CAST)
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Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to audition.
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