Houston Shakespeare Festival 2026 Season — Houston, TX (EPA)
AUDITION DATE
LOCATION
Date: Saturday, February 14, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM–4:00 PM (C)
Location: Jose Quintero Theater at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Performing Arts
3351 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77204
APPOINTMENTS
To schedule an audition appointment, please email Rachel Bush at
rrbush@central.uh.edu.
PERSONNEL
- Expected to attend:
- Jack Young — Artistic Director / Director (COMEDY OF ERRORS)
- Sharon Ott — Executive Director / Director (THE TEMPEST)
CONTRACT
$733 weekly minimum (Ref. to URTA) — in negotiations — subject to change.
OTHER DATES
- Callbacks: Sunday, February 15, 2026, 10:00 AM–3:00 PM
- First Rehearsal: June 30, 2026
- Opening Night: July 30, 2026
- Closing Night: August 8, 2026
- Actors local to the Houston area are encouraged to audition.
PREPARATION
Please prepare a one-minute comic and a one-minute serious Shakespeare selection. No video submissions. An Equity Monitor will not be provided; the producer will run all aspects of this audition. Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.
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. Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition.
Festival website:
https://www.uh.edu/shakespeare/index.php
BREAKDOWN
All performers will be cast in both THE TEMPEST and COMEDY OF ERRORS. Some roles may double or combine with other roles (TBD).
THE TEMPEST — CASTING SEEKING
- Prospera — CAST
- Ariel — CAST
- Gonzalo — CAST
- Caliban — fantastical creature, forced to serve Prospera; poetic and rebellious soul; enticed into drunkenness by a pair of clowns
- Alonso — King of Naples; guilty conscience; fears he has lost his son Ferdinand in a shipwreck
- Ferdinand — son of Alonso; open, optimistic; falls in love with Miranda, Prospera's daughter
- Antonio — Prospera's brother; schemes to kill other survivors of the shipwreck
- Sebastian — ally of Antonio
- Stephano — Alonso's drunken butler
- Trinculo — Alonso's drinking buddy
- Miranda — Prospera's daughter; kind, amazed by new things
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS — CASTING SEEKING
- Antipholus of Ephesus — put-upon husband; twin to Antipholus of Syracuse
- Antipholus of Syracuse — twin to Antipholus of Ephesus; poetic striver in search of family
- Dromio of Ephesus — servant to Antipholus; rugged, put-upon, takes many beatings
- Dromio of Syracuse — right-hand to Antipholus; scrambling, quick-witted, takes many beatings
- Adriana — Antipholus of Ephesus's jealous wife; at her wit's end with her husband; barely patient with her sister Luciana
- Luciana — Adriana's sister; dewy-eyed optimist about love
- Egeon — father to the Antipholus twins; desperate to find his family
- Emilia — an abbess in Ephesus, who thinks she lost her husband Egeon, sons Antipholuses and servants Dromios
- Duke Solinus — the fair-minded ruler of Ephesus
- The Courtesan — an entertainer of men
- Doctor Pinch — a quack
- Angelo — a goldsmith; somewhat hysterical
- 2nd Merchant — a man determined to get the money he's owed
