KING LEAR — Submission Auditions
Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
KING LEAR - EQUITY VIDEO SUBMISSIONS
Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
CONTRACT
LORT Non-Rep $1,008 weekly minimum
SEEKING
Equity actors for roles in KING LEAR (see breakdown).
Casting conception: This stripped-down version of King Lear is focused on the central family dynamics of the play and has cut Albany and Cornwall so the two older children can act more on their own. We begin with the notion that Lear has had multiple wives which allows latitude in casting Regan and Goneril to be very similar or ethnically varied depending upon the candidates we discover. We’ve also cut Kent from the production which allows us to further streamline the play around the family.
INSTRUCTIONS
Please email a one minute Shakespearean monologue. DEADLINE: Thursday 1/06/2022: 6PM PST
Deadline: Thu, Jan 6, 2022
SUBMIT TO
PERSONNEL
Viewing auditions:
Amy Lieberman (Casting Director)
Camille Jenkins (Assistant Director/Programming Manager at The Wallis)
OTHER DATES
First rehearsal: Tuesday April 5, 2022
Tech begins: Wednesday May 4, 2022
Previews begin: Tuesday May 10, 2022
Opening: Saturday May 14, 2022
Closing: Sunday June 5, 2022 OR Sunday June 12, 2022 (if production extended)
OTHER
thewallis.org
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 submit.
BREAKDOWN
PLEASE NOTE: The role of Lear has been cast.
We have not yet determined what roles, if any, will be understudied.
CORDELIA/FOOL: NON BINARY. 20’s. OPEN ETHNICITY. The youngest of Lear's children. Their candor emerges from a sense of youthful honesty. Fully confident and comfortable in their identity and in the truth they present to others, mostly Lear, whom they love. NOTE: Cordelia and Fool will not be distinguished by much other than perhaps a costume element and the actor cast should not be concerned with distinguishing the two characters as we are more interested in their unity than their distinctions.
GONERIL: FEMALE. 40’s, OPEN ETHNICITY. She’s a powerful, confident and smart daughter, who could be Queen – she can lead. Progresses in her addiction to power and her sexual attraction to Edmund.
REGAN: FEMALE. LATE 30’s, OPEN ETHNICITY. She is the more volatile and emotional of the two older sisters. Progresses in her addiction to power and her sexual attraction to Edmund.
GLOUCESTER: MALE LATE 60’s. OPEN ETHNICITY. Same age as Lear, or older, and loves him. Both Edgar, legitimate, and Edmund, illegitimate, are his sons.
EDGAR/FRANCE: MALE; LATE-20’s to EARLY-30’s, OPEN ETHNICITY. EDGAR: Gloucester’s legitimate son. Loves his father, gullible enough to be deceived by Edmund, and and comes to realize his gender fluidity by the end of the play (Eddy Izzard as a model.) This progression is accompanied by a loss of naiveté and perhaps an increase of wisdom. FRANCE: Noble and honest, he acknowledges Cordelia’s honesty as worthier than a dowry. France appears in the first scene only.
EDMUND: MALE. LATE 20’s. Open ethnicity. Illegitimate son of Gloucester, and the sexual focus of all women’s attention. He is shrewd, handsome and charismatic. Edmund grows progressively headier with power and sex with the two older sisters as the play progresses to the point where he begins appropriating Lear’s wardrobe.
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 submit.
