KING OF THE JEWS Equity Principal Actors - Producing Org TBD Auditions

KING OF THE JEWS - NYC EPA Revised Producing Org TBD | ,

Notice: Audition Call Type: EPA

REVISED

Character description for Rivesaltes updated to include nudity.

AUDITION DATE

Thursday, July 27, 2023

9:30 AM - 5:30 PM (E)

Break 1:00PM - 2:00PM

CONTRACT

Off Broadway

$772 weekly minimum (Tier A)

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles in KING OF THE JEWS (see breakdown).

PREPARATION

Please prepare two short contrasting monologues from the contemporary theater repertoire. Bring a headshot and resume (Stapled together).

BREAKDOWN

LOCATION

Actors' Equity New York Audition Center 165 W 46th St

16th Fl

New York, NY 10036

Studio B

PERSONNEL

Director: Alexandra Aron

Writer: Leslie Epstein

Expected to attend:

Producer: John Breen

Casting Director: Jamibeth Margolis, CSA

OTHER DATES

Additional EPA: July 26th, July 28th Rehearsal Dates: September 18, 2023 - October 18, 2023

Preview: October 18, 2023

Opening Night: TBD

Closing: November 19, 2023

OTHER

Venue: HERE Arts Center NYC

EPA Procedures are in effect for this 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.

KING OF THE JEWS

SYNOPSIS: In the first act the Germans force the Jews to choose a Judenrat (a Jewish Council) that will shape the course of their and their fellow Jews’ lives. Gotterman emerges as the Elder, their leader. Later, in the second act, the same Judenrat (bigshots now) are confronted with the most terrible choice that any human beings ever had to make - to put down the names of Jews for deportation. The play exposes the tragedy and absurdity of life under fascism, a life weare threatened with even now.

SEEKING:

I.C. Gotterman – Male identifying. Physician, later the Elder of the Judenrat (Jewish council appointed by the Germans to administer the ghetto for them.) Late 60s and up. Formidable, intelligent, cynical, egotistical. He’s unmarried and unsatisfied. Originally from a backwater town in Lithuania, his background is shady. He’s a self-made man, a workaholic, with a mythically high regard for himself. Described as having a mane of white hair, he cuts a large, majestic figure. Despite caring for others, he doesn’t feel the pain of others. There is charismatic but often restrained energy to him. Once he is in charge, he relishes his power and acts without regret or empathy. He also becomes mad towards the end of the play, which effectively exaggerates all of his characteristics.

Fried Rivesaltes – Male identifying. Owner of Astoria Café – late 40s and up. He’s an operator. Crafty, weasel-like, he’s corrupt and ingratiating. As the only Jewish cabaret proprietor with a license to operate, one can only imagine the compromises he’s made. He’s a realist, a survivor. He’s well-fed, well-dressed and commanding. Despite the fact that he uses his wife to manipulate other men, at bottom he remains as human as everyone else in the play. He has a nervous laugh and conveys real fear/terror at a critical moment of the play. At that instant, we care for him and are horrified by what happens to him. NOTE: The character of Rivesaltes will appear NUDE towards the end of Act 1.

Mme. Rivesaltes (Phelia Lubliver) – Female identifying. late 30s, Good singer. Sexy, voluptuous, long hair. Her life has been one of compromise, relying on her physical charms to influence others and to protect herself. Having lost the early security and comfort of a pampered upbringing, she moves from man to man seeking a safe and if possible, luxurious life. At the beginning of the play she is in an unsatisfactory marriage convenience with Rivesaltes. She comports herself with an air of superiority and confidence which disguise her inner fragility. Some genuine feeling is revealed in her singing. During the play she has episodes of complete madness.

Schotter - Male identifying. 30s and up. He’s the Lenny Bruce-like comedian doing stand-up after hours for the Jews at the café. Wry, shrewd, he’s capable of bravely making jokes about Germans in front of them. He’s quick, darting — eager to make his gags and then quickly running away from them in case there’s trouble. He’s the truth-teller who sometimes dares to speak up, though he is as frightened as everyone else. He knows his job is to distract – both the Germans from their task and the Jews from their fears.

F. X. Woltat – Male identifying. A Volksdeutscher – 30s- 40s. He’s the Aryan; German-born who grew up in Poland. He’s like a “popped kernel of corn”, puffy and possibly plump, not the prototypical strong, chiseled Aryan. He presents a relaxed and ironically amused demeanor which makes him all the more

scary. He sweats a lot. He’s a killer. A salesman. He enjoys and milks the power he has over others. And from time to time, we see the flashes of the beast. The sadism in him comes out in his treatment of both women off-stage.

Ferdinand Philosoff - Male identifying. 70s and up. A career waiter who takes pride in his craft. Sincere, professional, kind, helpful and naive. He’s one of the only characters in the play without doubleness. There’s a kind of purity about him. Steady, confident, he knows his place and is content there. He is unintentionally comedic and is the most sympathetic character of the bunch.

Herman Gutfreind - Male identifying. Mid 30s to mid 50s. He’s the cook and the clarinetist. His head is more in the clouds than on the meals he cooks. He’s the Bolshevik with a fiery revolutionary temperament. The “onwards friends” focus makes him optimistic but also inflexible. He’s read some books but is no intellectual. He’s an uninformed idealist, who hasn’t matured much past age 19. Ultimately, he is crushed by principle. Plays the clarinet (or trumpet, trombone or saxophone) well.

Dorka Kleinweiss – Female identifying. 30s-40s. A cellist. She has fiery red hair. She is attractive, but not as seductive as Phelia Lubliver. She has kinder and more maternal energy. She seems self effacing, but is revealed as strong willed and possessed of a rebellious streak. She is also an addict (to something like cocaine). She’s intelligent and is the first to grasp what is really going on. Plays the cello.

Schpitalnik – Male identifying. 30-40s. An amateur pianist with rings on every finger. He’s visiting from Budapest and is the only non-Polish denizen of the cafe. He is an opportunist, likes to play the big-shot and believes he has led the right kind of life. He boasts of his hands having been bathed in milk. He’s a fur-trader with a wife and kids in Hungary. He has a slight stutter. Underneath his boisterous, jolly exterior he is cowardly. He’s well-fed and out of shape. Plays the piano well.

Rabbi Martini – Male identifying. 60s up -- aged rabbi. Kvetching is their way of life. Martini is always hungry and despairing. He’s petty and a bit ridiculous. Although he is comedic, he has moments of great insight. Note: The rabbis are a pair and may be cast to be a duo - (either tall/short .. fat/thin… perhaps identical beards). They have been bickering with each other for decades.

Rabbi Verble – Male identifying. 60s up aged rabbi. Almost blind and then entirely blind. Kvetching is their way of life. Always hungry and rather pathetic - Verble, like a Martini, is a comedic role, but he is able to utter a terrible truth. Note: The rabbis are a pair and may be cast to be a duo - (either tall/short .. fat/thin… perhaps identical beards). They have been bickering with each other for decades.

Nisel Lipiczany – Male identifying. Teenager –15ish. He’s a runaway. He’s in a state of catatonic shock from having witnessed a mass murder of his townsmen and family. He behaves like a wounded/hunted animal for most of the play, saying nothing. He’s terrified. Towards the end of the play, he bursts out of his shell to share his story in a furious torrent of words and images. It’s a mechanical stream of talk, Beckett-like (Lucky), an impactful and mainly non-emotional explosion.