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MERCHANT OF VENICE Equity Principal Audition - Theatre For A New Audience Auditions

Posted September 9, 2010
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MERCHANT OF VENICE - Theatre For A New Audience

MERCHANT OF VENICE – Equity Principal Auditions

Theatre For A New Audience NYC LORT Tour C; $696/week until 2/21 then $710/week

Director: Darko Tresnjak

1st reh NY: 1/31/11. Runs: 2/27 – 3/27 at Pace Theatre

Runs in Chicago: 3/16 – 3/27 at Bank of America Theatre

Runs in Boston: 3/29 – 4/10 at Majestic Theatre

Runs in Los Angeles: 4/14 – 4/24 at Broad Theatre

Equity Principal Auditions:

Friday, September 24, 2010 at the Actors' Equity Audition Center

9:30 AM — 5:30 PM 165 West 46th Street, 2nd Floor

Lunch from 1 - 2. New York, NY. Studio B

Prepare a short Shakespearean monologue.

Bring picture and resume, stapled together.

Starring F. Murray Abraham

Seeking:

Portia:

25 to 30. Shakespeare’s young heiress of Belmont is one of his greatest contradictions. She is magnificent in some ways (charming, articulate, generous, warm) and compromised and hypocritical in others (flashes of bad temper; racist prejudices; and, yes, the ability to talk about mercy at great length and show none).

Granville Barker points out what makes her different from so many of Shakespeare’s young heroines: nothing can keep Juliet from her Romeo, or Helena from Bertram, Rosalind from Orlando, etc. But Portia chooses to submit to the humiliating trial of the three caskets because her fortune is tied up in the trial (at the risk of ending up with a jackass of a husband). In other words, she chooses certain wealth over potential love from the outset -- which makes her a complicated and somewhat compromised individual from the start and not a simple, story-book princess.

Bassanio:

25 to 30. He is a little bit like Chance Wayne in “Sweet Bird of Youth”: still attractive but tarnished. Squandered potential. Has wasted a lot of time, is used to a good life, but the money has run out, the boyish good looks are starting to go, and he hasn’t accomplished much. He is aware of the fact that Antonio desires him, and he uses it (but that does not necessarily make him gay). A gambler: he’s staked everything on winning Portia, and it’s his last chance.

Gratiano:

25 TO 35. Mr. Motor-mouth. Desperate stand-up comic. Perhaps somewhat out of shape. If he was in the HBO show “Entourage”, he’d be the one that they kind of want to get rid of. Tries too hard, whether it’s the comic schtick with Antonio in the first scene or the anti-Semitic rant during the trial scene. Behind the jokes are cheap suits, booze and financial anxiety. (After all, he has to borrow money from Bassanio, who himself seems to have none.)

Launcelot Gobbo:

Great role for a young, spry comic actor with a genuinely unapologetic, shameless sense of humor. The only way that this role works is if we are both amused and horrified at the way that this young man makes fun of religion, age, disabilities, etc., and creeps out Jessica in the second half of the play. He is eager to assimilate and move up in the world, and his “transformation” could be quite funny. For a clown in a Shakespeare play, he is unusual, in that he is ambitious and has an agenda. In this production, he starts out as a bike messenger and then moves up in the world. He’ll do well.

Solanio:

20s TO 30s. Solanio and Salerio are fairly young, affluent, opinionated, arrogant, and secure in their status as the members of the most privileged “in” crowd in Venice. They have all of the qualities that seem to be valuable in the Venetian society: they are young, white, rich, straight, male, and Christian. Chances are that once you’re out of the room, they won’t have anything nice to say about you, no matter who you are.

Balthazar/Tubal:

35 to 50. Balthazar: This is a much bigger role than the text indicates, because – for the purposes of this production -- all of Portia’s male servants have been consolidated into this role. He is Portia’s I.T. guy. Metro-sexual. Witty. Sly sense of humor. A gay accessory. He and Nerissa have a great deal of fun with Portia, but are not blind to her prejudices. Tubal: A ghostly and haunting presence (in this production, at the other end of the phone line) and the only person that Shylock can reach out to once Launcelot and Jessica abandon him.

Arragon/Duke:

40 TO 60. Arragon: An aging, vain, tan playboy trying to look much younger. For the purposes of this production, think George Hamilton. He has retained the hip moves of another era, and is not aware how funny and pathetic they are to Portia and other people around him. Duke: A dry, noncommittal presence during the trial scene. A perfect poker face.

All other roles are cast.

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