MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING/ELIZABETH REX Equity Principal Audition - Opera House Arts Auditions

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING / ELIZABETH REX

– Equity Principal Auditions

Opera House Arts Stonington ME SPT $365/week minimum.

Artistic Dir: Judith Jerome

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING by Shakespeare. Dir: Cynthia Croot.

ELIZABETH REX by Timothy Findley. Dir: Peter Richards.

1st rep reh: 5/23/11. MUCH ADO opens 6/30. ELIZABETH REX opens 7/7. Rep closes 7/17.

Equity Principal Auditions:

Friday, March 18, 2011 Actors' Equity Association Audition Center

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

Lunch from 1 - 2. New York City

Please prepare two one-minute monologues: one Shakespearean and one contemporary. Monologues no longer than one minute each, please.

Please bring a picture & resume, stapled back-to-back.

Queen Elizabeth I of England was to behead her lover, the Earl of Essex, in the early morning hours of Ash Wednesday, 1601. On the eve of his execution, it is known that Elizabeth called Shakespeare and his actors—the Lord Chamberlain’s Men—to perform in one of her palaces. She sought distraction from the torment of what her royal duty had forced her to do. ELIZABETH REX imagines that the play performed that night was MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. A curfew prevents the actors in Shakespeare’s troupe from returning to London, so instead, they decamp to a barn on the palace grounds, where Queen Elizabeth pays them an unexpected visit. ELIZABETH REX is the fictional story of what transpired in the barn that night.

Opera House Arts will stage both plays as a single theatrical event. The plays will run in repertory with “marathon” performances on weekends. MUCH ADO will be set in Elizabethan times—that is, on Shrove Tuesday, 1601—and will be presented as if Shakespeare’s troupe were performing for Queen Elizabeth and her court (the audience). ELIZABETH REX will be a site-specific production, performed in a barn.

Seeking eight actors (M/F, all ages and ethnicities) to perform both plays in repertory. All actors will perform in both shows. Highly physical productions.

William Shakespeare / Ensemble:

Male track. Shakespeare: In ELIZABETH REX. Man, 52. Actor-playwright and shareholder of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Ensemble: In MUCH ADO.

Queen Elizabeth I / Margaret / Ensemble:

Female track. Elizabeth: In ELIZABETH REX. Character is age 67. Actor must be willing to cut hair short or shave head. Margaret/Ensemble: In MUCH ADO. Waiting woman to Hero.

Ned Lowenscroft / Beatrice:

Male track. Ned: In ELIZABETH REX. Mid 30s. Mature leading actor of female roles. Beatrice: In MUCH ADO. Shakespeare's witty heroine.

Jonathan Edmund / Benedick:

Male track. Edmund: In ELIZABETH REX. Irish, mid 30s. Leading actor of male roles. Benedick: In MUCH ADO. Beatrice's paramour.

Matthew Wells / Claudio:

Male track. Wells: In ELIZABETH REX. 20s. Young leading man. Claudio: In MUCH ADO. Hero's fiancé.

Henry Pearle / Hero:

Male or female track. Henry: Boy actor, age 18. Hero: In MUCH ADO. Female character. “Sweet Hero”.

Percy Gower / Lord Robert Cecil / Ensemble:

Male track. Gower: In ELIZABETH REX: 60s. Character actor. Cecil: In ELIZABETH REX. 38. Private Secretary to the Queen. Ensemble: In MUCH ADO.

Kate Treadwell / Luddy Beddoes / Friar Francis:

Female track. Kate: In ELIZABETH REX: 50s. Wardrobe mistress of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Luddy: Man, 50s. Character actor. Friar/Ensemble:In MUCH ADO.

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