RECON$TRUXION Equity Actors - Alabama Shakespeare Festival Auditions

RECON$TRUXION - Submit for NYC Appointments

Alabama Shakespeare Festival | Montgomery, AL

CONTRACT

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles in the world premiere production of RECON$TRUXION (see breakdown). No roles will be understudied.

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan’s ReCON$truXion, commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for its New Southern Canon, plunges into the searing aftermath of the Civil War where the fight for a new America is anything but over. At the center stands Congressman John Lynch — a real-life trailblazer and one of the first Black men elected to the U.S. House of Representatives — who dares to challenge the broken promises of Reconstruction. As power shifts, alliances fray, and justice teeters on a razor’s edge, this bold new work exposes the brutal truths of a nation struggling to redefine itself. ReCON$truXion is not just a story of history — it’s a thunderous call to confront the past that shaped our present.

SUBMISSION

INSTRUCTIONS

Please submit your headshot and resume for consideration. Please include “ReCON” in the subject line.

Submission Deadline: November 24, 2025

SUBMIT TO

kcactorsubmissions@gmail.com

PERSONNEL

Artistic Director: Quin Gresham
Director: Steve H Broadnax
Playwright: Robert Schenkkan

OTHER DATES

Auditions will be held the week of December 1st.
First rehearsal: March 17, 2026
Preview: April 23, 2026
Opening: April 24, 2026
Closing: May 3, 2026

OTHER

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

RECON$TRUXION

SEEKING:

JOHN LYNCH (Male Identifying, 20s-40s Black)
To play 20s, as well as late 60s. He is 20 in 1868, 27 in 1875, and 67 in 1915. John served as the first black Speaker of the Mississippi House and later in the U.S. House of Representatives advocating for Black civil rights. He later wrote books correcting the record of the Black role in reconstruction. Self-taught and very self-assured. A fierce advocate and fighter for what he believes in. Excellent with numbers especially when it comes to calculating votes.

JAMES WORMLEY/JAMES RAPIER/OTHERS (Male Identifying, 50s, Black)
JAMES WORMLEY - The owner and concierge of the Wormley hotel, a prominent and well-known establishment in Washington, D.C.
JAMES RAPIER - Republican congressman from Alabama in his late 30s. He is one of 7 black congressmen in the house in 1874 and is a key voice in the passage of the 1875 civil rights act.

ROBERT ELLIOT/REP. RICHARD CAIN/OTHERS (Male Identifying, 30s, Black)
Robert Elliot - Republican congressman from South Carolina. Originally from the West Indies, he was integral in forming a militia to defeat the Klan.
Richard Cain - Republican representative from South Carolina, 50. Was a missionary and minister in the AME church.

AGNES HUDSON/MABEL CARR/CATHERINE WHITE (Female Identifying, 20s, Black)
Agnes Hudson - A teacher and love interest of John Lynch. A fierce activist fighting for civil rights in the south during reconstruction.
Mabel Carr - John Lynch’s niece and an activist in her own right. She is helping him write his latest book. Frequently attends protests fighting for equal rights.
Catherine White - John Lynch’s mother. Despite being a slave she was married to her white owner Patrick Lynch who planned to free her and her son.

LQC LAMAR/WILLIAM DEAL/OTHERS (Male Identifying, 30s-40s, White)
LQC Lamar - Democratic representative first in Mississippi and then in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the head of the Democratic party in Mississippi in the mid 1870s. He ran opposed to voting rights for blacks and was the architect of the Democratic party’s takeover in Mississippi. A sly, behind-the-scenes player, while in the U.S. House of Representatives he helped broker the election of Rutherford B Hayes to the Presidency and the ultimate end of reconstruction. He eventually became a Senator and then a Supreme Court Justice.
William Deal - Patrick Lynch’s best friend who was supposed to free John and his mother, but instead sold them back into slavery.

PRESIDENT ULYSSES S. GRANT/PATRICK LYNCH/OTHERS (Male Identifying, Mid 40s-Early 50s, White)
President Grant - 47 in 1868 and 53 in 1875. As President, his steadfast promotion of radical reconstruction made the election of Black government officials and reconstruction in Mississippi and the U.S. possible. Eventually the political situation in the North caused him to withdraw support for federal troops in the south, something Lynch bitterly opposed.
Patrick Lynch - John’s father.

JAMES BLAINE/JUDGE CHANDLER/OTHERS (Male Identifying, 40s, White)
James Blaine - Senator and House Speaker, James G. Blaine, represented the moderate forces in the Republican Party and then later worked to end reconstruction. His main goal was to be president and, in the interest of his career, the leader of the appeasement faction that was willing to compromise Republican ideals by opposing federal troops in the south.
Judge Chandler - Initially accepted reconstruction as a political reality but was an early opponent of Lynch and other Black legislators in the Mississippi house. He competed with Lynch for the speakership in the Mississippi house by appealing to Democrat support. He eventually opposed reconstruction and worked to end it in Mississippi.

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES/GOVERNOR ADELBERT AMES/OTHERS (Male Identifying, 40s, White)
Rutherford B. Hayes - 50s, Became the Republican candidate for President in 1876 because of Radical Republican opposition to Blaine. But he later made a deal with Democrats in the 1876 election to become president in return for ending reconstruction.
Gov. Adelbert Ames - 30s. Ames dominated Republican Party politics in Reconstruction as both a Senator and Governor. Ames was a more radical Republican in support of reconstruction and Lynch but ultimately he was stymied by the lack of Federal troops to enforce reconstruction.

JAMES GARFIELD/MAYOR WILLIAM STURGIS/OTHERS (Male Identifying, 40s, White)
James Garfield - Mid 40s, Republican congressman from Ohio. He initially agreed with Radical Republican views on Reconstruction but later favored a Moderate Republican appeasement to the south on civil rights enforcement. He was an opponent of Conkling and a supporter of the Blaine faction but later supported Hayes. He later gained the presidency in 1880 but was assassinated soon after.
Mayor William Sturgis - 30s, was elected Mayor of Meridian Mississippi in 1871 as a white, reform Republican Candidate. During the Meridian Race Riot of 1871 he attempted to stop white mobs and was run out of office by Democrats and the Klan.

SENATOR ROSCOE CONKLING/OTHERS (Male Identifying, 40s, White)
Senator from New York, a principled believer in Black civil rights and a leader of the radical Republican wing guiding and supporting reconstruction legislation and Black legislators including Lynch. He had a long rivalry with Blaine and eventually opposed and defeated Blaine’s nomination for president in 1876.