THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON Equity Principal Actors - New York Shakespeare Festival Auditions

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - NYC EPA

New York Shakespeare Festival | New York, NY

Notice: Audition Call Type: EPA

AUDITION DATE

LOCATION

BREAK: 1:00PM - 2:00PM

PERSONNEL

Book & Lyrics by Jethro Compton
Music & Lyrics by Darren Clark
Directed by Jethro Compton
Music Director: Mark Aspinall

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (see breakdown).

EXPECTED TO ATTEND: Jordan Thaler, Director of Casting
Heidi Griffiths, Director of Casting
Chalin Tulyathan, Casting Associate

PREPARATION

Please come prepared to self accompany, and choose from one of the following options:

• A) If you are playing an instrument that allows you to play and sing at the same time, please prepare a short (under 2 minutes) song in a folk style. If you would like to demonstrate instruments, please prepare two 1-minute cuts.
• B) If you play an instrument that is impossible or challenging to play while singing (i.e. cornet, whistles, etc.), please prepare a 1-minute (or under) folk song (bring sheet music for accompanist) AND a 1 minute (or under) instrumental piece to play on your instrument.

Please bring your headshot and resume stapled together. 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.

BREAKDOWN

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

SYNOPSIS:

Reimagined in a small fishing harbor on the North Cornish Coast, eleven strangers, twenty characters and twenty instruments tell the curious story of Benjamin Button, a man whose life flows in reverse. From his extraordinary birth as a seventy-year-old man in 1918 to his equally extraordinary death in 1988, Benjamin embarks on a universally recognisable journey - to find a place that he can call home. Against the backdrop of Cornwall’s distinctive Celtic culture, our whimsical, magical strangers (aptly representing the wild Cornish elements) function as the engine of storytelling, and guide us through the emotional and musical rhythm of his life. To tell this curious tale, each actor will undertake multiple roles – fluidly shifting between age and gender identity as they play both the strangers narrating the story, and the characters that Benjamin meets along the way.

SEEKING:

NOTE: With the exception of REVERTHI (BENJAMIN BUTTON) & STERENOW (ELOWEN/THE SHEEP), all roles will potentially be understudying additional characters or instruments.

AVORYOW (MARY BUTTON / MILLIE DYER / OTHERS) - Plays violin AND piano. Female identifying. Vocal range - Mezzo-Soprano. Any ethnicity. Late 20’s - early 40’s. To play MARY BUTTON, Benjamin’s mother. Astounded by the old man she gives birth to, wearing a three-piece suit and a pipe in his pocket Mary realizes that the only thing worse than being the monster, is to be the monster’s mother. MILLIE DYER is a young woman in the village. She is trying to grow her garden gnome Gerald, into a husband.

EBRON (LOWEN / MR GLADSTONE) - Plays Violin, Accordion AND Piano. Female identifying. Vocal range - Mezzo-soprano. Any ethnicity. Any age. LOWEN is Benjamin and Elowen’s daughter, an energetic and hopeful little girl, who dies tragically after slipping off the harbor wall. MR GLADSTONE is the village baker and man about town, who regularly enjoys a dip in the Cornish sea. Although married, he is a little too fond of the ladies.

GWYNS (TRENLEE SENIOR / CAPTAIN CARRICK) - Plays Violin AND Mandolin. Any gender identity. Any vocal range. Any ethnicity. Any age. TRENLEE SENIOR, a fishing boat skipper, gives Benjamin his very first job. Gruff and easily agitated. CAPTAIN CARRICK who is frequently found at the village pub, The Pickled Crab, where he spends his days drinking pints and waiting for his wife, who has been gone for 21 years, to come home.

LANOW (LOCRYN / MRS BENNETT) - Plays Bass Guitar AND Upright Acoustic Bass. Any gender identity. Any vocal range. Any ethnicity. Any age. LOCRYN is Benjamin and Elowen’s son who ages from 3 to 24 years old over the course of the play. He has a complicated relationship with his ever transforming and sometimes absent father. MRS. BENNETT is a newlywed with some very big expectations, and a very short temper.

MORLAN (LANDLORD/MRS GLADSTONE'S SISTER/ OTHERS) - Plays Guitar, Upright Acoustic Bass AND Bass Guitar. Male identifying. Vocal Range - Bari-Tenor. Any ethnicity. Any age. The LANDLORD who runs the village pub, The Pickled Crab. This role musically leads the song that represents Benjamin and Elowen’s journey to falling in love. MRS GLADSTONE’S SISTER is the village florist, a vivacious, lusty woman, who longs for a married man. Unfortunately that man is her brother-in-law! Possesses great comedic abilities.

REVERTHI (BENJAMIN BUTTON) - Plays a handheld instrument confidently. Male identifying. Vocal Range - Bari-Tenor. Any White, AAPI, First Nations, Indigenous, Latine, MENA, Multiracial or Native ethnicity. Mid-30’s - mid-40’s (to play from 70 years old to birth). BENJAMIN BUTTON is born at age 70, wearing a three-piece suit and a pipe in his pocket. Shamed into secrecy by his parents, Benjamin longs for a life of normalcy and a place, or even a person, who he can call home. He is both wise and boyish, playful and deep, qualities which he is imbued with at any age. He is the ultimate outsider searching for belonging. Possesses an expansive emotional range and a well-honed funny bone.

STERENOW (ELOWEN KEENE / THE SHEEP) - Plays piano OR violin OR guitar. Female identifying. Vocal Range – Mezzo-Soprano. Any ethnicity. Late 20’s - mid 40’s (to play 21 to 63). ELOWEN KEENE, the local barmaid at The Pickled Crab. Effortlessly grounded, warm, and fearless, Elowen has little regard for what people think of her. Desperate to leave the village she grew up in. She has an innate ability to take others exactly as they are. She is the only woman Benjamin will ever love. Also plays THE SHEEP, who is a four footed humorist in the village. Possesses a vast emotional range, a natural warmth and groundedness.

TEWES (ROGER BUTTON) - Plays Cello, Bass Guitar AND Upright Acoustic Bass. Male identifying. Vocal Range - Bari-Tenor. Any ethnicity. Any age. ROGER BUTTON is Benjamin’s father. A traditional Cornish man who longs to be a father, we first meet him on his way to greet his newborn son – who turns out to be a seventy-year-old man. Battling with his shame and disappointment, Roger tries to keep Benjamin isolated from the rest of the world. Roger is able to convey the spirit and physicality of a thirty-eight-year-old and a seventy-eight-year-old; possessing an expansive emotional range.

TIR (MRS GLADSTONE/BILLY TYNE/OTHERS) - Plays Drums, Percussion AND Cajon. Any gender identity. Any vocal range. Any ethnicity. Any age. MRS. GLADSTONE is married to the local baker, Mr. Gladstone, who catches the eye of various women in the village with his open sea swimming… specifically, Mrs. Gladstone’s own sister. BILLY TYNE is a fisherman who Benjamin briefly meets later in his life, whilst he is in America looking for work.

TONNOW (JACK TRENLEE/MR BENNETT) - Plays Accordion AND Piano. Any gender identity. Any vocal range. Any ethnicity. Any age. JACK TRENLEE is 11 years old when we first meet him. He is a fisherman on the boat Benjamin first works on. JACK is naïve, optimistic. Not a great sailor, he deals with the constant disappointment of his father, the fishing boat skipper. Although not so smooth with his words, Jack is wise beyond his years in his treatment of Benjamin. We see the JACK between the ages of eleven and forty-two. MR. BENNETT is a newlywed and the local tailor, who constantly disappoints his short-tempered wife.

TRETH (MORWENNA KEENE/MISS MONCRIEF/OTHERS) - Plays Cornet AND Whistles. Any gender identity. Any vocal range. Any ethnicity. Any age. MORWENNA KEENE is Elowen’s mother and the local midwife. Much to her horror and confusion, she delivers Benjamin, who is born an old man. She longs for her free-spirited daughter to stay at home, get married, and become a midwife like her. MISS MONCRIEF is the proprietor of the local tea shop but you’re much more likely to find gin in her cup than tea.

SWING 1: Plays Violin, Mandolin, Accordion, Piano, Whistles and Cornet. Female presenting. Vocal range - Mezzo Soprano. Any ethnicity. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.

SWING 2: Plays Violin, Mandolin, Accordion and Piano. Female presenting. Vocal range - Mezzo Soprano. Any ethnicity. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.

SWING 3: Plays Guitar, Drums, Upright Acoustic Bass, Bass Guitar, Whistles, Cornet, Percussion and Cajon. Male presenting. Vocal range - Bari-Tenor. Any ethnicity. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.

SWING 4: Plays Cello, Guitar, Upright Acoustic Bass and Bass Guitar. Male presenting. Vocal range - Bari-Tenor. Any ethnicity. Extremely versatile actor/musicians to cover multiple ensemble tracks.