THE EXPLORER'S CLUB Equity Principal Auditions - Manhattan Theatre Club Auditions

THE EXPLORERS CLUB is a farce that takes place in a club of gentlemen scientists in Victorian England.

Seeking:

Note: All actors should have excellent comic chops.


LUCIUS FRETWAY: 30’s. A botanist and a man of science. Intellectual and sensible, but lacks the confidence of his more flashy peers. Hopelessly in love with Phyllida, whom he is sponsoring for membership into the Explorer’s Club, but naïve in the ways of romance. He has a nerdy charm, and we root for his success.

PHYLLIDA SPOTTE-HUME: 30’s. An anthropologist. An intrepid woman in a very male-dominated field, in Victorian England. She’s proper, with perfect Victorian manners, but is not a wilting violet. She’ll fight back if provoked. Attractive and resourceful, witty and charming. Also plays her twin sister the COUNTESS GLAMORGAN, a posh, conceited, self-involved aristocrat.

HARRY PERCY: 30’s - 40’s. Rakish, arrogant, charming, self-assured and really quite dim. Charming and impossible. The pinnacle of Victorian manhood. His belief in himself and his appeal to the ladies knows no bounds. His expeditions usually end with someone dying or being left behind.

LUIGI: 30s-50s. (ageless) The tribal chief of the NaKong of the lost city of Pahatlabong – a very war-like people. Proud of his culture. Very smart and very observant. Truly a fish out of water in the Explorers Club, he speaks only a few words of English, but picks up on many English customs during the course of the play. MUST BE A GREAT PHYSICAL COMEDIAN.

PROFESSOR COPE: 30’s - 40’s. A herpetologist (snakes). Great friends with PROFESSOR WALLING. An unassuming, work-a-day scientist with a great attachment to his pet cobra ‘ROSIE’. A perfect Victorian gentleman, well-mannered and enthusiastic. A great defender of snakes, which he believes to be misunderstood. Terrible at charades.

PROFESSOR WALLING: 30’s - 40’s. A zoologist. Great friend with PROFESSOR COPE. A sensitive man and scholar, with great affection for his guinea pig ‘Jane’. A perfect Victorian gentleman, cheerful and gentle. Utterly undone when harm befalls Jane.

PROFESSSOR SLOANE: 60’s -70’s. An archeo-theologist; studies science in the Bible. Irritable and haughty; he does not like change. Opinionated and often abrasive. As one of the eldest members of the club, he is horrified at the idea of a woman joining the group.

SIR BERNARD HUMPHRIES: 40’s – 50’s. Private Secretary to Queen Victoria. Polished, distinguished, and refined. Smooth, and shark-like – a real operator. The man you send to sort out the unpleasantness. Hawkish, he is dedicated to protecting the honor of the crown.

BEEBE: 30’s – 50s. An explorer. Stoic and resilient. A strong-willed survivor. Left behind on one of PERCY’s missions, he joined an order of violent monks and has returned to the club seeking revenge. At his core, though, a proper English gentleman. Also plays AN IRISH ASSASSIN.