LORT
The Wilma Theater 2011-12 Season
– Equity Principal Auditions in PA
(Philadelphia, PA) LORT D
Artistic Director: Blanka Zizka
Managing Director: James Haskins
Philadelphia Casting Director: David Stradley
Equity Principal Auditions:
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at the Wilma Theatre
AND 265 S. Broad Street
Thursday, April 21, 2011 Philadelphia, PA
9:30 AM — 5:30 PM each day
Lunch from 1 - 2.
No advanced appointment necessary. Sign in sheet will be available beginning 9am each day.
Prepare a contemporary monologue.
Please bring a resume and headshot, stapled together.
Seeking the following roles in the following shows:
OUR CLASS
Playwright: Tadeusz Slobodzianek
English Version: Ryan Craig
Dir: Blanka Zizka
Rehearsal Period: 9/6 – 10/11. Performances: 10/12 – 11/13
Notes: Most characters age in the play from elementary school through old age. The play begins in Jedwabne, Poland in the 1920s and follows its characters through Soviet and Nazi invasions and across three continents through the early 21st Century.
Menachem:
Ages from 5 to 56. Jewish. Also intellectual, and a film buff when young. Womanizer involved with both Dora and Zocha. Wants to be a wagon driver as a child. After surviving the war, he gets involved first with the Communist secret police and then Israeli Army. Must be good with narrative speech.
Zygmunt:
Ages from 7 to 59. Catholic. Wants to be a soldier as a child. Becomes Soviet informer to save his skin, then brutish Nazi collaborator, winds up pillar of society in Communist Poland. Must be good with narrative speech.
Heniek:
Ages from 5 to 82. Catholic. Wants to be a fireman as a child. A follower in youth, he becomes a priest after the war and becomes community leader and fervent defender of town's reputation. Must be good with narrative speech.
Wladek:
Ages from 5 to 82. Catholic. Also wants to be a wagon driver. Peasant. Attracted to Rachelka from early age. Essentially a follower, but twice saves Rachelka's life, and becomes vocal advocate for telling the truth about the pogrom late in life. Must be good with narrative speech.
Abram:
Ages from 5 to 83. Jewish. As a child, wants to be a shoemaker like his father. Sent to America in 1935 and becomes a rabbi. Very sensitive. Must be excellent with narrative speech.
The following roles have been CAST. Actors will be considered for possible replacements if needed:
Dora:
CAST. Ages from 5 to 21. Jewish. Wants to be a movie star as a child. Must be good with narrative speech.
Zocha:
CAST. Ages from 5 to 66. Catholic. Wants to be a seamstress as a child. A little shy, with low self-esteem as a child, her experiences during and after the war embitter her. Must be good with narrative speech
Rachelka (later Marianna):
CAST. Ages from 5 to 82. Jewish, converts to Catholicism during war. Smart and from the highest economic level of the town. Wants to be a doctor as a child. Is saved by Wladek during war and marries him, although the marriage is very unhappy.
Jakub Katz:
CAST. Ages from 5 to 22. Jewish. Intellectual; natural leader. Wants to be a teacher as a child. Must be good with narrative speech.
Rysiek:
CAST. Ages from 5 to 23. Catholic. Charismatic and self-confident; wants to be a pilot as a child. Attracted to Dora from childhood. Becomes leader of anti-Soviet nationalist group. After pogrom, becomes dominated by Zygmunt.
BODY AWARENESS
Playwright: Annie Baker
Dir: Anne Kaufman
Rehearsal Period: 12/6 – 1/3/12. Performances: 1/4 – 2/5/12
Joyce:
55, lesbian who came out 3 years ago. Mother of Jared. Teaches high school Cultural Studies. Tries very hard to be PC and non-judgmental.
Jared:
21. Joyce's son. Still lives at home. Smart, obsessed with etymology but has a lot of trouble dealing with people.
Phyllis:
45. Joyce's partner. College psychology professor. Lesbian "since kindergarten" Very PC.
Frank Bonitatibus:
59. Divorced. Photographs naked women of all ages. Must play recorder. Huge life force. Un-PC but with mystical side.
CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS
Playwright: Sam Shepard
Dir: Richard Hamburger
Rehearsal Period: 2/7 – 3/6/12. Performances: 3/7 – 4/8/12
Wesley:
Early 20s, not terribly bright, pretends not to give a damn but is idealistic about the vanishing frontier. Must be able to handle long descriptive passages.
Emma:
Young, just entering puberty (but played by actress in 20s), rebellious, very smart with Beat-inspired dreams of the future. Must be able to handle long descriptive passages.
Ella:
Wesley & Emma's mother. Late 40s-early 50s. Disappointed by her life and wishing for more glamour, adventure and romance.
Weston:
Mid-50s. Father of Wesley & Emma. World War Two bomber pilot turned avocado farmer whose dreams haven't come true. Now a drunk, deep in debt.
Taylor:
Middle-aged. Slick real estate lawyer who sees himself as the Future.
Ellis:
Late 30s-middle age. Big man - "not a hard man but strong as a bull calf." Tattooed in the 1970s. Owner of the Alibi Club saloon.
Malcolm:
California Highway Patrolman. Just doing his job.
Emerson:
Small, psychopathic "enforcer" in a suit.
Slater:
Emerson's taller and equally psychotic sidekick. Likes explosives.
ANGELS IN AMERICA: Part One – Millennium Approaches
Playwright: Tony Kushner
Dir: Blanka Zizka
Rehearsal Period: 4/24 – 5/22/12. Performances: 5/23 – 6/24, possible extension to 7/1/12
Important Note: The Wilma will be presenting Angels in America: Part Two – Perestroika in the fall of 2012. Actors will be required for both parts one and two.
Roy M. Cohn:
50s-60s. Successful New York lawyer and unofficial power broker. Closeted gay man who is dying of AIDS. Also plays Prior 2, the ghost of a 17th Century Prior (British accent).
Joe Pitt:
20s-30s. Mormon Republican. Chief clerk for Justice Theodore Wilson of the Federal Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Cohn’s protégé. Struggling with his sexuality, he leaves wife Harper for Louis. Also plays Prior 1, the ghost of a 13th Century Prior (Yorkshire accent), and the Eskimo.
Harper Pitt:
20s-30s. Joe’s wife, an agoraphobic with a mild Valium addiction. Mormon. Also plays Reagan flackman Martin Heller
Louis Ironson:
20s-30s. A word processor working for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Jewish liberal. Opinionated. Struggling with Prior’s diagnosis, he leaves for Joe.
Prior Walter:
20s-30s. Louis’s boyfriend. Occasionally works as a club designer or caterer, otherwise lives very modestly but with great style off a small trust fund. Diagnosed with AIDS. Also plays The Man in the Park.
Hannah Pitt:
40s-50s. Joe’s mother who moves from Salt Lake City to New York City as her son’s marriage crumbles. Lives off her deceased husband’s army pension. Also plays Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz, Roy’s doctor Henry and Ethel Rosenberg.
Belize:
20s-30s. African-American character, former drag queen and former lover of Prior’s. Currently an RN. ‘Belize’ is a drag name that stuck. Also plays Mr. Lies, Harper’s imaginary travel agent.
The Angel:
40s-50s. Manifests as the Continental Principality of America. Crash lands into Prior’s apartment as Part One ends. Also plays The Voice, nurse Emily, Salt Lake real-estate agent Sister Ella Chapter, and Woman in the South Bronx.
The Wilma Theater is an equal opportunity employer and subscribes to the LORT agreement on non-traditional casting, encouraging audition participation by and casting of ethnic minority actors (African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American), women actors, and actors with disabilities in roles where race, ethnicity, gender, or the presence or absence of a disability is not germane.
The Wilma Theater, 265 South Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19107.
www.wilmatheater.org
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