WELCOME TABLE — Principal Actors Auditions

WELCOME TABLE - NYC EPA

New York Shakespeare Festival | New York, NY

Notice: Audition | Call Type: EPA

AUDITION DATE

Tuesday, November 3, 2026
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM (E)
BREAK: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

CONTRACT

Off Broadway
$1929 weekly minimum (cat. EE)

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles in WELCOME TABLE (see

BREAKDOWN

PREPARATION

Please prepare one SHORT (no more than two minutes in length) contemporary monologue. Bring picture and resume stapled together.

LOCATION

Actors' Equity New York Audition Center
165 W 46th St
16th Fl
New York, NY 10036

PERSONNEL

Written by James Ijames
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Casting Directors: Heidi Griffiths & Kate Murray

EXPECTED TO ATTEND

One of the following members of the Public Theater Casting Office:

• Jordan Thaler, Director of Casting
• Kate Murray, Casting Director
• Chalin Tulyathan, Casting Associate

OTHER DATES

1st Rehearsal (Onstage Cast): 1/12/27
1st Rehearsal (Understudies): 1/26/27
1st Performance: 2/18/27
Closing: 3/21/27
Furthest Poss Ext Closing: 4/4/27

OTHER

EPA Procedures are in effect for this audition.
An Equity Monitor will be provided.

Equity's

CONTRACT

Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.

BREAKDOWN

WELCOME TABLE

SYNOPSIS

In the spring of 1963, acclaimed writer James Baldwin sent a searing telegram to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, blaming his brother's administration for violence across the country amidst the battle for civil and human rights. To his credit, the Attorney General called Baldwin back and said, We need to talk. What followed was the infamous Baldwin-Kennedy meeting, which brought together a group of artists, thinkers, and activists, including Lorraine Hansberry, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and Freedom Rider Jerome Smith, to engage in tough conversations about how to imagine a better country.

SEEKING

BURKE: Burke Marshall. A white man. 30's. The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and Bobby Kennedy's right hand and confidant. A policy wonk. Deliberate. Calm. Unassuming while still being substantial. Knows what he doesn't know. Dreams of an America that is fundamentally transformed into a place where freedom runs through the street.

UNDERSTUDY JIMMY/JEROME: 30's. A Black man. See character descriptions below. This is an offstage role.

UNDERSTUDY HARRY/EDWIN: 40's. A Black man. See character descriptions below. This is an offstage role.

UNDERSTUDY LORRAINE/LENA/MINNIE: Mid-late 30's. A Black woman. See character descriptions below. This is an offstage role.

UNDERSTUDY BOBBY/BURKE: 30's - 40's. White man. See character descriptions below. This is an offstage role.

THE FOLLOWING ROLES ARE CAST/ON OFFER

JIMMY (ON OFFER): James Baldwin. 30's-40's. A Black man. Wry, witty, intensely intellectual, with a tongue that could core an apple. Has returned to America after years living abroad in Europe, and ready to go to battle for the moral soul of the nation and its people. Unafraid to say difficult things frankly. A troublemaker for the cause of justice with a mischievous streak.

LORRAINE (CAST): Lorraine Hansberry. 30's. A Black woman. Sharp, incisive. Playful with those she loves, and ferociously intelligent warrior against those whose actions oppose her values and humanity. An expansive thinker, with a gift for language that is poetic, but not abstract. In near constant pain from both the stomach cancer that will kill her, and from the violence and injustice that Black people in America are facing daily.

JEROME (CAST): Jerome Smith. 20's. A Black man. A freedom rider from Louisiana, he has been on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement. Brave, honest, a fighter. His activism has also given him an awareness of and proximity to death that has left him raw and vulnerable. A young man, but feels and moves like he is much older as a result of violent beatings he suffered at the hands of the police. He has seen the reality of the battle for freedom firsthand, and he has no more patience for reticence or niceties.

HARRY (CAST): Harry Belafonte. 30's. A Black man. Activist spirit. Level-headed. Tender. Charismatic, suave, intensely charming, impossibly cool. Everybody loves Harry. A performer's spirit, but in no way inauthentic. Must be comfortable singing onstage.

EDWIN (CAST): Edwin Berry. 40's. A Black man. Head of the Chicago Urban League. An activist to his core. Warm, determined and honest. Has seen a lot, and knows the tremendous opportunity inherent in being invited into a room with power brokers and approaches this meeting with rigor and resolve.

BOBBY (ON OFFER): Robert Kennedy. 30's-40's. A white man. The Attorney General of the United States, and brother of the President. Energetic. Impulsive. Sensitive and curious. An idealist, truly believes in America and the power of government legislation to enact positive change. Trying his best to walk the political tightrope of building support for integration without losing the support of the South, and is genuinely tortured by his inability to solve the complex problems facing the nation he loves.

MINNY (CAST): 20's. A Black woman. Bright, expectant. Operates from a place of awe and wonder. Expansive. A light. A domestic worker who takes her work seriously. Doing a good job is important to her, as it means food on her table and a good life for her family. Wants her son to grow up with more than she has.

LENA (CAST): Lena Horne. 40's. A Black woman. A movie star, blacklisted in the 50's for her left-wing associations. Still stylish and glamorous, there's also a current of fragile vulnerability underpinning her star persona. By playing nightclubs, she has steadily been building back what she lost. Must be comfortable singing onstage.