Ensemble Theatre will be holding AUDITIONS for the following shows as part of our 2016-17 Season.
Please Note:
Auditions are for roles in:
Margin of Error (or the Unassailable wisdom of the Mouse and the Scorpion). by Eric Coble.
Directed by Eric Smiedl
Harold Carver is the greatest political strategist the nation has ever known. But tonight he has to save four doomed campaigns, his own disintegrating marriage, and fend off an FBI investigation with no one to help him but eager intern Daphne. And he’s stuck at Gate C19 of Cleveland Hopkins Airport. A no-holds-barred look at how we choose our elected officials (and every other product) in our winner-take-all-world.
REGIONAL PREMIERE
September 30th-October 23rd. Rehearsals starting end of August.
Fridays & Saturdays @8pm. Sundays @2pm.
CALL BACKS TUESDAY JULY 12th from 7-9pm
The Bloodless Jungle by Peter Lawson Jones.
Directed by Terrance Spivey.
The play tells the story of State Senator Ethan St. John, a rising political star who is running for a pivotal seat in Congress. In the midst of the campaign, his best friend from high school is accused of a serious crime and St. John is faced with a daunting choice: does he abandon his friend, whom he believes may be innocent, and focus on winning the election, or risk jeopardizing the campaign by supporting his friend? The play centers around the decision he makes and its consequences.
September 15 - October 2, 2016. (Possible Week Extension)
Rehearsal Start Date: August 22nd. This is a non-union production. There will be stipends.
AUDITIONS FOR THE BLOODLESS JUNGLE ARE SATURDAY ONLY.
CALL BACKS MONDAY JULY 11th from 5-7.
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail.
by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee.
directed by Celeste Cosentino.
Henry David Thoreau – Henry is the defiant, young, Harvard-educated protagonist and the play’s imaginative interpretation of the historical Henry David Thoreau, who was a leading thinker in the Transcendentalist tradition and wrote the book Walden. Henry is deeply passionate about resisting both the United States government’s war in Mexico and its segregationist policies in the North. He is imprisoned for refusing to pay his taxes because he does not want to contribute funds that will end up furthering what he sees as the slaughter in Mexico. The play dramatizes his thoughts and conversations regarding his ideas during the night he spends in jail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson – Henry’s mentor, whom Henry met while at Harvard. “Waldo” is a deeply respected and famous scholar and lecturer. Though he is intellectually deft and very insightful with respect to abstract concepts, Henry argues that Waldo is too concerned about public opinion to speak out, as Henry does, against segregation and the war. Waldo is modeled on the real historical figure Ralph Waldo Emerson, whom the real Henry David Thoreau knew well and was a leading thinker in the Transcendentalist movement.
Bailey – Henry’s cellmate in the jail, an uneducated man who is accused of arson and awaiting a trial. He is deeply impressed by Henry’s intelligence. Henry eventually persuades Sam, the constable, to give Bailey a speedy trial.
John Thoreau – Henry’s beloved brother. John, like Henry, is thoughtful and passionate, and the only person Henry seems to love with unbridled affection. John dies from an infection caused by a rusty razor blade, a death that Henry sees as pointless and meaningless, and which he connects to the deaths of soldiers in war.
Mrs. Thoreau – Henry’s mother, who worries about her son getting into trouble more than anything else, and doesn’t seem to have a moral compass. She fears shame more than she fears wrongdoing.
Lydian Emerson – Waldo’s wife. Lydian and Henry have a deep mutual affection for one another that approaches attraction, but they are both too loyal to Waldo to ever act on it.
Edward Emerson – Waldo and Lydian’s son. Edward is an inquisitive boy who wishes Henry were his real father, since Waldo is so often absent as he travels and lectures.
Deacon Ball – The authoritarian and highly traditional head of the school board where Henry once taught. Ball and Henry butt heads over Henry’s refusal to follow the school board’s directions about education policy, including its insistence that Henry dole out corporal punishment to students.
Ellen Sewell – Ellen is a beautiful young woman whom both Henry and John are attracted to. Though she is curious and fairly intelligent, she resists the Thoreau brothers and their thinking because her father disapproves of Transcendentalism.
Sam Staples – The constable who—unwillingly—takes Henry to jail. He follows orders even when he does not wish to. Though he is not a bad man, he is a deeply compliant one.
Henry Williams – The freed slave whom Henry meets at Walden. Williams dies while trying to escape to Canada.
2-3 Ensemble: There are various roles that appear through out the show.
Produced around the country under the American Playwrights Theatre program, this drama opens with Thoreau in jail for refusing to pay taxes to a government conducting a war of aggression in Mexico, at midpoint shows Emerson visiting him, and ends on the morning of his release. Scenes portray his return from Harvard where he idolized Emerson, his attempt to establish a transcendentalist school, his career as a handyman and tutor in Emerson's household, his romance and his friendship with an illiterate cellmate.
November 18th- December 11th.
Fridays & Saturdays @8pm. Sundays @2pm.
CALL BACK TUESDAY JULY 12th from 5-7.
Please Note:
We look forward to meeting you at auditions!
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