AUDITION NOTICE
for The Premiere Playhouse’s
THE PREMIERE PREMIERES
LOCAL THEATRE BY LOCAL ARTISTS
Comfortably Single by Leigh Spencer
Hearing by Richard W. Swanson
THE PASSION PROJECTS
MICRO-BUDGET EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTIONS
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Auditions:
- Tuesday, October 10th | 6:00pm-9:00pm
- Wednesday, October 11th | 6:00pm-9:00pm
Callbacks: By invitation on Thursday, October 12th from 6:00pm-10:00pm
Location: TPP Offices & Anne Zabel Studio Theater in the Orpheum Theater Center | 315 N. Phillips Ave.
CASTING TEAM
Producer + Casting Director: Oliver Mayes
Comfortably Single – Director: Kevin Wintering | Playwright: Leigh Spencer
Hearing – Director: Jayna Gearheart Fitzsimmons | Playwright: Richard W. Swanson
The Glass Menagerie – Director: Oliver Mayes
REHEARSAL & PERFORMANCE INFORMATION (THE PREMIERE PREMIERES)
- Company meet and greet/first read through and play development activities on Monday, December 18th
- Rehearsals begin Sunday, January 7th and continue through Wednesday, February 14th
- Rehearsals typically run Sundays from 2pm-5pm and Mondays through Wednesdays from 6pm-9pm
- Technical rehearsals are Saturday, February 10th + Sunday, February 11th (full days) and February 12th-14th (evenings)
- Actors are not called to every staging rehearsal; an estimated schedule will be released with weekly/daily updates for accurate call times. We do our best to avoid conflicts but sometimes are unable to accommodate, in which case an actor must learn the material they missed on their own time.
- Actors are requested to be in attendance at every technical/dress rehearsal and performance (i.e. no conflicts allowed)
- Performances are February 15th, 16th & 17th @ 7pm and February 18th @ 2pm (4 total) at the Orpheum Theater
REHEARSAL & PERFORMANCE INFORMATION (THE PASSION PROJECTS)
- Company meet and greet/first read through on Thursday, December 7th
- Rehearsals begin on Thursday, January 11th and continue through Thursday, March 14th
- Rehearsals typically run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6pm-9pm
- Technical/dress rehearsals are Sunday, March 10th through Thursday, March 14th (evenings)
- Actors are not called to every staging rehearsal; an estimated rehearsal schedule will be released in addition to weekly/daily updates for accurate call times. We do our best to avoid conflicts but sometimes are unable to accommodate, in which case an actor must learn the material they missed on their own time.
- Actors are requested to be in attendance at every technical/dress rehearsal and performance (i.e. no conflicts allowed)
- Performances are March 15th, 16th & 17th @ 7pm (3 total) in the MarketBeat Theater at Startup Sioux Falls
- This production has the potential to be extended and/or tour to other local venues; we are interested in working with actors who are excited about this type of performance process
ABOUT COMFORTABLY SINGLE
Comfortably Single is a fresh take on the age-old genre, the “rom-com.” Cassie Ewing and Mark Stroud are both single and not ready to mingle – but their friends have other ideas. After an ambush set up, fate can’t seem to keep these two apart. With tropes and cliches abundant, you still can’t help but wonder if this story is leading somewhere different. This play is a commentary on the modern romantic comedy that still holds on to all the hilarious moments that make us love them. With an ending no one saw coming, Comfortably Single will keep you guessing and laughing until the final curtain.
COMFORTABLY SINGLE CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
CASSIE EWING: Female, mid- to late 30s, aromantic
MARK STROUD: Male, early 40s, asexual
DIANA: Female, early to mid-30s, Cassie’s younger sister
AARON: Male, late 40s, Mark’s older brother
ROSE: Female, 30s to 50s, Cassie’s friend and Kevin’s wife
SCOTT: Male, early 40s, Mark’s best friend, gay but reads straight
CASSIE’S BOSS: Any/No Gender, older, executive director of Child of the Wild
KEVIN: Male, 30s to 50s, friend of Cassie and acquaintance of Mark
SAM: Any/No Gender, any age, married to Jamie
JAMIE: Any/No Gender, any age, married to Sam
ISABELLA: Female, late 20s, TV personality
DANIEL: Male, late 30s, Scott’s boyfriend
JESSICA: Female, early 30s, Diana’s sister-in-law
BARTENDER: Female, any age
FLIRT: Any/No Gender, any age
BRUNCH SERVER: Male, any age
WINERY EVENT COORDINATOR: Any/No Gender, any age
EVENT CENTER COORDINATOR: Any/No Gender, any age
LODGE EVENT COORDINATOR: Any/No Gender, any age
*Actors will double and triple in roles, resulting in an ensemble of 8-10.
ABOUT HEARING
The Play Hearing is about a Hearing. Specifically, a Personal Hearing before a Draft Board in the last years of the War in Vietnam. The play is also about hearing as an act of attention and connection. What we hear changes us, and this play is about how the Hearing and the act of hearing change the characters onstage. Therefore, it is a play about learning to hear – to others and to ourselves across divisions, generations, and time.
HEARING CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
At the Supper Table:
CHAS: (pronounced CHAZ) is short for Charles. 17 years old in ACT I, in his junior year of high school; 18 years old in ACT II,
in his senior year of high school; 19 years old in ACT III, home from his first year of college; in the EPILOG he is almost 60 years old.
FATHER: Mid-50s, teaches Agriculture. Was a paratrooper in the Second War, but you’d never look at him and say he was military. He looks like a farmer, which he was before he became a teacher. In the EPILOG he also plays the FATHER IN HUE, father of the TRANSLATOR.
MOTHER: Late-40s or early-50s, strong. Thinks and acts independently. In the EPILOG she plays the MOTHER IN HUE.
ROBIN: Also 18-19 years old in ACT II and ACT III, involved in a long-term relationship with CHAS; says what she thinks, and thinks carefully. In the EPILOG she plays the TRANSLATOR.
At the Draft Board Hearing Table:
ALVIN OLSON: Early-50s, a farmer, a Marine in the Second War, served on Iwo Jima. In the EPILOG he plays the North Vietnamese soldier visiting the tunnels at Vinh Moc.
JOHN MAUER: Late-40s, a farmer, a paratrooper in the Second War, cut off during the Battle of the Bulge.
BOB JOHNSON: Early-50s, a plumber, in the Fifth Army in the Second War, fought all the way up to Italy.
Other Characters:
BOB’S WIFE: Late-40s, does the books for Bob’s plumbing shop.
VICTORY HAVENS: We meet him during the Second War, and he is in his early 20s. He is actually a real person that the FATHER met during training. In real life, he came from Michigan, though I have transplanted him to western South Dakota for the purposes of this play. He died during the aftermath of the Market Garden jump. When we meet him in ACT I he is played by the actor who plays JOHN.
FATHER IN HUE: Late-60s, but looks older, probably due to spending five years in a re-education camp
after the American War ended. Played by FATHER.
TRANSLATOR: Somewhere in her 20s, the daughter of FATHER IN HUE, and in the EPILOG translator for CHAS during his recent trip to Vietnam. In the EPILOG, she is played by the actor who plays ROBIN.
MOTHER IN HUE: Mid-60s. Her life has been difficult, but she has managed. Supports the family since her husband has not been allowed to return to his work after his time in the re-education camp.
*Doubling will happen where suggested in the character descriptions.
ABOUT THE GLASS MENAGERIE
The Glass Menagerie is a memory play that premiered in 1944 and catapulted great American playwright Tennessee Williams from obscurity to fame. The play discusses the financial and social struggles of a family in the post-Civil War south and is a capturing drama of characters struggling with the illusion of time. One is stuck in the past, one complacent in the present, and one is dreaming of a future.
THE GLASS MENAGERIE CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
Amanda Wingfield (she/her), somewhere in her 40’s-50’s
A faded Southern belle who grew up in Blue Mountain, Mississippi, abandoned by her husband, and who is trying to raise her two children under harsh financial conditions. Amanda yearns for the comforts of her youth and also longs for her children to have the same comforts, but her devotion to them has made her – as she admits at one point – almost “hateful” towards them.
Tom Wingfield (he/him), early 20’s/then older… but also ageless
Amanda’s son and the narrator of the play. Tom works at a shoe warehouse to support his family but is frustrated by his job and aspires to be a poet. He struggles to write, all the while being sleep-deprived and irritable. Yet, he escapes from reality through nightly excursions to the movies. Tom feels both obligated toward yet burdened by his family and longs to escape for more.
Laura Wingfield (she/her), approaching mid 20’s
Amanda’s daughter and Tom’s elder sister. A childhood illness has given her one leg that is slightly longer than the other, and she has a mental fragility and an inferiority complex that has isolated her from the outside world. She has created a world of her own symbolized by her collection of glass figurines. The unicorn may represent Laura because it is unique and fragile.
Jim O’Connor (he/him), approaching mid 20’s
An old high school acquaintance of Tom and Laura. Jim was a popular athlete and actor during his days at Soldan High School. Subsequent years have been less kind to Jim; by the time of the play’s action, he is working as a shipping clerk at the same shoe warehouse as Tom. His hope to shine again is conveyed by his study of public speaking, radio engineering, and ideas of self-improvement that appear related to those of Dale Carnegie.
AUDITION STEPS + REQUIREMENTS
- Please complete your audition form and register for auditions here by Monday, October 9th at 5:00pm. If you do not submit your form in time, the casting team will not have immediate access to your form during your audition process, which makes it more difficult to track you during the casting process.
- Please prepare a presentation of one of the provided speeches here for auditions; it need not be memorized but your preparation is appreciated. We are looking for creative storytelling that optionally embodies the characteristics of whichever character you are most interested in. (Please note: Gender/age range is not relevant to these speeches for the purposes of the audition process so choose your piece without those factors in mind.)
- Announcements and introductions will happen shortly after 6:00pm and folks have checked in.
- Auditions begin at 6:15p.m. after announcements/introductions and will continue until everyone has been seen.
- Requests for video auditions, questions, accommodation requests and updates can be directed to the casting team at [email protected].
CASTING NOTES
- Please arrive at the 6:00p.m. start time for auditions and communicate with us via email at [email protected] if you are not able to arrive on time.
- We welcome individuals age 18 and above to audition.
- The pronouns provided describe the gender identity of the character in the story and may not necessarily reflect the gender identity of the actor playing them. Please feel free to express your interest or comfortability with playing roles of any gender expression.
- The age ranges provided reflect the reasonable age range of the characters and may not necessarily reflect the actual age of the actors playing them.
- We host an inclusive audition space; we welcome performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, abilities/exceptionalities, and body types to audition. If you need accommodations to make your audition more successful that are not clearly outlined in this notice, please feel free to contact [email protected] with the necessary information or communicate your needs to the casting team in the audition room and we are more than happy to work with you in achieving a successful audition.
- There will be some cross casting for The Premiere Premieres where actors may play a principal character in one play and a supporting role in the other play. Actors will not be cast in both The Premiere Premieres and The Passion Projects due to conflicting schedules.
- Understudies and swing performers will be cast as possible and needed. More information on these positions will be provided at auditions and/or callbacks.