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AUDITION NOTICE: The 39 Steps
Auditions | posted September 29, 2011
adapted by PATRICK BARLOW
from the novel by JOHN BUCHAN
from the movie of ALFRED HITCHCOCK
directed by ERIK DeCICCO
AUDITION DATES | WED, OCTOBER 12, 6-8pm
Performances Dates | DECEMBER 2 – 17, 2011
You can read more about this show HERE
AUDITION REQUIREMENTS
Looking for a group of talented actors who are committed to the process between now and the December 2nd opening. Weekend rehearsals will be required. NO MONOLOGUES PLEASE! This show is fast, funny, and funnier. Please come prepared with a joke that can be told in your best British dialect. You may use any source material (such as Monty Python, Dr. Who, etc).
AVAILABLE ROLES
RICHARD HANNAY (age range 35+) The daring, leading man of the show; charming, innocent, and charismatic. Must have great endurance and superb comic timing. A commanding standard-British dialect is required.
ANNABELLE SCHMIDT/PAMELA/MARGARET (age range 25-40) This is the only scripted female role in the show. The role calls for multiple dialects The actor must play a paranoid German spy, a lower-class Scottish farmer’s wife, and the upper class, British romantic, lead of the show. All three dialects will be required. Must have excellent comic timing and great versatility.
MAN #1 (age range 20-40) This role calls for exceptional physical and verbal comic ability. Must be able to provide multiple dialects. This actor plays multiple characters, sometimes simultaneously. Must be highly athletic with great endurance and focus.
MAN #2 (age range 20-40) This role also calls for exceptional physical and verbal comic ability. Must be able to provide multiple dialects. This actor plays multiple characters, sometimes simultaneously. Must be highly athletic with great endurance and focus.
AUDITION NOTICE: The Children’s Hour
Auditions | posted August 4, 2011
THE CHILDREN’S HOUR
by LILLIAN HELLMAN
directed by DEBORAH JORDAN
AUDITION DATES | FRI, AUGUST 26, 7pm | SAT, AUGUST 27, 1pm
Performances Dates | OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 12, 2011
You can read more about this show HERE
AUDITION REQUIREMENTS
Please have a 1 minute monologue prepared.
You may also be asked to read from the script.
*If you would like to download a copy of the scene that will be used at the audition,
please submit the form at the bottom of the page and we’ll send you a link.
AVAILABLE ROLES
PRIMARY CHARACTERS (in alphabetical order)
AGATHA (55-65 years old)
A no-nonsense, middle-aged maid in the employ of Amelia Tilford. She is stern and straight-laced with Mary, who calls her “stupid,” although Agatha clearly sees through Mary’s deceptions. Agatha’s attempts to make the child into a “lady” are frustrated by Mrs. Tilford, who is deaf to the maid’s common-sense observations. Agatha also attempts to support Martha and Karen in their efforts to convince Mrs. Tilford that Mary concocted her story to destroy the young teachers.
DR. JOSEPH CARDIN (26-33 years old)
Cardin, about thirty-five, is a relaxed and amiable doctor and Karen Wright’s fiance. His casual dress reflects his warm, easy-going nature. He is also gracious and humorous and seems ideally suited to Karen.
MARTHA DOBIE (25-30 years old)
Karen Wright’s friend and co-owner of their school, Martha is about the same age, twenty-eight. She is described as “nervous” and “high strung” and is certainly far less composed and self-assured than her friend. It quickly becomes obvious that she greatly depends on Karen’s emotional stability and good sense to provide her with the confidence needed to make a go of their school.
LILY MORTAR (45-55 years old)
Hellman describes Lily Mortar as “a plump, florid woman of forty-five.” She is Martha Dobie’s aunt and teaches at the Wright-Dobie School. A self-centered woman, she lives in romanticized delusions of her past triumphs as an actress. She is also vain and very susceptible to flattery, an easy patsy for a conniving student like Mary Tilford. She refuses to grow old gracefully, dying her hair and dressing too fancifully for her reduced circumstances (and expanded waistline).
MRS. AMELIA TILFORD (60’s)
A wealthy widow, Mrs. Tilford is a large, dignified woman in her sixties. She has been an influential supporter of the Wright-Dobie School, where her granddaughter, Mary, is enrolled. Although she is a fair and generous person, she lacks good judgment when it comes to matters concerning her granddaughter. She recognizes that Mary is both spoiled and manipulative, but she dotes on the child and is utterly blind to the girl’s vicious nature.
MARY TILFORD (12-14)
The spoiled granddaughter of Amelia Tilford, Mary is a problem child at the Wright- Dobie School. She appears “undistinguished,” but she is clever and used to having her own way with her doting grandmother. She also attempts to manipulate everyone at the school, resorting to a variety of tricks, including flattery, feigned sickness, blackmail, physical intimidation, and whining complaints.
ROSALIE WELLS (12-14)
Rosalie, a student at the Wright-Dobie School, appears first in the hectic scene opening the play, having her hair badly trimmed by Evelyn Munn. Unlike Peggy and Evelyn, she is not cowed by Mary Tilford, whom she does not like.
KAREN WRIGHT (25-30)
Karen Wright is Martha Dobie’s close friend and partner in the Wright-Dobie School. She is twenty-eight, attractive, warm, and outgoing. She is admired and respected by her students, for whom she has a genuine affection. She is also an emotionally stable woman, at ease with herself and others.
MINOR CHARACTERS
HELEN BURTON (12-14)
One of the girls at Karen and Martha’s school, she plays a limited role. It is her bracelet that classmate Rosalie Wells “borrows.” an act which allows Mary to blackmail Rosalie into confirming Mary’s lies about Karen and Martha. Helen is one of the first to be pulled out of the school when Mrs. Tilford begins spreading the fiction that Karen and Martha are lesbian lovers.
CATHERINE (12-14)
Catherine is one of the students at the Wright-Dobie School. She appears only in the first scene, where she attempts to help Lois prepare for a Latin test. The Latin lesson contributes to the chaotic lack of discipline in Mortar’s classroom, revealing Lily’s incompetence as a teacher.
LOIS FISHER (12-14)
Another of Karen and Martha’s students, she receives Lain tutoring from Catherine at the play’s opening, conjugating Latin in hectic counterpoint to Peggy Roger’s reading of Portia’s “quality of mercy ” speech from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and Lily Mortar’s languid criticism. Like Catherine, she plays no significant role in the rest of the drama.
GROCERY BOY
The unnamed grocery boy makes a very brief appearance in the last scene, carrying a box of groceries into the school’s living room. He is almost mute, but his puerile gawking and giggling are indicative of the damage done to the reputations of Karen and Martha as a result of Mary’s accusations.
EVELYN MUNN (12-14)
One of the girls at the Wright-Dobie School, Evelyn is first encountered in the opening scene, in which she mangles Rosalie Wells’ hair with a pair of scissors. Evelyn, who lisps, is relatively quiet and timid. With Peggy Rogers, she overhears the conversation between Martha Dobie and Lily Mortar; the overheard conversation becomes the keystone in the malicious arch of lies that Mary Tilford constructs. Like Peggy, Evelyn is a victim of Mary’s intimidation, which, at the end of the first act, turns to physical abuse. When Mary attempts to extort money from Peggy, Evelyn tries to interfere and is slapped in the face for her efforts.
PEGGY ROGERS (12-14)
A student at the Wright-Dobie School, Peggy, like Evelyn Munn, is easily intimidated by Mary Tilford. She appears in the opening scene, where, under Lily Mortar’s tutelage, she tries to read Portia’s famous speech on the quality of mercy. Unimaginative, she shows little interest in Shakespeare Her grandest aspiration is to marry a lighthouse keeper. Peggy is with Evelyn when they overhear the fateful conversation between Martha Dobie and her aunt. Thereafter the pair confide in Mary, who immediately puts her malicious scheme into operation by extorting money from Peggy, who was saving it for a bicycle.
To receive information about where to download audition sides, fill out the form below
Reminiscence Theatre Project
News | posted August 2, 2011
ABET is proud to announce the details of an innovative and inter-generational Reminiscence Theatre Project that begins on August 19th.
ABET’s 3rd-7th Grade Saturday-morning Drama Dreamers class is partnering this semester with a group from the Bennie Furlong Senior Centre in Jax Beach. The seniors are taking part in a twelve week project at the center, starting on August 19th to celebrate their lives and memories in a group. As part of that process they will share stories about their unique childhood memories with the creative drama students. Following a visit by the children, the seniors will continue to have input into the dramatic end of the project, offering advice and direction. The children will be guests at the Senior center on Friday afternoon on the 9th of September from 3:30 until 5:00pm. This event will be videotaped. Then for the next ten Saturday morning’s at the theatre, the children will be guided in dramatizing some of those stories told to them during that gathering. On November 19th and 20th the seniors who took part, and their families and friends will be invited to come to the theatre as our honored guests to watch a performance that they so generously contributed material to and to further celebrate their lives. The goal for the children is for them to gain a clearer insight into how real-life stories are the basis for all theatre.
Both parts of Project are being run by Aine Healy-Richardson who has a background using Reminiscence work as part of her role as an Occupational Therapist working with Seniors in London and Ireland. She also facilitated a very successful Oral History Project in conjunctions with the Beaches Area Historical Society in Jax Beach in 2007 when she interviewed over sixty local residents from all over the beaches area in group videoed sessions in order to preserves those stories of local people in the museum archives. She is passionate about story-telling in all generations and is currently running the Children’s Creative Drama Program at ABET.
There are still some places left in both groups, so if you know a child or a low-income senior who might like to take part, please register the child in the Children’s Workshop or call Aine on 509 1472 to sign up for the Reminiscence Group. Free transportation at the beach to and from the Senior Centre can be arranged for Seniors.
This project has been made possible by a Blue Cross and Blue Shield Arts and Cultural Education Grant through the Jacksonville Cultural Council, to whom we are very grateful.
