BEAT GENERATION - Merrimack Repertory Theatre Auditions

Submit Photo / Resume for NYC Appointments

Merrimack Repertory Theatre (Lowell, MA)              LORT D; $566/week minimum

Edgar Cyrus, General Manager

Peter Crewe, Casting Director

By Jack Kerouac

Production Dates

Rehearsals: October, 4th 2012 – October 9th 2012 *6, 8 and 10 hour rehearsal days including day time commitments

Performances: October 10th, 2012 – October 14th 2012 * including one weekday matinee and at least one weekend matinee.  (2 week contract; LORT D)

NYC auditions will be held on an upcoming date, TBD by appointment only.

Seeking submissions from Actors' Equity Members only for these auditions.

Please submit if you are available during the production period and interested in one of the roles below should submit.

Email picture and resume, preferably as a single PDF, to auditions@mrt.org and indicate the character you are interested in if applicable.

Hardcopy submissions may be mailed to:

Beat Generation Casting

Merrimack Repertory Theatre

132 Warren St.

Lowell, MA 01852

About the Project

MRT will be producing the world premiere of BEAT GENERATION, the only play written by Jack Kerouac, this coming fall in a staged-reading format as part of the UMass Lowell’s “Jack Kerouac Literary Festival.”   Written in Kerouac’s traditional autobiographical style, the play portrays a day in the life of Kerouac and his friends (characters are based on Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, etc.) in New York City in 1955, about five years after the last cross-country trip described in On the Road. 

Available Roles

All characters are members of a loose-knit group of friends circa 1955 who, no matter their level of education, purposefully work blue-collar jobs or hold no jobs in order to avoid the success and money culture of the day.  In other words, they are members of the day’s counter-culture or the “beat generation” and need to inhabit a natural ease while still maintaining intellectual and philosophical energy. 

JULE: African-American male; 30s

SLIM: Caucasian male; 30s; Tall (6’6”)

TOMMY: Caucasian male, 40s – 50s; Short (4’11)

MANUEL: Hispanic male; 20s; A poet

IRWIN: Caucasian male, 30s (A poet, based on Allan Ginsberg)

PAUL: Caucasian male; 20s; Handsome

MEZZ: Caucasian male; 30s; (“A Real Hepcat”)

THE BISHOP: Caucasian male, Late 20s; A priest in the Liberal Catholic Church with a Czechoslovakian dialect

VICKI: Caucasian female, 20s; Jule’s wife

CORA: Caucasian female (Blonde); 30s’ MILO’s wife