BENEFACTORS Equity Principal Audition - Keen Company Auditions
Keen Company
BENEFACTORS – Equity Principal Auditions
Keen Company LOA-NYC $269/week minimum, + pension/health.
Artistic Dir/Stage Dir: Carl Forsman
Writer: Michael Frayn
Casting: Judy Bowman
1st reh: 2/21/11. Runs 3/22-4/30 at the Harold Clurman Theatre/Theater Row.
Equity Principal Auditions:
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Actors' Equity Association Audition Center
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM 165 West 46th Street, 2nd Floor
Lunch from 1 - 2. New York City
Please prepare a brief (preferably 2 minutes or less) monologue using a British accent, with material that shows ability with language. Classical pieces are also acceptable.
Please bring a picture & resume, stapled back-to-back.
Olivier Award-winner; Tony and Drama Desk nominee. Play about four people trying to do right by each other. David is an idealistic architect whose wife is Jane, and they have a complicated friendship with the cynical Colin and his wife Sheila. David is attempting to build some new homes to replace the slum housing of Basuto Road, and is gradually forced into building skyscrapers – even though he hates them. Set in the 1960s; new housing projects were topical – and are today. When Sheila becomes David’s secretary, it’s unclear if she is helping him or the other way around. The title of the play implies that it’s about “helping people”; play explores some of the difficulties inherent in doing so, or in being helped. In the 1980s, this play won an Olivier Award for Best New Play, and nominations for a Drama Desk and Tony awards.
Seeking (all roles are available (i.e. not yet offered and accepted)):
Notes: All characters have British accent (RP preferred). All actors with great RP British dialect (including British actors) are encouraged to audition. All characters can be any ethnicity. Seeking TRAINED actors who are extremely sharp and strong. MFAs preferred.
David:
Any ethnicity, mid 30s-mid 40s. An altruist; classic “good guy”. May be more charactery than traditionally handsome. Bright. Really cares about the world, and those less fortunate. His single-mindedness makes him blind to the people closest to him. His work is the most important thing in his life. Likable and warm: not smug. Jimmy Stewart, Sam Waterston as a young man.
Jane:
Any ethnicity, mid 30s-mid 40s. David’s wife. The emotional center of the play. Sophisticated, smart, a professional in her work. Grounded person who generally keeps her feelings in check, but is capable of great anger. Direct and clever.
Colin:
Any ethnicity, mid 30s-mid 40s. The “rogue”. Charming; great sense of humor. Can be abrasive. Unapologetic and combative. Lonely and needy; has a great yearning for connection, but is afraid to let his guard down.
Sheila:
Any ethnicity, mid 30s-mid 40s. Colin’s wife. Someone looking for a solution to her disordered, chaotic life. Scattered, literally and figuratively; this quality is probably cute sometimes, and impossible at others. Emotionally needy. Falls for David because she thinks he’s the “nice” one.
