DISPATCHES FROM (A)MENDED AMERICA and HOLD THESE TRUTHS - Epic Theatre Ensemble Auditions

HOLD THESE TRUTHS - Equity Principal Auditions

Epic Theatre Ensemble      LOA-NYC (approval/salary level pending; 2011-12 weekly minimum: $600 + pension and health.

Artistic Dir: Melissa Friedman

Managing Dir: Robert Chelimsky

Equity Principal Auditions:

Friday, August 24, 2012                                                        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 contemporary monologue, 2 minutes or less. Please bring a photo and resume, stapled back-to-back.

DISPATCHES FROM (A)MENDED AMERICA by Brandt Adams & Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. Dir: Ron Russell. Runs 10/10-11/24.

We’ve elected a black man as president, so what do we do now? Is the “race question” answered? Two Epic artists—one black, one white—traveled throughout the American Southbetween the election and inauguration of Barack Obama, conducting 100 interviews in an attempt to better understand the significance of the election of America’s first African American president. This play documents their journey— and America’s.

Casting notes:

?       Because Epic is both a professional Off-Broadway Theatre and an educational organization, all actors in the production will need to be comfortable with connecting with groups of young people and truly new audiences in pre- and post-show workshop environments.

?       The authors will play themselves. All other characters are played by a company of four actors.

?       All roles are available unless otherwise specified.

Female 1:

Multi-character track (30s - 50s) for one actress. Characters including Patrice (an early-20s African American college student in Birmingham AL), Marie (middle-aged daughter of an African American Baptist preacher father and a bi-racial mother) and numerous others.

Female 2:

Multi-character track (30s - 50s) for one actress. Characters include Lesley (a Caucasian liberal Democrat from Alabama), Sherry (a Caucasian actress, originally from North Carolina, but who lived for a time in Brooklyn) and numerous others.

Male 1:

Multi-character track (30s – 50s) for one actor. Characters include Cal (middle-aged Caucasian Southerner who is grandfather to a bi-racial child), Sheldon (a Caucasian Southern Baptist youth minister) and numerous others.

Male 2:

Multi-character track (30s - 50s) for one actor. Characters include Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Claude (an older African American man, self-described as “a bona fide made racist”), Godfrey Sr. (father of one of the authors of the play) and numerous others.

Brandt:

CAST. Auditioning performers will be considered as possible (emergency) replacements, should any become necessary. Caucasian man, mid 20s. An actor and theater-teaching artist, originally from the South. Passionate believer in the positive impact of the election of Barack Obama on race in America.

Godfrey:

CAST. Auditioning performers will be considered as possible (emergency) replacements, should any become necessary. African American man, early 40s. Actor and theater-teaching artist. Brandt’s former teacher/mentor. Also originally from the South. More skeptical of the impact of the election of Barack Obama on race in America.

HOLD THESE TRUTHS by Jeanne Sakata. Dir: Lisa Rothe. 1st reh: 9/4/12. Runs 10/12-11/25.

Gordon Hirabayashi:

CAST. Auditioning performers will be considered as possible (emergency) replacements, should any become necessary. Japanese American man, 40s. First generation. Contests the forcible removal of all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast, ultimately taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Theatre’s statement: “Non-white actors are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to audition, with all ethnicities welcome.”