EMMA Submission - Pioneer Theatre Company Auditions

EMMA – Submit Photo / Resume for NYC Appointments

Pioneer Theatre Company (Salt Lake City, UT) LORT B; $765/week minimum

Artistic Director: Charles Morey

Director: Matthew Arbour

Adaptation: Jon Jory

Casting: Rich Cole

1^st rehearsal: 1/23/12. Runs: 2/17/12 – 3/3/12

NYC auditions will be held on November 7-9, by appointment only.

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

For consideration, mail picture and resume to:

Rich Cole

648 Broadway-Suite 912

New York, NY 10012

re: EMMA (name of role) / AEA Self Submission

Submissions are by Mail only. ABSOLUTELY NO PHONE CALLS, VISITS OR EMAILS.

Be sure to include the role for which you're submitting yourself on the envelope and your AEA status.

NOTE: All actors must have verbal dexterity, quickness of thought, ready humor, and fluency in standard British (R.P.) dialect. This is an adaptation from the novel by Jane Austen

Seeking:

Emma Woodhouse:

21. The beautiful, charming and witty daughter of a wealthy gentleman. “Handsome, clever and rich...,” “accustomed to having her own way,” and with a “disposition to think a little too well of herself.” Generous, caring and a snob who often does not suppress her honest opinion. She has a strong romantic imagination, loves to gossip and fancies herself a matchmaker of some talent. She has genuine good intentions in her “make-over” of Harriet, knows that she is too easy in enjoying Frank Churchill’s attentions and is deeply shamed by Mr. Knightley’s rebuke of her callous insult to Miss Bates.

A strolling paradox: the reigning princess of her intimate sphere, unselfconsciously commanding and demanding and yet impossible to resent by virtue of her basic goodness, her obvious conscience, and her lack of vanity. Maddeningly self-confident, a clever young woman who has no idea how much growing up she has to do until it happens to her in a flash. Full of light and lovable, you might mistakenly protect her from the wounds you know she must receive to gain the wisdom you know she needs. With her attention so focused on the hearts of others, she fails to examine her own. Her discovery of her own failings and her sudden awareness of her love for Knightley shake her at the core.

Harriet Smith:

18. The “natural daughter of somebody… pleasing manners... nothing remarkably clever.” A very pretty, not-too-bright girl of dubious origins who boards at Mrs. Goddard’s in town. Emma’s chief companion and social “project” after Mrs. Weston marries. Admiring, excitable and easily led, she falls for Emma’s fantasies of her future and strives to live up to Emma’s projections for her. Honest, sweet-natured and unsophisticated, she is a simple soul, easily satisfied; when relaxed, we should see the makings of a farmer’s good wife.

Mr. George Knightley:

37-38. “[A] sensible man about seven or eight and thirty…” A bachelor gentleman with a nearby estate (Donwell Abbey). Courteous and noble, sincere and intelligent. An old friend of the Woodhouse family who frequently visits Hartfield, he has known Emma since she was a child, is fiercely protective of her and delights in her. “One of the few people who could see the faults in Emma, and the only one who ever told her of them,” he is not afraid to advise her on her manners and correct her for her mistakes. Unaware of his own capacity for love, he is buffeted by the depth and power of his feelings for Emma when they arise.

Frank Churchill:

24. The son of Mr. Weston and his first wife, he was raised by his aunt and uncle, the Churchills, who were better able to support him. Highbury eagerly awaits his visit to his newly married father and when he comes, the social atmosphere of the community heightens considerably. Handsome and charming, he is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax and attempts to disguise the fact by flirting openly with Emma, whose attention he thoroughly enjoys. Somewhat shallow and a bit of a playboy, he enjoys pursuing pleasure over more concrete pursuits. For all his reckless romantic behaviors, he is not a cad – he truly loves Jane, regrets the harm he causes by his false attentions to Emma, and apologizes accordingly. When Mrs. Elton praises him for “not being a puppy,” we might smirk at knowing better; when Mrs. Weston cautions that a girl like Jane will probably save him from himself, we hope she’s right.

Mr. Philip Elton:

Late 20s-30s. “[A] man of six or seven and twenty…” The well-liked vicar of the church in Highbury. A handsome, kind eligible bachelor with an ambitious eye out to make a good (profitable) match for himself. When Emma pursues him as a suitor for Harriet, he supposes himself successful in Emma’s affections instead. When he proposes, they are each offended by the other’s misappraisal. He leaves town with a bruised ego and return again triumphant, with a rich wife and a new self-satisfied air of superiority and smugness.

Mrs. Elton (Miss Augusta Hawkins):

21-26. The daughter of a Bristol merchant who marries Mr. Elton, she thinks herself high class, though her status in society comes only from the fact that her sister married very well. Presumptuous, arrogant and rude, she loves to be the center of attention and to showcase how elegant, intelligent, and cultured she think she is. A conceited social climber without the slightest awareness that she might be seen as crass or vulgar.

Mr. Woodhouse:

Mid 60s. Emma's father. A wealthy gentleman, possessed of a large estate (Hartfield). A hypochondriac obsessed with his health and the health of others – rich food, a slight drizzle, a chilly breeze send him into a panic and he shares his fears with all around him. He does not like big parties or late nights or leaving the house much, so Emma keeps him busy with visits from friends and family. Accustomed to the doting attention of his daughter, he in return indulges her more self-centered tendencies. Accepting of the foibles and fallibility of others, he has a naturally patient and charitable view of humanity.