JOSEPHINE TONIGHT Equity Principal Audition - Metro Stage Auditions

JOSEPHINE TONIGHT

- Equity Principal Audition by APPOINTMENT in VA

Metro Stage Alexandria VA SPT (approval/salary level pending; 2010-11 weekly minimum: $368).

Producing Artistic Dir: Carolyn Griffin

Book/Lyrics: Sherman Yellen

Music: Wally Harper

Dir/Choreo: Maurice Hines

Audition is for consideration for two productions of this piece:

Developmental “workshop” — Contract dates: 7/5 – 7/16/11.

Full production — 1st reh: 1/3/12. Runs 1/26 – 3/18/12.

Equity Principal Auditions by APPOINTMENT:

Monday, June 27, 2011 Metro Stage

11 AM - 7 PM 1201 North Royal St.

Lunch from 1 - 2. Alexandria, VA 22314

Directions:
www.metrostage.org. Free parking lot.

For an appointment, call 703/548-9044 or e-mail
info@metrostage.org. Equity Members without appointments will be seen throughout the audition day, as time permits.

Please prepare a brief, standard ballad (think Ellington, Rodgers, Porter, Gershwin, Berlin). Bring sheet music in the correct key; accompanist is provided, but may not transpose.

Please bring a picture & resume, stapled back-to-back.

Story of Josephine Baker’s early years — from her youthful dancing in front of the Piggly Wiggly in East St. Louis, to her vaudeville days, to her triumphant performances on the Paris stage.

Seeking (all roles are available; all performers must dance (including tap)):

Josephine Baker (Josie):

African American. Character appears in the show from age 15 – age 20. Actor plays only this character throughout the musical. Josie is a young girl determined to escape the grinding poverty and hate-filled racial violence of her world through nerve, talent, wit and an unbreakable will. Grows from an unschooled ghetto teenager into a sophisticated woman and international icon — in five years. Mezzo.

Carrie McDonald / “Big Bertha” Smith:

African American, 40–45. Carrie: Josephine’s mother. Warm but caustic woman, often beaten down by life but never defeated, goading her daughter onwards. “Big Bertha”: the star performer of the TOBA vaudeville circuit. Great vaudeville star. The queen of her own world, she is extravagantly gifted and outrageously frank. Both characters require a wide dramatic and comedic range. Belty alto.

Eddie Baker / Paul Colin:

Eddie: African American. Handsome vaudeville dancer, later Josephine’s husband in Harlem. Trying to make the best deal he can, in a hard world. Paul Colin: Caucasian Frenchman, 25-35. Josephine’s lover, in Paris. Worldly charmer who will seize his chances when he can. High baritone.

Father Jones / Others:

One actor plays multiple male characters (40-45), including Reverend Loomis: Judgmental preacher; Father Jones: Game but untalented vaudevillian; Southern Sheriff, 2nd Harlem Cotton Club Producer, New York Maitre D’. Performer dances in the Cotton Club “Jungle Number”, in “La Revue Negre” in Paris, and in “Harlem Strut”. Baritone.

Mother Jones / Others:

One actress plays multiple female characters (40-45) including Miss Cora: Censorious church lady; Mother Jones: Saucy African American vaudevillian; Caroline Dudley:Caucasian. Elegant producer of the Paris revue. Actress must also be credible as Miz Rector (Caucasian), a frazzled, angry housewife; the (Caucasian) Hat-Shop Manager; and the hard-boiled (female) New York Cotton Club Producer.