NEW JERSEY REPERTORY COMPANY 2012-13 SEASON - New Jersey Repertory Company Auditions

Theatre’s statement: “Non-traditional casting is encouraged, and actors of color, seniors and performers with disabilities are encouraged to audition for all the plays.”

Plays and dates subject to change.



ANNAPURNA AN EAST COAST PREMIERE BY SHARR WHITE
DIRECTED BY SUZANNE BARABAS
Rehearsals begin on or about September 18, 2012
Performances October 11 – November 18, 2012

Out of friends, out of luck, and out of time, Ulysses is resigned to spending the last remaining weeks of his life in solitude with his ungrateful dog and his relentless do-gooder neighbor. That is, until Emma walks in … much as she walked out on him twenty years ago.

ULYSSES
Mid-fifties. An expert at gleeful, devil-may-care self-denial; a dedicated (and now-ex)
drinker who in a past life was a Western cowboy-poet and professor of English; an
inveterate mischief-maker and enthusiastic devotee of a sharp, quick-tongued, potty-mouthed northern-Colorado/Wyoming/Montana dialect (not a slow or drawling Southern accent.) Ex-husband to Emma.

EMMA
Also mid-fifties. Ulysses’ ex-wife of twenty years. An urbane, often fierce, always
protective New Englander. A fighter in times of trouble, and a dedicated anti-sentimentalist in times of peace whose single moment of weakness resulted in falling for Ulysses. If ever confronted with allegations of selflessness to those around her, Emma would adamantly deny it, even if the evidence is everywhere.




ESTHER’S MOUSTACHE A WORLD PREMIERE LAUREL OLLSTEIN
DIRECTED BY LAUREL OLLSTEIN
Rehearsals begin on or about November 20, 2012.
Performances December 13, 2012 – January 13, 2013.

Life starts to get complicated for comic artist, Maddy, when grandmother Esther pops up uninvited with a trunk full of family photos and warm potato latkes. When Maddy falls for a hot messenger guy who just happens to be German, things get even more surreal in this darkly comic play about love, sex, heritage and letting go.

MADDIE: 25 - 35 A single, quirky, cartoonist who draws a comic strip of goofy goddesses.

GERD: 20’s – 30’s year old good looking German - has a thick German accent.

ESTHER: - Maddie's Russian Jewish grandmother, ageless.

LILITH: – 20’s a cartoon goddess – sexy, beautiful.




ANTS A WORLD PREMIERE BY SAVIANA STANESCU
Rehearsals begin on or about January 15, 2013.
Performances February 7 – March 10, 2013.

A quicky dramedy exploring the biochemistry of job loss, motherhood and desire – as well as the personal science of turning worker ants into queens, while surviving the world of ants and humans – with an accent.

KARA – 40, attractive, speaks with an accent (any race or ethnicity).

MIA – Kara’s younger sister, 30, boyish, speaks with a strong accent (same race/ethnicity as Kara). Enthusiastic student of biochemistry.

DR. ADAM KOHN – Professor of Biochemistry, 48, attractive, speaks with a mild accent (any race or ethnicity).




NOIR A WORLD PREMIERE BY STAN WERSE
DIRECTED BY MARC GELLER
Rehearsals begin on or about March 12, 2013.
Performances April 4 – May 5, 2013.

Here are the facts, just the facts … New York City, 1950 … Andrews has left town, Klein is dead, Lydecker is dead, Betty … well she’s still alive, but someone has beat the pretty off her. Detective Clay Holden has his first big chance, but this is one case he may not want to solve.

Note: All actors should be familiar with the comic/quick delivery of the noir genre.

Clay Holden 25 - 30, Off beat, edgy leading man. Young and idealistic police detective. Earnest and sure of what’s right and wrong. A bit of a chip on his shoulder.

Helen Lydecker 30 - 35. A femme fatale. Beautiful, smart and rich. A self-assured woman who knows what she wants and gets it. Yet, there is an air of sadness about her. Singing a plus.

Norbert Grimes 50 - 60. The senior detective. Tough, mean, clever and cynical. A long winded, judgmental story teller.

McQue 40 - 50. A very big man, muscles turning to fat, tall as well as wide. Seemingly good natured and guileless. A detective who uses his brawn, not his brains. Plays dumb but isn’t. Rather wry and deadpan.




HAPPY AN NNPN WORLD PREMIERE BY ROBERT CAISLEY
Rehearsals begin on or about May 7, 2013.
Performances May 30 – June 30, 2013.

Alfred is happy about his life. He’s happy with his job. He’s happy with his fourteen- year marriage. He’s even happy raising his special needs daughter, who uses a wheelchair. But when his bohemian-artist best friend Eduardo invites him to dinner to meet the latest woman in his life, a dour 22-year-old art student suspicious of anything ‘upbeat,’ things spin out of control. Alfred begins to doubt the authenticity of his happiness, and in turn, makes everyone’s lives utterly miserable. Happy is a play about how vicious and enviable we can be of people possessed with a natural joie de vivre. 

ALFRED REHN: 40’s – happy. 

MELINDA REHM: Alfred’s wife. 40’s – happy.

EDUARDO: Alfred’s best friend. 50’s – 60’s but extraordinarily vibrant for his age. An artist. He speaks with a slight accent. He is happy.

EVA: Eduardo’s new girlfriend. 20’s. An artist. She is not happy. 




TBA A New Play
Rehearsals begin on or about July 2, 2013.
Performances July 25 – August 25, 2013.




BROOMSTICK A WORLD PREMIERE BY JOHN BIGUENET
DIRECTED BY SUZANNE BARABAS
Rehearsals begin on or about August 27, 2013.
Performances September 19 – October 13, 2013

In Broomstick, a witch confesses all: her first love affair, how she discovered her powers, how she has used them. But more than that, it is a funny and frightening return to our childhoods, where we first wrestled with evil and justice. For the witch is a completely unsentimental moralist who knows everything about the human heart — having been both its victim and avenger all her long life — and who metes out inexorable justice, immune to our pleas for mercy, cackling at our excuses. In Broomstick, whiners wind up in casseroles.

WITCH: an ageless woman with a country accent, perhaps Appalachian.




MIDDLEMEN A NEW JERSEY PREMIERE BY DAVID JENKINS
Rehearsals begin on or about October 14, 2013.
Performances November 7 – 24 and December 5 – 15, 2013.

Amid the drone of industrial air conditioning and the buzz of fluorescent lights, middle manager Stan and fiscal analyst Michael toil away on an exhaustive annual report in their desolate 60-floor office tower. One by one, their coworkers have mysteriously disappeared, but neither Stan nor Michael really seems to care — except that no one bought milk for the break room and they may have been responsible for the collapse of Bolivia.

STAN – Mid/Late Fifties. Confident, large man.

MICHAEL – Mid/Late Twenties. Birdlike, physically small.