MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN - CHICAGO EPA
INDIANA REPERTORY THEATRE, INC.
SIGNUP INFO
Signups begin Mar 31, 12:00 pm (CDT)
Actors' Equity Association - Chicago Member Center
557 W Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60661
Fri, Apr 7, 2023
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (CDT)
Break: 12:30-1:30pm
LORT Non-Rep
$926 weekly minimum (LORT C)
Equity actors for roles in Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN (see breakdown).
Please prepare 2 contrasting monologues; 3 minutes in total.
Janet Allen: Artistic Director (expected to attend)
1st rehearsal: 8/22/23
1st public performance 9/20/23
Close 10/14/23
OTHER
An Equity monitor will be provided.
EPA Procedures are in effect for audition.
Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition.
Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.
Equity encourages everyone participating in the auditions to wear a two-ply cloth face mask, surgical mask, singer’s mask or respirator (N95, KN95 or KF94). Single-ply face masks, gaiters and bandanas are not recommended. Singer’s masks can be found at www.broadwayreliefproject.com/singersmask.
Equity encourages members to prepare for their audition prior to arriving at the audition venue, to the extent that they can (e.g., get dressed, hair/make-up, etc.) to avoid crowding in bathrooms and dressing rooms.
Holding/Audition room information:
The audition room can accommodate no more than 45 individuals at a time.
The holding room can accommodate no more than 35 individuals at a time.
All roles require actors with excellent language skills, physical strength and the ability to transform into multiple characters through physicality and dialects. Dialect requested in audition please; standard RP. All five “real, historical” characters are bright, witty, clever, sophisticated, well-to-do, articulate, attractive, polished, and sexually liberated.
No roles will be understudied.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY/VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN/FELIX:
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (historically age 23) any ethnicity. Incredibly smart, well-read on a broad range of subjects, radical ideas about religion and politics. Idealistic and judgmental—a sceptic. At the time of the play, known only among the most radical intellectual circles. Never became famous in his own time, but after his death would become the idol of several generations of poets.
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN—smart, curious, drawn to dark thoughts, obsessive, visionary, will stop at nothing; not good at compromise.
FELIX—son of DeLacey, goodhearted but simple and conventional.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN/ELIZABETH LAVENZA:
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN (historically age 18) any ethnicity. Has already lived a lot and done a lot for her age. Smart and strong and outgoing, but with a great well of sadness underneath. Proud daughter of a pioneer feminist; a liberal and a reformer; inclined against the individualism of the Romantics; believed that cooperation and sympathy as practiced by women were the keys to reforming civil society.
ELIZABETH LAVENZA—young, beautiful, devoted to Victor, in tune with nature, pure of thought.
CLAIRE CLAIRMONT/PORTUGUESE SAILOR/MOTHER/VILLAGER/SOFIA/ANGEL of DEATH/WILLIAM/WOMAN IN BLACK/WEDDING OFFICIANT: This track will cover 9 characters with just a few lines each, some of which may be of different genders.
CLAIRE CLAIRMONT (historically age 18) any ethnicity, not tall. Illegitimate stepsister of Mary; a wannabe writer; former lover of both Shelley and Byron; volatile and emotionally intense; lively; at the time of the play, pregnant with Byron’s child.
PORTUGUESE SAILOR
MOTHER—warm, loving.
VILLAGER—barmaid, cheerful.
SOFIA—wife of Felix, goodhearted but simple and conventional.
ANGEL of DEATH
WILLIAM—Victor’s young adopted brother (the Creature frequently calls him “small”)
WOMAN IN BLACK—tough, cryptic, powerful, earthy, Scottish.
WEDDING OFFICIANT
LORD BYRON/CREATURE/SCOTTISH SAILOR/PROFESSOR WALDMAN:
LORD BYRON (historically age 28) tall, physically fit, any ethnicity except African American. An outsized personality, handsome and dashing, lives by his own rules, brilliant but conceited, passionate, rebellious, can be condescending. At this point, Byron was quite famous for both his poetry and his scandalous affairs with women (he was also bisexual). He is considered the first modern-style celebrity—an early 19th century rock star. He was deeply in debt due to his extravagant lifestyle.
CREATURE—thoughtful, troubled, yearns for love and friendship, emotional, easily hurt and enraged, a deep soul.
SCOTTISH SAILOR
PROFESSOR WALDMAN—eccentric, outlandish.
DR JOHN POLIDORI/CAPTAIN WALTON/HENRY CLERVAL
DR JOHN POLIDORI (historically age 20) any ethnicity. Became a doctor at 19; recently hired as Byron’s personal physician; would later write the first modern published vampire story, which originated during the same gathering as Frankenstein.
CAPTAIN WALTON – strong, brave, an explorer, an optimist, a believer in doing good.
HENRY CLERVAL—honest, chivalrous, adventurous, a good guy, conventional.
DeLACEY—blind old man, wise, compassionate, paternal.
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