THE UNDERPANTS
San Jose Stage Company | San Jose, CA
REVISED
Breakdown updated. Precast roles noted.
AUDITION DATE
Thursday, February 20, 2025
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM (P)
APPOINTMENTS
Email
casting@thestage.org with your Equity status to request an audition appointment.
CONTRACT
Bay Area Theatre
$593 weekly minimum (Tier 3)
SEEKING
Equity actors for roles in THE UNDERPANTS (see breakdown). San Jose Stage Company is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in casting and uses a color and culturally conscious approach to casting. Actors of any race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation, age, and ability are encouraged to submit their materials and audition.
PREPARATION
Prepare a side for the character of your choosing. Sides and script are available at the following link:
Sides and Script
LOCATION
San Jose Stage Company
490 South 1st St
San Jose, CA 95113-2815
PERSONNEL
By Steve Martin; Adapted from Carl Sternheim
EXPECTED TO ATTEND:
Artistic Director: Randall King
Executive Director: Cathleen King
Director: Kimberly Mohne Hill
OTHER DATES
1st Rehearsal: 03/11/25
1st Preview: 04/02/25
Opening: 04/05/25
Closing: 04/27/25
OTHER
An Equity Monitor will not be provided. The producer will run all aspects of this 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. Notice: Audition Call Type: EPA
BREAKDOWN
THE UNDERPANTS by Steve Martin; Adapted from Carl Sternheim
SEEKING:
- Theo Maske. CAST. Described as “a burly, muscular fireplug with a buzz cut,” Theo is a civil servant who is obsessed with being in control of his middle-class life. He likes the house clean; the clock wound and maintains a cool relationship with his pretty wife, even delaying love making until they can afford to have a child.
- Louise Maske. Very pretty and in her mid-twenties, Theo’s wife is a romantic dreamer who feels hurt that her husband is not intimate with her physically or emotionally. Relegated to being a wife and homemaker, she is bored and trapped like the caged bird in her apartment.
- Gertrude Deuter. CAST. Forty-two and a busybody, Gertrude is Louise’s friend who considers herself a hopeless old maid and tries to satisfy her sexual and romantic longings by living vicariously through her young friend. She urges Louise to have an affair with Versati, promises to help her conceal the truth, and even sews Louise more alluring underpants. Her loyal friendship is tested by her own chance for an amorous liaison.
- Frank Versati. An elegant gentleman who is proud of being an unpublished poet, Versati declares himself passionately and permanently in love with Louise, but when given the chance to consummate their relationship, he writes a poem instead. Afterwards, he soon finds a new object for his ardor.
- Benjamin Cohen. CAST. Sickly, thin, 35, and asthmatic, Cohen is a barber who insists he’s not Jewish. He is also the other jealous suitor of Louise, a “prophylactic” who plans to prevent her union with Versati. Although Cohen is disrespected for his physical weakness, he is actually a voice of reason and the one person who is able to appraise himself and the other characters.
- Klinglehoff. An elderly scientist, Klinglehoff is orderly and moralistic.
