Open auditions for two shows, Cole Porter's classic satire ANYTHING GOES and the newest wild adventure from the Urinetown writers, YEAST NATION, will be held on two Monday nights, June 12 and 19, 2017, at 7:00 p.m., at the Marcelle Theater in Grand Center, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive (63103), just three blocks east of Grand. Performers need to come to only one of the dates. No appointment is necessary.
Both shows will run twelve performances over four weeks at the Marcelle. Anything Goes will run March 1-24, 2018, and Yeast Nation will run May 31-June 23, 2018. The role of Moonface Martin in Anything Goes has been cast; all other roles are available. The season's opening show, Lizzie, has already been cast.
For both Anything Goes and Yeast Nation, New Line is looking for a multi-racial cast of 16 intelligent, fearless, singing actors who are willing to take risks onstage. We do not cast anyone under 17. We are very eager to cast actors of color. Performers are asked to bring a prepared contemporary theatre song, with printed piano music for our pianist (no karaoke tracks and no a cappella). Performers may also be asked to sing from the score. There will be a dance audition.
Roles and ranges for both shows can be found below.
No appointments for the audition are necessary. All performers should arrive for the audition before 7:00 p.m. If we need to call actors back, it will be on the same night. New Line continues its long-standing policy of considering people of all backgrounds for all roles that are not ethnically specified. We are proud to be part of a diverse community, and our stage will represent that inclusivity.
New Line is a non-union professional theatre company. Performers will share a guaranteed 10% of box office receipts, with a minimum of $150 per actor for the run.
ABOUT THE SHOWS
New Line finally takes on the rowdy, subversive, iconic masterpiece of musical comedy, Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, a stinging satire of Americans’ quirky habit of turning religion into show business and criminals into celebrities, along the way skewering Wall Street, Prohibition, Old Money Brits, and a few other ripe targets. The New Liners will reignite this classic show's original, razor-sharp, satiric bite. New Line will produce the 1962 off Broadway version of the show.
And what exactly is Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis' freaky, hilarious Yeast Nation about? Exactly what it sounds like. It's the year 3,000,458,000 BC. The Earth's surface is a molten mass of volcanic islands and undulating waves. The atmosphere is a choking fog lit by a dim red sun. And the mighty waters of the world are inhabited only by rocks, sand, salt, more rocks, a little silt, and the great society of salt-eating yeasts – yes, yeasts! – the world's very first life form! These single-cell salt-eaters are the only living creatures on earth, and they’re up against a food shortage, a strange new emotion called Love, and the oppression of a tyrannical yeast king. But when the king’s son ventures out of the known yeastiverse, the yeasts’ story – and ours – is changed forever.
REHEARSALS
New Line rehearses on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m., plus every night the week the show opens. For shows with choreography (which includes Anything Goes), there is a fourth rehearsal for the first several weeks of the process, on Sunday afternoons or Weds. nights. Rehearsals are at First Congregational Church of St. Louis, in Clayton.
Rehearsals for Anything Goes begin the first week of January, and rehearsals for Yeast Nation begin the first week of April.
ROLES AND RANGES
Anything Goes
Billy Crocker, high baritone (Bb2 to F4), mid to late 20s, junior broker on Wall Street
Hope Harcourt, soprano (Bb3 to F5), age 18-25, rich girl who has to marry a much older man
Reno Sweeney, belty alto (F3 to B4), 30s, evangelist turned nightclub singer
Moonface Martin,. comic baritone (A2 to E4), Public Enemy #13 – ALREADY CAST
Bonnie, brassy mezzo (Db4 to Gb5), Moonface’s chorus-girl accomplice
Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, comic baritone (Db3 to F4), 40s or 50s, rich British aristocrat
Reno’s Fallen Angels, sopranos and altos:
Charity/passenger
Chastity/passenger
Virtue/passenger
Purity/passenger
Elisha J. Whitney, Billy’s boss on Wall Street, 40s, no solo singing
Mrs. Harcourt, Hope’s mother, 40s, no solo singing
Bishop/Captain/passenger
Reporter/Photographer/Purser/passenger
Two male sailors/passengers/converts
Yeast Nation
(Note: Jan is pronounced “Yahn”)
JAN-THE-UNNAMED: Female, alto, age unspecified but old enough to possess a certain whacked out wisdom and serious comedic chops. Unnamed is our guide to the world of the Yeasts and is sometimes one of them. Like the blind prophetess from Greek mythology and strangely prescient. Her comic skills must not prevent her embracing the style of world and the truth of its truths with commitment and conviction. She may evolve but never winks.
JAN-THE-ELDER: Male, baritone, late 50s- 60s to play 70s. The first creature to swim the seas, King of the Yeasts, Elder is authority. He is regal and unapproachable, but beginning to succumb to age and madness. Does not necessarily have to be very tall as his physical stature can be enhanced. He should have a natural charisma and a sense of true power.
JAN-THE-SWEET: Female, soprano who can rock out, early 20s. Low born but proud, fierce and noble. She appears to be the ingénue. The other Yeasts yearn for her and are moved by her sweetness but she possesses her father’s wisdom and something sterner and surprising of her own. She has will and strength and will never knuckle under. She has real beauty but it isn’t the kind you find on the cover of Vogue.
JAN-THE SECOND-OLDEST: Male, rock tenor, 20s to early 30s. Elder’s son and first in line for the throne. An idealist, a dreamer. Handsome and charismatic – could look like a young rock star or a gorgeous, sweet boy – above all, must possess a vulnerability as well as the bearing of someone who could be King of All Yeasts. Great Pop Rock singer. Must have an earnestness which never cloys.
JAN-THE-SLY: Female, alto, 20s. The smartest, the cleverest, the most ambitious and slyest of all the yeasts, Sly is a schemer and a plotter. She is patricidal, fratricidal, would be matricidal if she had a mother and is very appealing. She is Second’s younger sister and second in line for the throne.
JAN-THE-WISE: Male, rock baritone, late 30s – early 50s. Wise is Elder’s senior counselor and advisor. He schemes and plots to hold and gain power, he believes he is smarter than the other Yeasts but he is certainly not as smart as Sly. He has no direct claim on the throne. He has a surprising vulnerability to the charms of Sweet and a formal, courtly nature. Tries hard to be Dick Cheney but can only truly aspire to Rumsfeld. Should be physically eccentric and is not a natural leading man.
JAN-THE-WRETCHED: Male, bari-tenor, 40s – 60s. Wretched, desperate. A vagabond. He actually is smarter than all the other Yeasts and understands the way they live is unsustainable. Sweet’s father.
JAN-THE-FAMISHED: Female, mezzo, 30s – 40s. A desperate, bumbling single mother to be. She is perpetually hungry and constantly terrified. The actress playing this role should be very, very thin as she gives birth during the course of the play.
THE NEW ONE: Female, alto-mezzo, late teens to early 20s. Something new. Someone shiny. Lithe, sexual and exotic. She is alien to the yeasts though is born of them. She seems innocent and childlike but grows merciless and savage as her hunger increases. Must move extremely well. A dancer or gymnast preferred.
JAN-THE-YOUNGEST: Male (Female in drag?), tenor (alto?), 10 years old to early teens. Guileless, trusting but precocious and concerned with precision. Points out inaccuracies and ambiguities in the conceit of the play only the way a child could. Directly, simply and without mercy. Not a show kid.
YEAST ENSEMBLE of 4 to 6
Videos
