Announcing video submission auditions for The Brechtones, a new beat-poetry musical by Billy Butler. Callbacks will be August 4.
To be considered for an audition please email billybitter@gmail.com with a link to your video.
Jennifer Towle - director
Billy Butler - music director
Seeking:
PENNY DIVER
Any gender or ethnicity, early 20s, strong R&B/pop voice (mezzo).
Has a punk attitude with a turn of the twentieth century style. Amy Winehouse meets Allen Ginsberg.
Please prepare a contemporary R&B tune or your own interpretation of a jazz standard and a 2-3 minute monologue or poem.
DEATH IS A BARTENDER
Any gender or ethnicity, 30+, strong rock/pop (baritone-tenor).
Literally death who tends the bar. Sings back-up with the band.
Please prepare a contemporary R&B tune or your own interpretation of a jazz standard and be ready to tell a joke or two.
GUEST POETS
Each performance has spots in the show that feature guest poets. Original material is strongly encouraged but not required, however they must adhere to the themes given. Please email billybitter@gmail.com if you would like to be considered for a guest spot.
SYNOPSIS
A sign hangs with drink specials, maybe written in chalk, as well as, “Beat-Nite with The Brechtones!” The setting is the old townie Dive Bar in Nowhere, USA: dirty, sticky, a thick haze of who knows what. There is a stage with a round, stained rug and a poet mic center. It is surrounded by cocktail tables and a bar on one side with a bartender slinging drinks. Band members wander on to the stage. Older musicians who look as if they were caught in the crossed streams of 1920 and 2020 - worn, but not weak, and damn good at what they do. A middle-age troubadour on his last leg, figuratively and literally, enters and sits at the piano. Billy Bitter kicked heroin years ago, but has taken the edge off with whiskey. The pills are from a prescription for a physical injury, or so he says. He has been playing the club and bar circuit across the America since he quit middle school. A young poet reveals in front of everyone that she is his long lost daughter and he decays into a tragic haze of booze and drugs.
Although this is a scripted piece, there is an element of improvisation, musically and verbally, even to the point of having on the spot conversations with the audience. Every night is a unique performance - each show also features guest poets reading their own work based on the themes of the show.
Rehearsals start first week of September.
Show runs at The Players' Ring Theatre in Portsmouth, NH, Friday-Sunday, October 12-28.
Videos
