AUDITIONS for The White Liars & Black Comedy
Two one-act plays by Peter Shaffer
Will be held: Monday, October 14 & Tuesday, October 15
Both nights starting at 7PM
To register for an audition slot, please click here
Auditions will consist of cold readings provided at the auditions.
Presented in collaboration with BEAT Theatre Company
Directed by David Anderson
The White Liars revolves around Sophie Lemberg, an eccentric and disillusioned fortune teller(who imagines herself to be a baroness of the Holy Roman Empire) living in a decaying seaside resort, and the two young men—Tom, the lead singer in a rock band, and Frank, his business manager—who consult her. It soon becomes clear that their lives are much stranger than the fiction Sophie tries to create in her magic ball.
Black Comedy is written to be staged under a reversed lighting scheme: the play opens on a darkened stage. A few minutes into the show there is a short circuit, and the stage is illuminated to reveal the characters in a "blackout." On the few occasions when matches, lighters, or torches are lit, the lights grow dimmer. Brindsley Miller, a young sculptor, and his debutante fiancée Carol Melkett have borrowed some expensive, antique furniture from his neighbor Harold's flat without his permission in order to impress an elderly millionaire art collector coming to view Brindsley's work, and Carol's father Colonel Melkett. When the power fails, Harold returns early, and Brindsley's ex-mistress Clea shows up unexpectedly, things slide into disaster for him.
Roles:
5m, 3f
BRINDSLEY MILLER - a young sculptor, mid twenties, intelligent and attractive, but nervous and uncertain of himself. (Doubles as Frank)
CAROL MELKETT - Brindsley's fiancee. A young debutante; very pretty, very spoiled; very silly. Her sound is that unmistaktable, terrifing debutante quack.
MISS FURNIVAL - a middle-aged lady. Prissy and refined. Clad in the blouse and sack shirt of her gentility, her hair in a bun, her voice in a bun, she reveals only the repressed gestures of the middle-class spinster -- until alcohol undoes her. (Doubles as Sophie Lemberg)
COLONEL MELKETT - Carol's commanding father. Brisk, barky, yet given to sudden vocal calms which suggest a deep alarming instability. It is not only the constant darkness which gives him his look of wide-eyed submission.
HAROLD GORRINGE - the bachelor owner of an antique-china shop, and Brindsley's neighbor, Harold comes from the North of England. His friendship is highly conditional and possesive: sooner or later, payment for it will be asked. A specialist in emotional blackmail, he can become hysterical when slighted, or (as inevitably happens) rejected. He is older than Brindsley by several years. (Doubles as Tom)
SCHUPPANZIGH - a German refugee, cultivated and effervescent. He is an entirely happy man, delighted to be in England, even if it means being employed full time by the London Electricity Board.
CLEA - Brindsley's ex-mistress. Mid-twenties; dazzling, emotional, bright, and mischevious. The challenge to her is to create a dramatic situation out of the darkness is ultimately irresistable.
GEORG BAMBERGER - an elderly millionaire art collector, easily identifiable as such. Like Schuppanzigh, he is German.
AUDITIONS for A Little Night Music
Presented in collaboration with Greater Worcester Opera
Will be held: Thursday, October 24 & Friday, October 25
To register for an audition slot, click here
GWO is auditioning for our March 2020 productions of A Little Night Music (performed at Stageloft Repertory Theater in Sturbridge, March 6-15) and A Puccini Double-Bill: Act II of La Bohème, and Suor Angelica(performed in English translation at Calliope Theater, Boylston, May 29-June 7). All roles are open. Download the AUDITION FORM
Basic rehearsal schedule is Sunday, Monday and Wednesday evenings for 2 months. For both shows, stage director is Richard Monroe and music director is Aldo Fabrizi. Pianist for the Sondheim is John Leslie. Pianist for the Puccini is Yelena Beriyeva.
For A Little Night Music: Prepare a 2 minute excerpt of any Sondheim piece. There will also be cold readings from the script. Character breakdown and vocal ranges
For Puccini Double-Bill: Prepare a 2 minute excerpt of any Puccini aria. Also prepare a 2 minute excerpt of any aria or musical theater piece in English so we can hear your diction. If you are also auditioning for the Sondheim, that piece will serve as your English excerpt.
Singers may audition for both productions, or just one.
In cases of equal talent, performers with a history at GWO, and/or performers in the Central and Western MA area will be given preference in casting. However, we encourage all interested parties to audition.
Callbacks, if needed, will be held on November 4.
If a performer wishes to be in the ensemble only, they may email a bio and resume to: contact@greaterworcesteropera.org to see if an audition is necessary. Smaller roles in Suor Angelicamay be cast from the ensemble at a later audition.
Audition Location: 65 Briarwood Circle, Worcester, MA