Fall Shakespeare 2009:
Auditions for Romeo and Ethel

Auditions are nothing to worry about. Sure, they are make and break, giving you the chance to shine or flop – being judged for all time based on tiny snapshot of a performance, but so what?! No sweat! They are scheduled for:

Thursday, September 17, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 noon,
Monday, September 21, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon,
Thursday, September 24, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 noon.

Yes, you read that correctly. 8:00 AM! We are starting EARLY that first day, so that we can be sure of fitting in all who want to try-out that day. Prizes will be offered for those who volunteer to come before 9:00! (Maybe we should have prizes for adults who volunteer to drive you, actually. Hmmmmm. At the very least, we’ll have coffee. In large amounts. Suggestions from the drivers are welcome!)

We are interested in any performing skill(s) you have, or just plain interesting ones. Can you turn cartwheels? Dance the hula? Speak a real or imaginary language fluently? Sing really, really softly, but so sweetly that you make us cry? Play the banjo? accordion? nose-flute? Make a really, really scary face? Are you a ninja swordmaster? Show us what you’ve got!

Yes, we’re also having traditional try-outs, with recommended speeches to be presented, and we can’t wait to hear you present them. Or to hear some other speech you have your heart set on. We’re making space and time for you to try out for a specific role or roles, AND demonstrate your craziest talent. And we hope you do! See below for the details of how it will work.

Related Pages:

   Romeo and Ethel Character List    Suggested Tryout Speeches    Tryout Time Slots

Each person auditioning will be given five minutes to do .... whatever they want. You may think that sounds like a short time, but many theater auditions are for two minutes only.

We are going to schedule four people in each half hour, both to give us time to take notes and talk to each other, and to keep us on track in case we veer off schedule. You’ll sign up for a half hour slot on one of the days. Siblings get preference for being in the same half-hour slot, or in adjacent slots. Remember, prizes for the first two half-hour slots! To indicate your preference, jump to this page: Tryout Time Slots. Copy and paste the relevant bits into an email, and shoot it off to us at vsc@voyagersinc.com, with “audition” in the subject line.

One of us will get back to you with your assigned half hour slot.

Please show up at least 10 minutes before your half hour slot. Once you’ve done your try-out, you are free to go!

More Details on Your Five Minutes

Here are some more details about how we think it might go, and some suggestions on how to use your five minutes wisely.

First, introduce yourself. You may think that’s silly, because we know most of you pretty well. But it’s a good practice for auditions you may do elsewhere, where folks may not know you. So, tell us your name, in a nice loud projecting “I am an Actor” voice.

Tell us what you’ll be presenting first. Then do it. See how amazed we are! Then tell us what you’ll be presenting next. Then do it. We are eager to see and hear you — and we really do want you to do well and feel comfortable. Oh, and you don't have to tell us what you'll be presenting before hand.

You should have time to present at least two roles in your five minutes, plus do whatever crazy things you’d like to show us. Or serious things, too. Show us what you’ve got! You might have time to read for three roles. But frankly, even if you’d be happy playing every role in the cast, logistically we can’t hear you read for every role that you could tackle. That doesn’t mean we won’t consider you for other roles - see What Role is For Me? below.

Because we’re writing the play as well as performing it, we can monkey around with what, exactly, the roles involve. If you can do something really fun that gives us an idea for a change to the script, ore even an entirely new character, well, then, great!

If you are done before five minutes is up, that’s fine! We may ask you (not tell you) to read something a second time. Or we may ask you for your ideas about a character. Or maybe we’ll ask you something totally different. It won’t be a quiz - there aren’t any right answers to our questions.

If you don’t want to work with speeches from Romeo and Ethel, you can present any short speech, oration, poem or song you’d like. Or you can present a soliloquy you worked on with Liz.

We will be doing lots of physical comedy and carefully choreographed stage combat, so if you have ideas about that, show us! You can also try out for a purely musical role, playing an instrument on which you have substantial expertise. Do you want to compose some music for us to consider? You can tell us that in your five minutes, too.

One more option - although we’ll be having Auditions in Room 4/5, with the doors closed, you can bring a pal or friendly adult if that would make you feel more comfortable.

Serious Auditioning Hints

So, you really want to take your try-out seriously, or practice a serious audition in a pretty safe place like Voyagers. If that’s the case, you will spend more than a little time doing preparation in advance and figuring out something to do that will showcase your unique skills. You don’t have to memorize something for us, although we’ll be impressed if you do. (Liz will go “Ooooo!”) But you certainly should have read through the material ALOUD more than once. And maybe you’ll even do some intense text analysis. You’ll know how to pronounce all the words. You will, we hope, not faint or throw up. Practicing your audition for a friend or family member can really help you get used to the whole “in front of other people” part that’s so nerve-wracking.. You can also practice in front of a mirror, or videorecord yourself and see how you come across. The idea is to prepare, in a way that suits you. Got it? Good! Still have questions? Ask us!

What Role is For Me?

How do you decide which role or roles to audition for? By audition time, we assume you have all read the latest version of the play, or had it read to you. For a list of all the characters in the play as we are conceiving it, jump to Romeo and Ethel Character List. This list has a short description of each role, some notes on what an actor needs to play each role, and the approximate number of lines each role includes. And for the specific scenes we’ve suggested you read for each character or character group, go to Suggested Tryout Speeches. But remember, those scenes aren’t required, just suggested. Please also bear in mind that we may add or subtract characters or lines to fit the skills of our cast.

We’ve already said there isn’t time for everyone to present every role. But that doesn’t mean that you will only be considered for the roles you read for — it’s entirely possible that the role you get may be one invented for you. We'll consider you for any role for which you say you'd like to be considered. Here's a form to fill out and bring to Auditions, on which you can mark each of the roles for which you’d like to be considered: Role Preferences Form You can cross out roles that would make you cringe if we asked you to play them. It's your choice on what to tell us. The more information we have, the easier our job is.

Girls’ Parts/Boys’ Parts: Shakespeare’s language is part of our linguistic heritage as speakers of English. It belongs to all of us. Yes, we have more females than males in the company - that’s pretty much the norm in theater. We want to work with you to produce the best, most interesting, and exciting work we all possibly can, with the company we have. You should audition for the roles you want. In the character list, we have noted which roles will be played as male (whether the actor is male or female) and which could be played as male or female.

Music, Music, Combat, and Acrobatics

Actors will be asked to demonstrate their singing range and tone as a part of the audition. While as of this writing, there are no specific singing parts, there may be by the time of auditions! Do note that this is requested from all performers.

We’d also like to hear from any actors who are also instrumentalists. We can make space of any number and kind of musicians in this production.

Lastly, we are also interested in any gymnastics, dance, circus skills, martial arts, or other stage combat-type stuff you can do. Falling with style is included! We will also need all sorts of pirate-y shenanigans, and may have some ropes to swing from, so your jungle gym skills are important to us.

Details on scheduling for music sessions will be posted by Monday, Sept 14.

Directing/Assistant Directing

For one or perhaps two of you, there is a chance of helping to direct Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter! If you are interested in doing so, please be in touch with Josh. We may take a student-director, we may offer a student director one act, or we may offer one or more candidates a position as assistant director. Interested candidates will meet with Josh, Liz, and Lynn to explore the possibilities.

Finding Your Inner Techie

All, and we mean ALL possible folks interested in any backstage activities, please make an appointment with Josh for one of the audition days, or some other mutually agreeable time. Details on how to make these appointments will follow soon in another email. Talking to Josh is a way to discuss how you see yourself participating behind the scenes, even if you want to act, too. If you think it would be fun to design more of Romeo's costume, or to figure out how a ship could magically appear, you should touch base with Josh. If you want to learn how the lights function, but not necessarily run them, talk to her. Want to design costumes? Josh. Stage manage? Josh again.

-- JoshShaine - 19 Jun 2009