Auditions
The Public Theatre is a Professional Equity Theatre (SPT cat 8). Each season, The Public Theatre conducts several auditions at the theatre in Maine, as well as in New York City.
The Public Theatre conducts one day of an open EPA call in NYC (July 2011) and a will be conducting a local EPA day at the theatre on August 8th, 2011 as our required call.
TPT generally holds auditions for individual productions throughout the season as needed by appointment only. The first round of NYC appointment auditions are usually held in mid August. Local auditions for specific productions are generally held at the theatre over the summer and as needed throughout the year.
As we use an in-house casting director, we suggest sending us your picture and resume for our files. Prior to setting up our audition calls, we look through our files, submissions from breakdown services, the Equity hotline, and occasionally the trades. With the exception of the open EPA calls, auditions for the season are by appointment only with readings from the script(s) we are casting.
Our rehearsal schedule is generally 12 - 8pm Tues - Sun. The producers are open to non-traditional casting, minorities are encouraged to submit themselves for all projects.
We suggest sending your picture and resume, (or a note or postcard if you have previously auditioned for us), mentioning the role(s) you would like to be considered for to:
The Public Theatre
31 Maple Street
Lewiston, Maine 04240
DO NOT E-MAIL YOUR PICTURE AND RESUME UNLESS WE REQUEST IT.
2011-12 season, available roles:
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
Director: Janet Mitchko
Contract dates: Sept 26 - Oct 23, 2011
Phileas Fogg: Late 30’s/40’s. Stalwart and gentlemanly, a true example of Victorian grace. British, unflappable and precise, he rarely cracks a smile or expresses frustration in the face of typhoons, wild Indians or love.
Passepartout: 30’s. Needs a French dialect. He is Fogg’s comedic, idealistic and enthusiastic manservant/sidekick who continually saves the day. Possessing the comic charm of Inspector Clouseau (he repeatedly calls his pocket watch a "time-piss"), he must also be an extraordinary physical comedian.
The remaining 3 actors (2 men, 1 woman) must all be facile comic actors who disappear and re-appear with quick changes portraying multiple characters. Characters include British men in a club, priests at a Parsee temple, a Chinese silk merchant, a rough-and-tumble cowboy and a blustering ship's captain. Two of these actors play a primary role in addition to their multiple characters.
Man #1. Late 30’s-50’s. Primarily plays Detective Fix: A comic and inept Sherlock Holmes. The perfect straight man for Passepartout.
Man #2: 30’s-50’s. A brilliantly inventive comic actor with lots of dialects who plays multiple roles including: Gauthier Ralph, British Consul, Director of Police, Priest, Sir Francis, Judge, an Indian elephant trainer, etc.
Woman: 30’s. Primarily plays Aouda, a docile and endearing damsel in distress, rescued from her husband’s funeral pyre. Indian dialect.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Directed by the author.
Contract dates: Nov 28 - Dec 11, 2011.
This adaptation features a small cast playing multiple roles and one actor playing Scrooge. All actors perform narration of Dickens text, as well as scene work. Both British dialect and Standard American Speech are used in this adaptation. Show requires versatile actors who make playful choices and are good with language.
Belle, etc: attractive young woman, 20's-early 30's, earnest, loving. Must have a sense of humor, and the ability to play multiple roles and handle narration. Possible non-Equity casting.
All AEA roles (Scrooge, Marley, Bob and Mrs. Cratchit) are CAST. Auditioning performers will be considered as possible replacements, should any become necessary.
The Language Archive
Director: TBA.
Contract dates: January 9 - February 5, 2012.
GEORGE: 40’s. Intelligent, passionate and obsessed with his work as a linguist, his emotional life is trapped in his intellect. Obtuse to the voice of his heart, he is confused by his growing isolation from his wife, utterly unaware that his pretty assistant is madly in love with him, and unable to find the right words to stop his wife from leaving him. Very smart and well educated, he seems to have insight into everything but himself and his own life.
MARY: 40’s. George’s wife. Desperate to reach her husband and frustrated and saddened by his distance, she tries everything she knows to reconnect with him and fails. Heart-centered and hopeful about herself and the world, she has grown sad and lonely and in her marriage, and finally leaves her husband in hope of rekindling her happiness and passion for life.
EMMA: 30’s. George’s attractive, sweet and idealistic lab assistant. She is madly infatuated with George, and wildly suffers the pangs of unrequited love. Loving, generous, capable, and supportive, she is willing to love George for the rest of her life.
ALTA: 50+. An older comic character actress. She and her husband are the last speakers of a passionate and romantic language (dialect needed) in an obscure, old world culture. Strong willed, wildly passionate and opinionated about everything, including her husband, her love for him is equaled only by her rage towards him. She also plays multiple comic roles including a fanciful language instructor with a German dialect.
RESTEN: 50+. An older comic character actor. He and his wife are the last speakers of a passionate and romantic language (dialect needed) in an obscure, old world culture. Stubborn, proud and set in his ways, his love for his wife is equaled only by his frustration with her. He also plays multiple comic roles including the highly educated inventor of the language of love.
Red
Director: Christopher Schario.
Contract dates: Feb 27 - March 25, 2012
Mark Rothko: 50s (or older). A famous American painter, he has a huge personality, ego and passion that overfills the room. Dynamic, intelligent and mercurial, he can be belligerent and cruel in one instant, and thoughtful and insightful the next.
Ken: 20’s- 30’s. He is an appealing, intelligent and seemingly respectful young painter who becomes Rothko’s assistant. He puts Rothko on a pedestal and over the course of the play learns to challenge and hold his own with the force of nature that is Rothko.
ON GOLDEN POND
Director: Christopher Schario.
Contract dates: April 16 - May 13, 2012
Norman Thayer, 60+. Actor must convincingly play 79 years old. A proud and intelligent curmudgeon, he is a retired Ivy League professor who is flirting with senility and old age. His caustic wit is both infuriating and entertaining to everyone he meets. He uses his slicing sarcasm to keep his fears, his emotions and the people in his life under control.
Ethel Thayer: 55+. Actress must convincingly play 69 years old. Norman’s wife, she is his opposite in many ways. If he fills the room, she fills the empty spaces. She has a fierce love and loyalty and a quiet inner strength that becomes fully apparent when Norman’s needs arise. She is greatly disturbed that Norman is slowly giving up on life, but she is determined to see him through without letting him know the depth of her concern.
Chelsea: early40s. Norman and Ethel’s divorced daughter. Attractive, intelligent and spunky, she uses her caustic sense of humor to mask her lingering self esteem issues centered on her inability to please her father. In the course of the play, she works up the courage to push through her father’s coldness and tell him the truth of her feelings.
Bill Ray: 45. An attractive and practical minded dentist, he is Chelsea’s determined and perceptive fiancé. Polite, but not a pushover, he earns Norman’s respect when he stands up to him. He tends to be serious, but has a good sense of humor when he remembers to use it.
Charlie: early 40’s. A kind and loving weather-beaten mailman, he is a good natured Mainer (dialect needed) who is quick to laugh. In his rustic, simple, thoughtful way, he is actually quite charming. He is Chelsea’s old boyfriend and still has a crush on her.
Billy: 13. Looking for a local Non-Eq actor. Spunky, outspoken, a real "boy". A firecracker of a kid with a wise ass sense of humor.
Theatre's Statement
“The producers are open to non-traditional casting. Minorities are encouraged to audition and to send pictures/resumes.”
