Audition Dates/Locations:

Monday, April 29, 2013, 7:00pm – 10:00pm
in SANTA CLARA
Actors’ Theatre Center
3283 De La Cruz Blvd, Suite I
Santa Clara, CA 95054

Tuesday, April 30, 2013, 7:00pm – 10:00pm
in SANTA CRUZ
Center Stage
1001 Center Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

(callbacks will be held on Monday May 6, 2013)

Contract/Schedule:

Equity SPT contract; stipend for non-equity.

First rehearsal August 5, 2013.

Performances September 5 – 22, 2013, Thurs through Sat at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm.

Rehearsals and performances will be held at Center Stage, 1001 Center Street in Santa Cruz.

All performances at:

Center Stage
1001 Center Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

 

CLICK HERE for a downloadable PDF file of this audition notice.

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Available Roles:

Seeking three females and eight males of all ages (see character descriptions below).

Some roles may be doubled.

The role of Hannah Jarvis has been cast.

Please prepare a 2-minute, non-verse monologue in RP English, preferably from an English play of the Romantic period for the 19th century roles or from a contemporary English play for present-day roles.

 

FEMALE CHARACTERS:
Note: all female characters are British

Thomasina Coverly, from the early nineteenth century, ages from 13 years to a day short of her 17th birthday in the course of the play. Thomasina can be played by an 18+ actor who reads young. Thomasina ingeniously theorizes the second law of thermodynamics and develops an understanding of chaos theory decades before it is defined. Although she is a genius, she is still a child, with a delightful sense of innocence, whimsy, fun, curiosity and imagination.

Lady Croom, who is in her mid-thirties, is Thomasina's mother and the wife of Lord Croom, who is off-stage. As Lady of the Sidley Park estate, she rules like an early nineteenth century Leona Helmsley – tough and exacting. She is perceptive and aware of everything happening on the property. Although autocratic, she has a wry sense of humor and, on occasion, can be somewhat flamboyant as well as romantic.

Chloe Coverly, aged 18, resides in the present Sidley Park. She is a modern-day, precocious version of Thomasina: not as innocent, and much more adventurous. Like Thomasina, she possesses a curious, perceptive and brilliant mind, and at one point posits that a Newtonian universe would be destroyed by the random nature of sexual acts.

 

MALE CHARACTERS:
Note: all female characters are British

Septimus Hodge is Thomasina's tutor from the early nineteenth century, specified in the play as 22 years old and then 25. An academic, he works on his own research while teaching Thomasina. Septimus enjoys tormenting Jellaby. He is also a bit of a rake. He lusts after Lady Croom, falls in love with Thomasina and conducts a dalliance with Mrs. Chater (off-stage) right under her husband's nose. He manages to avoid the repercussions of his actions by employing his prodigious wit and cunning charm.

Jellaby is the middle-aged butler who asserts himself into the lives of the residents of early nineteenth century Sidley Park. In the course of his day, he delivers many letters and messages with a (mostly) well-disguised lack of neutrality. Sly and nosy, it is his business to be cognizant of everything that is going on around him and to report it to his employers, as well as gossip about it with his colleagues. The actor playing Jellaby can also play Noakes.

Ezra Chater is specified in the play as 31 years old. He lives in the early nineteenth century on the estate of Lord and Lady Croom, under their sponsorship. Mr. Chater is a bombastic, ambitious buffoon. He is a very undistinguished poet and poor amateur biologist. He is also the unfortunate spouse of a flagrantly faithless wife who does not appear in the play, but who makes her presence abundantly known to nearly every man on the estate at any given time.

Captain Brice is a sea captain in the Royal Navy, and as the brother of Lady Croom, close to her in age. He lives at the estate in the early nineteenth century, and has also fallen under the spell of the amorous Mrs. Chater.

Richard Noakes is a middle-aged landscape gardener who, despite Lady Croom's reluctance, is transforming the grounds of her early nineteenth century estate from a ordered, classical style into the untamed, sprawling wilderness of a landscape inspired by Roman and Gothic literature. Mr. Noakes, even more of a gossip and busybody than Jellaby, insinuates himself upon the lives of the people on the estate, spying on them and spreading word of their deeds. The actor playing Noakes can also play Jellaby.

Bernard Nightingale, in his late thirties, lives in the present time as an academic, writer and don, whose field is literature of the early nineteenth century. He specializes in the life and work of Lord Byron. He disregards truth in order to prove his theory that Lord Byron killed Mr. Chater in a lover's duel, which comes from his lust for fame and recognition. Bernard's style is rather foppish.

Valentine Coverly, aged 25 to 30, is a graduate student studying mathematics in the present time. The son of the Coverly estate, Valentine has an unrequited crush on Hannah Jarvis. Highly intelligent, he works out Thomasina's diagram and reluctantly concedes Thomasina's genius to Hannah.

Augustus Coverly/Gus Coverly. Augustus is Thomasina's fifteen year-old unruly younger brother. Augustus appears in a scene where he wants Septimus to tell him about sex. He is double cast with Gus Coverly, aged 15, who is the self-elected mute son of Sidley Park in the present time. Gus is painfully shy, but serves as a connector and communicator between past and present; He is in love with Hannah Jarvis.