THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Equity Principal Actors - Elm Shakespeare Company Auditions

Posted March 1, 2023
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THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR - Elm Shakespeare Company

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR - NEW HAVEN, CT EPA

ELM SHAKESPEARE COMPANY


LOCATION

Gateway Community College

20 Church St

New Haven, CT 06510

AUDITION DATE

Mon, Mar 20, 2023

10:00 AM to 6:00 PM (EST)

Lunch 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

APPOINTMENTS

To set up an audition appointment please email: audition@elmshakespeare.org. Equity actors without appointments will be seen as time permits.

CONTRACT

LOA

$620 weekly minimum (Ref. LORT)

SEEKING

Equity actors for roles in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (See breakdown).

PREPARATION

Please prepare 2 contrasting Shakespeare monologues, no more than 24 lines of verse (or 90 seconds of prose), if you have an instrument or would like to sing 30 seconds (a cappella), you may prepare that as well. Also, please bring 2 copies of your headshot and resume, stapled together.

PERSONNEL

Director: Dawn Monique Williams

Expected to attend:
Producing Artistic Director: Rebecca Goodheart
Education Director: Sarah Bowles
Casting Associate: Trevor Burch

OTHER DATES

Rehearsals Begin: July 24th, 2023
Rehearsals End: August 16th, 2023
Closes: September 3rd, 2023

OTHER


https://www.elmshakespeare.org/ />
This is the 28th season of Free Shakespeare in the Park

An Equity Monitor will not be provided. The producer will run all aspects of audition.

Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition.

Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.

Equity encourages everyone participating in the auditions to wear a two-ply cloth face mask, surgical mask, singer’s mask or respirator (N95, KN95 or KF94). Single-ply face masks, gaiters and bandanas are not recommended. Singer’s masks can be found at www.broadwayreliefproject.com/singersmask.

Equity encourages members to prepare for their audition prior to arriving at the audition venue, to the extent that they can (e.g., get dressed, hair/make-up, etc.) to avoid crowding in bathrooms and dressing rooms.

Holding/Audition room information:

The maximum capacity in the holding room is: 100
The maximum capacity in the audition room is: 275

In reference to the character descriptions below - most characters we encounter currently are on the binary and are written with the he/him or she/her pronouns and you will see that they are in the following descriptions. But, however limiting the descriptions are, our casting seeks to be as inclusive as possible and we invite gender non-conforming, genderqueer, transgender, non-binary actors to audition for the roles they most identify with. We will also list race/ethnicity when specific to the character but are otherwise seeking all races and ethnicities. As an ADA compliant theatre, we welcome performers of all abilities and will make all reasonable accommodations in order to cast performers, regardless of disability, in any role possible. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns, or if there are any accommodations we can provide.


SEEKING:

Theater artists who would like to join a strong existing ensemble company, with a deep commitment to mentorship.


Mistress Ford - (40s-50s female) One of the merry wives of the play, Mistress Ford is the wife of the jealous Ford. She is witty and cunning, and knows that Falstaff is up to no good. She schemes with her good friend Mistress Page about how they will use Falstaff to trick her husband.

Master Ford - (40s-50s male) The jealous husband of Mistress Ford. He is confident that he will find his wife cheating on him with Falstaff. He even goes as far as disguising himself as (Sir Brook) in order to secretly keep tabs on Falstaff.

Mistress Page - (40s-50s female) One of the merry wives, Mistress Page is the wife of Thomas Page, and mother of Anne and William page. She is willing to go along with Mistress Ford's plans of trickery. She is also a strict mother to Anne, who tries to steer Anne in the direction of who she thinks is the right husband.

Master Page - (40s-50s male) Mistress Page's husband, father of Anne Page. Not as jealous a man as Master Ford, when he hears that Falstaff is trying to seduce his wife, he has faith that she will stay loyal. He is very easygoing, except when it comes to finding the right suitor for Anne. This is one thing that he seems to never agree on with Mistress page and must learn to listen to Anne's views of who she thinks is the best suitor.

Anne Page - (20-30s female) The daughter of Mistress Page and Thomas Page. She is constantly being wooed by different suitors but is only interested in Fenton despite the disapproval from her parents.

William - (20-30s Male) Mistress Page and Thomas Page's son. He is a true scholar of grammar school, and is very book smart, more so than his parents. He is shy and kept to himself.

Doctor Caius - (30s-50s male) He is a rich French doctor of the town, and has a thick accent which makes him hard to understand at times. He is a suitor for Anne Page that is favored by Mistress Page, and unfavored by Master Page. These factors on top of Anne Page not loving Caius, make it difficult for him to follow through with his suitorly plans.

Mistress Quickly - (30s-60s female) The famous barwench from earlier plays, the quick talking flirtatioius Quickly now works for Dr. Caius. She is also the secret messenger between Anne and her suitors, as well as between Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, and Falstaff. She is highly in favor of Fenton being the right suitor for Anne. The only problem is that Mistress Quickly often misunderstands others and hears sexually charged conversations where there is none.

John Rugby - (teens-30s male) Servant to Doctor Caius.

Sir Hugh Evans - (40s-60s male) A country parson, that speaks with an accent. He gets made fun of by the characters often because of the accent, and in the end teams up with the French Doctor Caius to get back at the Host for making fun of them.

Host of the Garter Inn - (30s-50s male) The Host of the Garter Inn. The Host makes fun of Evans and Caius's accents and bad english, resulting in Caius and Evans plot to trick the Host for revenge. The trick goes a little fowl though, and costs the Host three of his own horses in the process.

Sir John Falstaff - (40s-60s male) ALREADY CAST

Bardolph - (30s-60s male) One of Falstaff's old war buddies, he ends up working as the bartender at the Garter Inn. He is pretty jolly, and has a good wit to match up Falstaff.

Pistol - (20s-40s) Easliy enraged, Pistol is one of Falstaff's old buddies, he acts as a messenger for Falstaff. However, he doesn't want to go along with Falstaffs plan of seducing the merry wives. Instead, he and Nym plan to tell both Master Ford and Master Page about Falstaff's plans.

Nym - (20s-40s) One of Falstaff's gang, he acts as a messenger for Falstaff. However, he doesn't want to go along with Falstaff's antics of seducing the merry wives. Instead, he and Pistol hatch the plan to tell both Master Ford and Master Page about Falstaff's plans.

Fenton - (20-30s male) a gentleman, suitor to Anne Page. He truly loves Anne for who she is, and doesn't want to be her husband for the clout of her parents. He is honest with his feelings towards Anne, but is disliked by Anne's parents.

Robert Shallow - (50s-70s male) He is an authoritative justice, although he is a very foolish character for his position. He encourages Slender to be a suitor of Anne Page but speaks on his behalf instead.

Abraham Slender - (20-30s male) Shallow's nephew. He is very timid, and not confident in his wooing abilities to seduce Anne Page. He really isn't that interested in marrying Anne Page, but still goes through with his uncles plans to woo her. Anne Page on the other hand is not interested in Slender at all, and thinks he is a fool.

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