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Breakdown
2016-17 YALE REPERTORY THEATRE SEASON
SCENES FROM COURT LIFE
Or, the whipping boy and his prince
By Sarah Ruhl
Dir: Mark Wing-Davey
World Premiere
1st reh: 8/22/16. 1st prev.: 9/30. Opens: 10/6. Closes: 10/22
Actors playing roles based on real present day figures should have the vocal characteristics of those figures, but need not resemble them in physical appearance. Actors playing roles based on British historic figures should have ease with an unforced Upper Class British accent. All roles except otherwise indicated are open to actors of all races and ethnicities.
George W. Bush Jr./ Charles 2
Male, 30s-40s. Owner of the Texas Rangers, Governor of Texas, and 43rd President of the United States. Has that well-known Texas drawl and swagger. Tennis player, a sore loser. Older brother to Jeb, but seems the younger. Versatile, lithe, squirrely, charming, fast, impetuous, but also fragile. Loves and is dependent on his wife, Laura. This role doubles with Prince Charles II, an entitled but empathetic 12 year-old baroque boy and royal charmer who grows into a hedonistic monarch and profligate procreator who rules Restoration England.
George H.W. Bush Sr. / Charles 1
Male, 50s-60s. 41st President of the United States. Master of diplomacy and The World’s Best Dad. Confident tennis player. Patriarch. Thinks he supports both his sons but actually aggravates them to compete. Talker. This role doubles with British monarch Charles I: royal, authoritative, and weary with matters of the State until his untimely execution at the hands of the rebellion. Bewildered father to Prince Charles II.
Jeb Bush/ A Whipping Boy
Male, 30s. Governor of Florida. Strong tennis player, was captain of the team at Andover. The younger brother but seems older. Married to Columba. Speaks Spanish fluently. Sincere, left out, not quite clued in. This role doubles with Barnaby, the Whipping Boy, Prince Charles’ loyal servant and humble childhood friend who falls passionately in love with Catherine.
Laura Bush
Female, 30s-40s. Supportive wife to George W. Bush. Strong, intelligent, opaque, funny. Sympathetic toward her husband’s mistakes and weaknesses. Mother to young twins.
Barbara Bush
Female, 50s-60s. Supportive wife to George H.W. Bush and matriarch of the family dynasty. Always game. Champions Jeb. Strong tennis player and athlete. Straight-talking, informed, and pragmatic.
Columba Bush/ Catherine of Braganza
Female, 20s-30s. First Lady of Florida. Married to Jeb. Passionate. Spiritual. Speaks Spanish. Born in Mexico. This role doubles with Queen Catherine, who marries Prince Charles II for diplomacy after being raised in a convent, but is in love with Barnaby. Nobly born, in Portugal. Speaks Portuguese and a little Spanish. Passionate and intense.
Karl Rove / Groom of the Stool
Male, 40s, Caucasian. Campaign manager, political consultant, and policy advisor to the Bushes. Deeply influential and persuasive especially as “the Architect” of George W. Bush’s political career. This role doubles with Groom of the Stool, whose job is to attend the King while he is on the toilet. Crafty, scheming, and unscrupulous. Plays dangerously with deference and power.
Inigo Jones / Bonnie Flood
Male, 40s. Comedian with a serious sense of humor. Transformative. Plays male and female roles, including 17th century architect Inigo Jones, and Bonnie Flood, George W. Bush’s painting teacher in Cumming, Georgia.
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SEVEN GUITARS
By August Wilson
Directed by Timothy Douglas
1st reh: 10/21/16. 1st prev.: 11/25. Opens: 12/1. Closes: 12/17
Louise
Female, 40s-50s. African-American. The no-nonsense matriarch of the ensemble; she has her nose in everyone's business, and though sometimes misguided with her advice and actions, her intentions are mostly for good. A realist who knows what it is to be used up and left, yet somehow still glows with a few embers of life's possibilities. She is fiercely devoted to Vera.
Canewell
Male, late 30s-40s. African-American. A harmonica player. Floyd's best friend yet still feeling the sting of Floyd's betrayal before the play begins. He is edgy, cautious and has a big heart. He is fiercely devoted to Vera.
Red Carter
Male, late 30s-40s. African-American. Floyd’s friend and drummer; a simple, steady man who indulges superstitions, currently in the middle of 7 years of bad luck because of a mirror he broke. He hails from Alabama and truly enjoys a good time.
Vera
Female, 30s. African-American. A “true” woman in temperament, necessary independence, body and soul. She is still in love with Floyd while gratefully indulging the love of Canewell. She is fiercely protective of her own heart ever being broken Floyd again.
Hedley
Male, 60s. A Hill District entrepreneur where he sells “this and that,” including sandwiches from chickens which he raises and butchers himself. He has Haitian roots, and increasingly suffers from the ravages of tuberculosis fever, which drives his vision of a past and future glory for the black man, including the realization of his dream to have a son to carry on his legacy.
Floyd Barton
Male, 30s. African-American. A blues singer and guitarist with big aspirations. He has deep flaws, yet benefits from a personal epiphany as result of his recent stay in prison. He is a deeply talented musician, passionate, hopeful, and as in love with Vera as much as he is in love with his own ambition.
Ruby
Female, 20s. African-American. Louise’s niece; young and fiercely independent; fatally attractive and in search of solutions for her already deeply troubled young life.
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IMOGEN SAYS NOTHING
By Aditi Brennan Kapil
Dir: by Laurie Woolery
World Premiere
1st reh: 12/5/16. 1st prev: 1/13/17. Opens: 1/26. Closes: 2/11/17
Imogen Says Nothing is a revisionist hijacking of Shakespearean history. Subversive, historically inaccurate casting is desired. All roles are open to actors of all races and ethnicities. Characters who are members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men are working class to lower middle class in their speech, and dialects may hail from any region in the British Isles and any century. There is little visible difference between bears and humans, but physical dexterity is desired from the actors who must accomplish the transformation to bear.
Imogen
Female, 30s-40s. A large woman. Formerly a bear and a prostitute. She defies cultural expectations. Taciturn. Powerful. Others describe her as ungainly, unfeminine, or as a freak. She is intelligent, resourceful, resilient, and she has a deep and active imagination. She has a dry sense of humor and impeccable comic timing. An unlikely addition to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
Henry Condell
Male, 30s-40s. An actor in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Friend of John Heminges and co-editor of the First Folio. Decent and kind. Straight man to John Heminges’ clown. A potential ally and love interest for Imogen. Comic timing and facility with heightened language desired.
John Heminges
Male, 30s-40s. An actor in the Lord Chamberlain’s men. Friend of Henry Condell and Co-editor of the First Folio. Smart, loud, coarse, drunk. Foil to Henry Condell’s straight man. Comic timing and facility with heightened language desired. This role doubles with Ned Whiting, a bear, a Noble Beast.
Alexander Cooke
Male, 20s-30s. An actor in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The actor from the company typically cast as the female lead. Superior, self-absorbed, elitist. Diva. This role doubles with White 1, a young pup of a bear, energetic but unfocused.
Nicholas Tooley
Male, 18+ to play late teens to late 20s. An actor in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The actor from the company typically cast as the female ingénue. Innocent, youthful, kind, truthful, gullible. Eager to please. This role doubles with White 2, a young pup of a bear, energetic but unfocused.
Richard Burbage
Male, 40s-50s. A character actor and the co-owner of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Trying to keep the company afloat. Steadfast and in charge, the adult in the room, equal parts revered and ignored by those in his care. This role doubles with Harry Hunks, a bear, the Blind Elder.
William Shakespeare
Male, 30s-40s. A second-rate actor and playwright in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He is Richard’s right hand man in trying to keep the company afloat. Overworked, perpetually harried, and forgettable. This role doubles with Warden, the kind, but doomed caretaker of the bears imprisoned in the Crier’s bear baiting “Paradise.”
Crier
Male, 30s-40s. The proprietor and master of ceremonies for bear baiting at “Paradise” in Bankside. Intimidating, strong, immoral, and dangerous. This role also doubles with Isaac, a shopkeeper, and various ensemble roles in Shakespeare’s plays.
Anna Roos
Female, 30s-40s. The Queen’s Danish maid. No-nonsense, undeterred by male authority. She gets what she wants. This role doubles with Bear on Ice, an escaped bear, and various Londoners.
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ASSASSINS
Book: John Weidman
Music/Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Dir: James Bundy
1st reh: 2/6/17. 1st prev: 3/17. Opens: 3/23. Closes: 4/8/17
All roles available.
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MARY JANE
By Amy Herzog
Dir: Anne Kauffman
World Premiere
1st reh: 3/20/17. 1st prev: 4/21. Opens: 5/4. Closes; 5/20/17
All roles except otherwise indicated are open to actors of all races and ethnicities. Doubling may change, TBD.
Mary Jane
Female, 30s. Mary Jane has a genuine, easy cheer. She's scrappy, capable, warm, and able to laugh at herself even when it's not very funny. She bears the trials of the play gamely, leaning on the women that come into her life for brief, stirring connections. A person of spiritual gifts.
Ruthie/Tenkei
Female, 40s-60s. Ruthie is a tough, deadpan building superintendent who's lived a rough life and survived. Tenkei is a serene and quietly joyful Buddhist nun.
Sherry/Dr. Toros
Female, 40s-50s. Sherry is a warm, talkative, loyal, astute, no-nonsense and extremely proficient nurse. Dr. Toros is a bright, overworked pediatric intensivist who struggles with delivering bad news. Must sing.
Brianne/Chaya
Female, 30s. Brianne is an overwhelmed new mother of a special needs child whose life has otherwise been quite privileged; she's shell shocked and reeling. Chaya is the Hasidic Jewish mother of a chronically ill child; she is dry, world-weary, astute, and capable of quick intimacy. Must sing.
Amelia/Kat
Female, early-mid 20s. Amelia is Sherry's niece and a college student; she's self-conscious and book smart and kind and looking hard for her place in the world. Kat is a cheerful, chatty music therapist who floats through life. Must sing well.
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