Auditions

Fall 2024 Mainstage Auditions

The Department of Theatre and Dance is pleased to announce auditions for its Fall 2024 productions. The 2024-2025 season will be an exciting one as we begin the process of moving back into the newly renovated Simons Center for Fine Arts!

As always, auditions are open to all students at CofC, regardless of major. We encourage everyone who is interested to audition! Auditions will be held for the following productions:

Home by Samm-Art Williams

Directed by Gary Dewitt Marshall
Performance Dates: September 27-October 5, 2024

The Drama of King Shotaway by Marvin McAllister

A staged reading directed by Nakeisha Daniel
Reading Dates: October 4 and 5, 2024

Dracula (a feminist revenge fantasy, really) by Kate Hamill

Directed by Evan Parry
Performance Dates: November 15-19, 2024

 

Audition Dates
Wednesday, March 27 and Thursday, March 28, 6:30-10pm in CAAN 106

 

Callbacks
Dracula: Friday, March 29 from 6-9pm and Saturday, March 30 from 10am-2pm

Home/King Shotaway: to be announced

 

Audition Requirements
Prepare a one-minute modern/contemporary monologue AND/OR prepare sides from the plays. There will be sides available for each play. Sides will be made available as PDFs on the department website beginning 3/19/24 and as hard copies the day of auditions. It is advised that you begin preparing your monologue and/or sides as early as possible.

 

You may choose to audition for multiple productions or a single production only.
If you wish to be considered for multiple productions, please plan to prepare a side for each.
Sign up for an audition time here.

Audition Sides

Dracula
Female-presenting roles: Van Helsing | Marilla/Drusilla | Lucy | Mina | Renfield
Male-presenting roles: Dracula | Seward | Jonathan | Van Helsing 

Home and The Drama of King Shotaway
Side 1 | Side 2 | Side 3
Actors interested in auditioning for Home or The Drama of King Shotaway can prepare any of these three sides.

 


Casting Breakdowns

Home by Samm-Art Williams


CHEPUS MILES Young Southern farmer who moves to the North, ranging in age from young adult to forty.

PERSON ONE Portrays several male and female characters ranging in age from teens to forty.

PERSON TWO Portrays several male and female characters ranging in age from teens to forty.

PERSON THREE Portrays several male and female characters ranging in age from teens to forty.

PERSON FOUR Portrays several male and female characters ranging in age from teens to forty.


The Drama of King Shotaway by Marvin McAllister

Mr. BROWN property owner, leisure impresario, theater manager; retired ship’s steward;

new dramatist; lonely, mid 40s.

James HEWLETT lead actor, singer, choreographer; former ship’s steward; part-time used

clothing seller and tailor; full-time heartthrob; born free, mid 20s.

Mr. BATES solid second lead, wonderful dancer; occasional maritime worker; fancies the

fellows; former slave, late 20s.

Ira ALDRIDGE bright school boy; aspiring thespian from a religious family; born free, mid

Teens.

TAFT a hustler; sings, dances, procures; unruly former slave to a locksmith, now “for

hire;” early 20s; non-binary.

MISS LABATT currently owned by a respectable Dutch family; serious about her acting;

striking but has no idea; late teens.

MISS HICKS cook for the same Dutch family; occasional actor; partial to young flesh;

former slave, mid 30s. 


Dracula (a feminist revenge fantasy, really) by Kate Hamill

6 women, 3 men

1-2 of these roles can be cast with non-binary actors.

 

Female-presenting roles

DOCTOR VAN HELSING: American. A bad-ass cowboy vampire hunter. Haunted by a previous encounter with a vampire. Brilliant, strong, which makes her someone not appreciated by 19th-century men. Doesn’t take s*&t from anyone but must fight against her terror of the monster. She doesn’t need to adopt “masculine” physical or vocal traits because she knows she’s right.

MINA HARKER: Raised as an English lady, hence she is suppressing an inner impulse which is passionate, independent, adventurous and gradually finds expression through her battle with Dracula. Smart. Loyal. Funny. Should be played by someone who can create a character with a dynamic arc, someone we can root for.

LUCY WESTENRA: Smart and funny, playful, vivacious, all characteristics which she will have to suppress to be a respectable 19th-century married Englishwoman. Reflexively flirtatious, she has learned to play the game of manipulating men by being less than she is. She feels trapped by societal expectations and yearns to be free of them. Soon to be married to Dr. Seward, who will wish to assume control of her life. After being bitten by Dracula, she becomes a different being, sometimes animalistic and demonic, sometimes raving and confused. Her vampire self is more overtly a manipulative sexual predator. Must be played by someone who can shift gears quickly and who is able to access remorse and caring and voracious carnality.

MARILLA: A bride of Dracula. A vampire, more animal than human. Was converted by Dracula, whom she now hates, loves, resists, obeys, resents. Objectified when being employed to lure men like Harker. A sociopathic entity, she enjoys being a predator, enjoys consuming others, men, women, infants, even animals. Powerful and can move very fast. Doubles with the MAID, who is an underpaid, resentful duplicitous servant. Both she and her sister-wife Drusilla should be played by performers who can explore character through a variety of movement paths.

DRUSILLA: Same traits as Marilla, though she may wind up seeming quite different from her in appearance. Doubles with MILLER, an asylum attendant who enjoys dealing with patients using casual brutality.

RENFIELD: Could be any age. A child with a child’s religious devotion and idolatry of Dracula, whom she worships. He has influenced her without infecting her. Infection and conversion would be the consummation she desires and for which she works. Her idolatry can seem original or perhaps a perversion of a more genuine religious devotion. For parts of the play, she is a kind of narrative voice, preparing the way for Dracula. But still a madwoman and a child who engages in casual lies and cruelty.

 

Male-presenting roles

DRACULA: A creature of the world. He could be from anywhere. Hence, it will be helpful to be able to use multiple dialects- Romanian, multiple British accents, American. Imposing, charismatic, strong, funny. He is capable of being gentle and seductive but in a split-second- terrifying. Takes pleasure in cruelty. A predator, he sees himself as a force of evolution, harvesting the weak and sickly and helping others to evolve. Very old internally, but capable of adapting and surviving. Powerful and fast physically. Should be played by someone who moves and speaks well.

DOCTOR GEORGE SEWARD: Head physician of a “lunatic asylum”. English. A good man who starts the play as someone who is sometimes unable to listen to women, even Lucy, his fiancée. He is deeply in love with her. A mansplainer. A man of science, so someone who only believes in what he can see. Over the course of the story, he learns to accept female leadership and question his assumptions. Brave in the face of the horror. Should be played by someone who can access a range of emotional vulnerability, denial, protectiveness, outrage, deep grief.

JONATHAN HARKER: A decent man if a bit fussy. Quite British. Believes that things must be done a certain way. Loves his wife, Mina. Is bitten by Dracula, which results in him becoming mercurial and psychotic. He recovers when he returns home, but will always be susceptible to Dracula’s influence, even from afar. When influenced by Dracula he becomes toxic and abusive, but switches between hostile and apologetic very quickly.

 

 


Questions about auditions? Email Professor Parry at parrye@cofc.edu or Professor Marshall at marshallgd@cofc.edu

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